Bandit
Queen (1994/Film
4/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Days
And Nights
(2014/MPI/IFC/Sundance Selects DVD)/Inherit
The Wind (1960/United
Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Of
Human Bondage
(1964/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)
Picture:
B/C/B/C+ Sound: B/C+/C+/C Extras: C/C/C+/C- Films:
C+/C/B/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Bandit
Queen
and Inherit
The Wind
Blu-rays are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time,
are limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies
last, while Of
Human Bondage
(1964) is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.
These
new drama releases, including three older films, are now on home
video for your consideration...
Shekhar
Kapur's Bandit Queen
(1994) is the director's biopic of Phoolan Devi, a woman who was
married off too young by her parents in India to an abusive
pedophile, beginning a journey of abuse and worse throughout her life
until she gets away from him and becomes a subversive menace to the
society, government and its caste system that treats women so badly.
Stealing for the poor, she still has more battles and brutality to
endure, but the film can get very graphic at times to the point it
overdoes it.
Kapur
later admits he may have had such moments, but the main problem here
is the same as with Oliver Stone on Heaven
& Earth (made around
the same time, reviewed on Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on this
site) in that you have a male director helming a tale that should be
directed by a woman. The difference results in the woman being
objectified in the wrong ways, no matter how good the male filmmaker
is and that happens here almost as badly as in Stone's overly long
film. However, Seema Biswas does a great job of playing the title
character as an adult and this is not Bollywood fluff to its credit
and is a bit more authentic and consistent than what Stone made. It
is also not as long. If you can handle the violence, it is worth a
look.
Extras
include another one of Twilight Time's trusty, illustrated booklets
on the film including informative text and essay by Julie Kirgo,
while the Blu-ray adds a feature length audio commentary track by
Kapur and Isolated Score Track.
Christian
Camargo's Days And Nights
(2014) is a loose adaptation of Chekhov's The
Seagull, with a great
cast that has the family and friends gathering at a lakeside place
for Memorial Day. There may be good intentions at first, but that
will not last, especially when a older actress (Allison Janney)
starts going at it with her artist son (Ben Wishlaw) visiting to see
her sick brother (William Hurt). I liked some moments, but thought
others fell flat, leading to an uneven transplant of the original
story despite a winning supporting cast that includes Michael
Nyqvist, Katie Holmes, Jean Reno and Cherry Jones.
This
one has some nice shots and locales, but the script has the actors
talking at each other instead of too each other no matter how they
perform it. You also have predictability, nothing adding up to be
memorable and when it ended, it seemed anticlimactic and
disappointing. Projecting the original book into it will not help
either, but now, you can see for yourself.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track by Camargo, Behind
The Scenes, Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes and
Interviews.
Stanley
Kramer's Inherit The Wind
(1960) is as relevant as ever, dealing with the the famous Scopes
Monkey Trial where an educator (Dick York) is put on trial for
teaching evolution. Spencer Tracy plays his defense attorney, facing
off against hardcore Right Wing prosecutor Fredric March in one of
the great court movies of all time. Some of it has dated, some of it
more recently become valuable again as a bizarre battle against
evolution (and education, progress, science, the future, schools and
anything else that matter to having a sustainable future) has risen
again, but this was always an important film about how far ignorance
can go and its points and portrays are as accurate as ever.
Adding
to its power is the solid screenplay adaptation of the original play,
Kramer's impeccable directing and a cast that gels well including
Harry Morgan as the judge, Gene Kelly, Claude Akins as the extremist
preacher, Hope Summers cheering him on, Noah Berry Jr. and Norman
Fell among them. As effective as ever, the density of the witch hunt
atmosphere is as vivid as ever and as I watched, it was sad to think
that not enough has changed. The battle to think, create and
question is as important as ever and this film now even seems a bit
prophetic, unfortunately.
Extras
include another one of Twilight Time's trusty, illustrated booklets
on the film including informative text and essay by Julie Kirgo,
while the Blu-ray adds an Isolated Music and Effects Track and
an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Kenneth
Hughes' Of Human Bondage
(1964; Henry Hathaway directed some of this too along with writer
Bryan Forbes at one point, uncredited) is the third major feature
film version of the classic W. Somerset Maugham novel after the 1934
Bette Davis/RKO classic and 1946 Warner Bros./Paul Henreid/Eleanor
Parker version. This time, it is MGM making it, but with the twist
that it is an all-British production with Laurence Harvey as the
doctor with the troubled past falling for waitress Kim Novak (with a
pretty good British accent). Considering the many hands who worked
on this one, the makers were trying their best to make this remake
count and be remembered more than the 1946 release.
The
idea here is that maybe this version could be more sexually open and
honest, starting with the ideal casting of its leads, but the script
by the smart Bryan Forbes (who became a director in his own right) is
also staying faithful to the book and sometimes that becomes a
restraint despite the moments that do work. Novak is good in a
sometime thankless role, sexy without trying and is not afraid to get
dirty or sacrifice her beauty for the role, yet when it all ends, I
felt maybe a few opportunities were missed.
Needless
to say the talent is here and this is version is definitely worth a
look with a supporting cast that includes Robert Morley, Roger
Livesey, Siobhan McKenna, Ronald Lacey and uncredited turns by Nicol
Williamson and Brenda Fricker. No one has attempted to film the book
since, but if they do, I hope they are at least as ambitious as the
makers were here.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Bandit and
1080p 1.85 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image transfer
on Inherit are the visual winners here, with Twilight Time
again delivering pretty impressive transfers as usual, though the age
of the materials used hold these back a slight bit. However, they
are authentic, untampered with transfers that are a pleasure to
watch.
Director
of Photography Ernest Laszlo, A.S.C., (Logan's
Run,
Stalag,
Judgment
At Nuremberg
(another Kramer classic also on Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on
this site), Fantastic
Voyage,
Airport,
Kiss
Me Deadly,
Vera
Cruz,
the original D.O.A.)
shoots this to be involving in big screen framing that makes a
controversial film mire engaging and is the best-looking film on the
list.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the DVDs are not bad with
Nights being a little softer throughout than the newest entry
on this list ought to be. Human has two of the greatest
British cameramen ever on it, Oswald Morris, B.S.C. With some shots
by Denys Coop, A.S.C. featuring a nice, smooth look throughout. The
print is not bad and transfer works for the format.
As
for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 lossless mix on Bandit
is easily the winner with solid Pro Logic surrounds that
are well mixed and presented, surprisingly so for a film originally
issued in Dolby's older A-type analog sound format. Right behind it
are the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 lossless sound on Inherit
(showing its age, but sounding fine for it) and the lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the Nights
DVD. However, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Human
is a little weaker, a bit distorted at times and older-sounding
throughout, so be careful of volume switching.
To
order the Bandit
Queen
and Inherit
The Wind
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
… and
to order the Of
Human Bondage
(1964) remake on Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for them and
many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
