Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde: 35th Anniversary
Edition (1975/VCI DVD) + Never Let Me Go (2010/Fox Blu-ray) + Soylent Green (1973/MGM/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture:
B (Hyde: C) Sound: B- (Hyde: C) Extras: B- (Hyde: C-) Films: C+/B-/B
The
Science Fiction genre has the unique ability to allow us to look at ourselves
in ways no other genre does, often crossing the line into the Horror genre.
There
were really no outright Science Fiction films in the Blaxploitation genre,
while African American actors suddenly started showing up in the genre after 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) like Omega Man (1971), but several attempts
at the Horror genre outright surfaced like the very popular Blacula, the very artistic Ganja & Hess (reviewed elsewhere on
this site), the Exorcist knock-off Abby (so good it was pulled for good
after a lawsuit) and even Blackenstein. William Crain’s Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1975 aka Decision
Of Doom aka Dr. Black & Mr.
White aka The Watts
Monster) is not a great masterwork, but still a very interesting an
effective piece of filmmaking long overdue on DVD.
Bernie
Casey is a doctor and scientist trying to solve liver disease by creating a
serum that will reverse it forever and like all indie doctors, tries it on
himself. Instead of his liver going one
way or the other, he turns into a giant, tall, white muscular white male killer
monster!
Instead
of some shallow “get whitey” plot, odd, interesting things happen throughout
the film. Casey gives a good
performance, as does Rosalind Cash, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and others play this for real
enough in ways most Horror junk we’ve seen lately does not begin to know where
to start. Due in part to make-up among
other things, the monster is never totally white, which brings up some
interesting issues about race worth thinking about, especially when the film
starts to reference the 1933 King Kong
in the final reels. This is fun, but is
also challenging the genre like so many films all around and that included
other versions of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde like the Hammer film Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde which
challenged gender as we covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/625/Dr.+Jekyll+&+Sister+Hyde
I like
the freedom in which the film was made, which is a purely cinematic thing we
rarely see. This is fun and then some,
though Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde author Robert Louis Stevenson is
never given any credit. A trailer is the
only extra.
Director
Mark Romanek has always been connected to futuristic technology and the Science
Fiction genre in his music videos (The
Films Of Mark Romanek collection) and in odd ways in his first feature
film, One Hour Photo, all reviewed
elsewhere on this site. Hugely
influenced by Stanley Kubrick, it is no surprise that his second film is even
more of the Science Fiction genre.
However, Never Let Me Go
(2010) is the kind of genre piece that does away with futuristic technology and
even emphasizes older, even obsolete technology to flush out something darker.
Based on
a book by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains Of
The Day), we are visiting a chilling new future England where a terrible new thing
has become normal: supposedly cloned children being raised to be ultra healthy
so they can exist to have their organs slowly harvested after a very short
life. They are told this makes the world
better and the brainwashing starts from day one. A love triangle has eventually develops
between three of the characters (Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan and (finally
getting a role worthy of her talents) Keira Knightley) that further brings out
the ugly truth about a living death fascism that has won out over people.
The
acting is stunning, the script pretty good and the look and feel of the film
overall never fails. You sort of know
what is coming, but yet, there is always something subtle that happens that you
might not expect or when it does, further confirms the nightmare unfolding
before you. Romanek does make one
mistake and that is to stop being himself and tries to start being like the
author of the book. This surrender
backfires a bit and actually inadvertently makes this nightmare seem acceptable
and normal. By abandoning Kubrickian
aesthetics too much, he loses control of the film and though this is not as damaging
as it might be, it hurts the full impact of the film, feels like political
incorrectness at the worst time and makes this a compromised work.
I still
liked it and recommend the film, but it still misses the mark. Garfield
and Mulligan are two of the best actors of their generation and Charlotte
Rampling is very effective in her role running the donor school.
Extras
include Director Mark Romanek’s On-Set
Photography, The Secrets Of Never Let
Me Go, Tommy’s Art and National Donor Programme & Halisham
Campaign Graphics.
Finally
we have Richard Fleischer’s Soylent
Green (1973) finally arriving on Blu-ray and it was worth the wait. This is one we have previously reviewed and
here is my extensive DVD review:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/525/Soylent+Green+(1973/Warner+DVD-Vid
Though
the film has been spoofed, it has not been seen enough and I was not happy with
the performance of the DVD at all, but this Blu-ray has all the extras of the
DVD (audio commentary, trailer and two featurettes) and makes it much easier to
enjoy with the much-improved fidelity.
For one
thing, the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is a giant leap ahead
of the DVD with a brand new HD master transfer replacing the muddy and
problematic transfer used since the old 12” LaserDisc and on TV
broadcasts. Though there is grain and
some minor flaws, the color is pretty consistent and this is supposed to look
rough in places since it is a future with heat waves every day. You can now see how good the Panavision
cinematography really is and it brings the film alive in a way it really
deserves and finally gets here.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 1.0 Mono track is the best option, as Warner
decided not to try and upgrade to even stereo sound, but it does sound pretty
good throughout with some moments of dialogue surprisingly rich and warm
throughout. Some audio shows its age,
but some work was done to fix up the sound and it surpasses the awful DVD Dolby
Digital 1.0 and even the 12” LaserDisc PCM 2.0 Mono. Sadly, Warner did not incorporate the
isolated music track (which actually included sound effects) here that the 12”
LaserDisc had, but a Limited Edition CD soundtrack is still available and is
worth your time:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/198/Soylent+Green/Demon+Seed+(Limited
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Hyde
has some good shots and this is a nicely lensed film, but color is uneven here
and there are detail and depth issues throughout. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also aged and
dated, but VCI seems to have cleaned this up as much as possible.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 AVC @ 32 MBPS digital High Definition image on Go has some stylized, contemporary, soft shooting with other
naturalistic approaches that are represented here very nicely throughout. That means the light is down one stop (or
level) more than it would be in real life, but Director of Photography Adam
Kimmel A.S.C., delivers this consistently and even chillingly. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix
is dialogue-based, with the music and sound effects a mix of soft and vivid
sounds as the sound design dictates. I
can’t imagine the soundmaster sounding better, but this approach limits the
soundfield and has it play like a monophonic film more often than expected,
though that still fits the narrative approach.
- Nicholas Sheffo
