SOUND OFF: New Blu-ray Round-up: Two From Tarantino & Three Halloween Treats
Today we have a super-special DVD and Blu-ray overview as we take a look at and listen to five brand new Blu-rays hitting the shelves in October, including two stunning Blu debuts of two of Quentin Tarantino's seminal 90s films - PULP FICTION and JACKIE BROWN. While Tarantino won his only Oscar to date for his screenwriting work on PULP - a credit he shared with co-storywriter Roger Avery - it is his studied, mature and delicate directorial work on JACKIE BROWN that won over many film fans who may have found a bit too much flash, pop, sizzle and razzmatazz in the packed-to-the-gills PULP. Although, if all the Tarantino tough guy talk and off-the-wall soundtrack selections are not quite your preferred speed, we also have three early Halloween selections sure to send some shivers up your spine, with MANHUNTER, HANNIBAL and the original THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. While MANHUNTER was the movie-going public's first glimpse of what became the most beloved movie villain of all-time - the cannibalistic genius himself, Hannibal Lector - it was in a very different guise: noted stage and screen actor Brian Cox plays the role that eventually was made famous (and Oscar-winning) by Anthony Hopkins in the second film of the Hannibal Lector series, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (by Jonathan Demme), just a few short years after Michael Mann's treatment of the originAl Thomas Harris novel, Red Dragon. Of course, Red Dragon was also made into a movie of the same name more recently, directed by Brett Ratner and featuring an all-star cast comprised of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ralph Fiennes, Mary Louise Parker, Ed Norton, Harvey Keitel and many more. While many film fans certainly cite SILENCE as the finest Lector film - and it very well may be - my personal bias is for Ridley Scott's daring and gruesome 1999 hit, HANNIBAL, starring Hopkins alongside Julianne Moore in the role of Clarice Starling (made famous by Jodie Foster, who passed on the ultra-violent sequel script which at that point was penned by David Mamet, no less), which is also finally getting the Blu-ray upgrade along with Mann's MANHUNTER. Then, there is the tense and disturbing remaining one of our entries: one of the most scandalous and prurient torture porn films ever made - created long before that term was ever coined in the age of Eli Roth and the SAW series - Wes Craven's original harrowing horror revenge tale, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Recent PROMISES, PROMISES on Broadway star Tony Goldwyn was an InDepth InterView participant not too long ago and told me about how pleased he was with the remake and while it does not have the seedy voyeuristic bent of the original - discussed below - it makes an impact in a new and equally entertaining way, so LAST HOUSE stands as one of the few double-dips worth your time. Whether checking out one or all of these superb new Blu-ray releases you are assured a memorable horror moviegoing experience at home, just as the temperatures begin to cool, winds begin to bluster and you yearn for nights of warmth inside away from the elements of the cruel world outside - which is certainly not to say the films we are discussing fail to show the cruel side of life. Just as good has its inverse, evil, so, too, does Christmas have Halloween!
PULP FICTION
JACKIE BROWN
MANHUNTER Right off the bat I have to be completely honest and say that I find a lot of fault with Michael Mann's adaptation of the expertly written Thomas Harris novel that this film is based on and I really dislike a lot of the wardrobe and pervasive atmosphere created by Mann and company. That being said, MANHUNTER is a fascinating companion piece to Ratner's superior - admittedly, the first and last time I envision writing that phrase - Red Dragon. When it comes to film versions, if forced to choose one or the other, I almost always go with the more faithful adaptation over the expressionistic one when it comes to a film rendering of a novel - Stephen King's THE SHINING excluded - and MANHUNTER takes far too many liberties for my liking. Nonetheless, there are some chilling sequences and the green lighting has never looked better than it does here. Yes - if you have been wondering - the colors are finally correct! Truly, this is by far the best MANHUNTER has ever looked on home video and MGM has definitely done right by the fans (for those that are not aware, many video and DVD releases have had a host of technical deficiencies such as improper aspect ratio and incorrect color coding). On the negative side, MGM is notorious for poor bonus features and this disc is completely bare bones. The 50 GB/Dual Layer disc is definitely the way to go in the future and the quality of this and the other MGM title discussed soon - THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT - are both highly recommended. Why HANNIBAL was relegated to a paltry 25 GB transfer (with MPEG sound) I do not know, but it puts that disc at a considerable disadvantage when compared to the other two solid transfers. But, then again, HANNIBAL is a much newer film than the other two (and much better, too, in my opinion).
HANNIBAL Thomas Harris managed to broach the dragon - literally; the Red Dragon, in this case - and outdo himself with the novel of HANNIBAL, which came ten years after the classic SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and more than fifteen after Red Dragon. Putting Hannibal at the center of the dramatic action for the first time - he was a tertiary character in Red Dragon (as Mann's MANHUNTER makes clearer than Ratner's more fleshed-out and Hopkins-heavy film) with Will Graham as the protagonist; and, the same also goes for SILENCE with Clarice Starling as the main player - and, if only for that major reason alone, HANNIBAL is the most fascinating of them all. The story told in the novel significantly diverges from the one told in the film, although what is seen on screen explores a few of the same ideas and themes and situations. Ridley Scott made the movie of HANNIBAL its own thing and it is an action film versus what could have very well been a much more cerebral and arty and Lynchian film. Indeed, it is really only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the novel, with the entire Il Mostro subplot excised, along with much of Mason Verger's Michael Jackson-esque background - complete with his creepy pedophilistic stable of orphans and the evil martinis made from their tears. But, hey, we still at least get to see the huge eel in its tank - even if he doesn't get to do all the stuntwork he would have gotten to do had Scott done a more judicious adaptation of the novel. The only element of the film that doesn't really work for me is the refrigerator dismemberment - although, as Scott relates on the commentary track (which was regretfully not ported over for this release; it is completely bare-bones), that concept was devised with input from Harris himself, who oversaw the final rewrite of the screenplay and the dramatic direction of the final scenes along with Steven Zaillian, the other credited screenwriter with Mamet. Of special note to Broadway babies: David Mamet wrote the first script for HANNIBAL and was paid a princely sum for doing so, although less than 10% of his screenplay remains in the final version of the film. Some lines certainly do scream Mamet - many uttered by Ray Liotta's Krendler, in particular - and you can find his dodgy original script online. More than perhaps any recent horror film, I would have loved to see a Director's Cut of this given the Blu opportunity, complete with the Il Mostro scenes inserted back in - along with the over thirty minutes of deleted scenes that were on the special edition DVD, and, again, not included here. Also, more than any other recent horror film, I wish somehow Scott could go back and fill in the other half of the novel that was not filmed or at least not shown (there are rumors of a four-hour cut), but that is surely a pipedream if ever there were any. As it is, HANNIBAL is a supremely, stunningly entertaining film with more style and elegance in one frame than a hundred horror movies of today - just ten years later - combined. Ridley Scott does it as an action/suspense/thriller film with horror elements and it works wonderfully. Oh, and the mini-opera in the film composed by Hans Zimmer is one of the most beautiful compositions of its kind I have ever heard for a film - and this column is usually dedicated to movie musicals and music-related releases. Ravishing. Too bad the rest of this new Blu-ray release does not really match the power of the truly terrifying and endlessly thought-provoking film being presented. It's the best looking version on the market, in any case. THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT Now, this one is definitely not for everyone. I knew very little about the original Wes Craven torture/revenge film before I saw it - and was subsequently scared witless - and if you have not seen the original or the remake then this review is for you. My only advice would be to just get your hands on this sometime between now and Halloween and turn up the lights before you watch it - you're probably going to need them on. If you want a film that speaks to our times and contains some really memorable performances - if occasionally for the wrong reasons - in a terrifying story told with some truly grisly and gruesome twists, your nightmare has come true and this Blu is for you, too. But, if you want some scares and some really disgusting Halloween willies - well, there's that, too. I am happy to report that this MGM release bucks the trend of being barebones - it is billed as a Collector's Edition - and instead offers a plethora of content sure to appease the casual LAST HOUSE fan and mostly everyone else, as well. The commentary tracks are fast-moving and contain lots of interesting production and behind-the-scenes tidbits - be sure to stick around and check out the second one featuring the original film's stars - and the Wes Craven interview is relatively rewarding and revealing, too - although I could always listen to Craven discuss film. We also get Craven's first short film here as a bonus - an unfinished experiment titled THINGS THAT'LL TEAR YOUR HEART OUT - rounding out the many bonus features nicely. Also, it must be said that of all the recent remakes of horror classics, LAST HOUSE is far and away my favorite of the bunch, but the original that inspired a million imitators is still as horrifying and nausea-inducing as it was almost forty years ago when it was released. Be sure to check out the remake as a companion piece if you enjoy this - and why not search out Aldo Lado's NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, too, for a crosscountry train trip from Hell. Thanks to this stupendous Blu-Ray, the original LAST HOUSE has never looked better - or, should I say, worse.
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