Ten Great Films Warner/New Line Should Release In
Both High Definition Formats Now!
Warner
eventually moved to Blu-ray and the format war was over. With Blu-ray a hit, it was time to update
this essay we originally posted in the middle of the final showdown….
With that
holding, we decided to suggest ten great, underrated, key films from both
catalogs (which in Warner’s case includes all MGM films to 1986 and all RKO
Radio Pictures) that in order to stun fans and potential customers, they should
consider releasing now and not later to show off how good these formats can
perform.
In making
this list, we picked films that are not on the horizon, but should be. We left out good genre films with remakes on
the way (Westworld) leading to
reissues of the originals, or classics of all sorts (Giant, It’s Alive, Year Of The Dragon) where they have
created upgraded prints so HD versions are inevitable, and stuck with films
that were widescreen so there is no doubt the wide frame was not fully being
used. These films are picked because
they are exceptional films, have exceptional cinematography, have stood the
test of time and would show that Hollywood in general is very serious about
high definition.
Death & The Maiden (1994) – New Line has a limited
catalog and is excellent about getting their work issued, but even they have a
buried gem and this amazing Roman Polanski thriller with no less than Sigourney
Weaver, Ben Kingsley and the underrated Stuart Wilson is it. Weaver plays a writer and survivor of torture
at the hands of a fascist dictatorship that was recently overthrown, but the
emotional scars are worse than the physical and when her husband (Wilson) helps
a man (Kingsley) whose car has broken down, she is certain she recognizes him
as her tormentor and plans on doing something about it.
The Devils (1971) – The great Ken Russell’s
grossly under seen and underrated epic on politics and witchcraft was
controversial enough in its time to get an X-rating and is little-seen these
days. Has the controversy actually grown
and endured? Oliver Reed and Vanessa
Redgrave lead the cast in this Panavision-shot masterwork (issued at the time
in three-strip Technicolor by Director of Photography David Watkin of The
Beatles’ Help!) that is among
Russell’s greatest achievements.
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967) – The amazing John
Schlesinger’s enduring epic version of the story of one beautiful woman (Julie
Christie) and how she deeply affects the lives of three very different
men. With stunning acting, a solid screenplay
adaptation, visually sumptuous Panavision cinematography (issued at the time in
three-strip Technicolor) by future directing genius Nicolas Roeg and Richard
Rodney Bennett’s amazing score, has a Thomas Hardy book ever received better
treatment? A DVD was issued and here is
our coverage:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8230/Warner/MGM+DVD+Wave+(Waterloo
Ice Station Zebra (1968) – With 2001 and Grand Prix the two best films in HD-DVD (Blu-ray or any other
optical format) being 40+ year old 70mm epics, Warner should take John Sturges’
Cold War action epic as a U.S. submarine crew (led by Rock Hudson) are about to
meet the U.S.S.R. in the middle of the North Pole holds up with suspense and
top rate production values long after the end of The Cold War. Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown ands Patrick
McGoohan also star. If that is not
dramatic enough, are runner-up pick of a 70mm film not issued yet would be
David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter from
1970, but we expect they’d want to issue that when Sony put out their Blu-ray
of Laurence Of Arabia.
Last Of Sheila (1973) – One of the greatest
mystery films ever made, as penned by Anthony Perkins & Stephen Sondheim,
Herbert Ross directed this brilliant puzzle about who killed the title
character and the clues are laid out with plenty of false distractions to keep
you going. The amazing chemistry of the
cast including James Coburn, Ian McShane, James Mason, Raquel Welsh, Dyan Cannon,
Joan Hackett and Richard Benjamin increases the possibilities and it all ends
with a crazy end theme by a then-wild Bette Midler. Issued at the time in three-strip
Technicolor, it is also one of the best-looking thrillers to date.
Outland (1981) – When Alien and Moonraker were big hits, some of the producers of Blade Runner made this grossly
underrated, rough and highly influential (compare to James Cameron’s Aliens or Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop) space thriller from Director
Peter Hyams (End Of Days) with Sean
Connery as a Police Marshall on a Jupiter mining colony investigating why
workers are dying, only to find they are taking a deadly new drug with insanity
as a side effect. When he investigates,
it becomes High Noon in space when
he lands up taking on the whole dealer ring himself. Stunning sets and complex model work as
enduring as any film in the genre would shine in high definition along with its
early multi-channel sound mix. The old
DVD is one of the worst-ever in the format.
A great injustice would be corrected.
Prince Of The City (1981) – Sidney Lumet’s epic
crime drama is up there with Dog Day
Afternoon, Serpico and the
recent Before The Devil Knows You’re
Dead as with the underrated Treat Williams as the honest cop who exposes
corruption and finds it beyond thankless as he is made as disposable as
possible. More powerful and honest than
ever, the film was a hot rental in the VHS/Beta days along with Scarface, The Godfather and any other double tape program for people trying
to get the most for their rental buck, but it has been forgotten for too
long. Jerry Orbach, Bob Balaban, James
Tolkan, Lindsay Crouse and Lance Henriksen also star.
What’s Up Doc? (1972) – Many comedies got it
wrong after Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H
about what a counterculture comedy was, but Peter Bogdanovich more than
understood it all when he understood that one of the square roots of the
counterculture was the subversiveness and brilliance of the Screwball Comedies
of the 1930s and 1940s. Written by Buck
Henry (The Graduate,) David Newman
and Robert Benton (Superman – The Movie,)
Barbra Streisand plays Judy Maxwell, a very smart and persistent woman who
decides she wants to know a total stranger (Ryan O’Neal) no matter how little
she knows about him. She calls him Steve,
even though his name is Howard Banister and is engaged to Eunice Burns
(Madeline Kahn) on their way to a conference on his expertise… rocks. Though he is a square, he believes early man
first composed music on them and believes he can prove it with a “rock”
concert. When four suitcases become
confused, madness ensues in what is the most important comedy of the last 35
years, paving the way for Animal House,
Caddyshack, 9 To 5 and great hit comedies all the way to Superbad. As for the title,
every major character is slightly built on a classic Looney Tunes/Merrie
Melodie Warner cartoon character. John
Hillerman, Randy Quaid, M. Emmet Walsh, Sorrell Booke, Kenneth Mars, Austin
Pendleton, Mabel Albertson (hilarious in her last role) and John Byner also
star in this hilarious romp shot by Director of Photography Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces) issued at the time in three-strip Technicolor and
would be a home run in high definition.
White Sands (1992) – In the 1990s, Warner
kept producing smart thrillers (Absolute
Power, Copycat, Extreme Measures) that did not get
their due, but even above those, Roger Donaldson’s mature, adult, smart and
complex thriller about a man found dead in the middle of the desert with a gun
in one hand and the other hand holding a briefcase containing a fortune in cash
was missed by too many at the time.
Willem Dafoe is the small town cop who decides to pretend to be the dead
man and gets far more than he bargained for.
Mickey Rourke (Sin City, Year Of The Dragon,) Mary Elisabeth
Mastrantonio (Scarface, The Perfect Storm) Samuel L. Jackson,
Maura Tierney, M. Emmet Walsh (Blade
Runner) and Beth Grant (Donnie Darko)
co-star in this terrific thriller with amazing Panavision camerawork by Peter
Menzies Jr. and in high definition would be a big winner.
Zabriskie Point (1970) – After his black and
white Italian Neo-Realist trilogy, the great Michaelangelo Antonioni did a
color trilogy that included the hit classics Red Desert (1964) and Blow
Up (1966) with the influence of U.S. and U.K. cultural and countercultural
movements figured in. MGM backed up the
third film and with huge expectations critically and commercially, the film
shockingly died in its original release, but is now one of the most influential
of his works, all the way to Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation. A young
lady (Daria Halprin) has a somewhat functional relationship with her father
(Rod Taylor) but when she meets an intriguing guy (Mark Frechette) with new
points of view, they become slowly attracted to each other, leading to
shootings, robberies, counterculture protests and the most surreal group sex
sequence in cinema history.
Unpredictable up to its unforgettable finale, this Panavision-shot
rule-breaker was finally issued by Warner and we hope a Blu-ray follows soon.
Four
other lists are also on this site and can be found in the Essays section.
- Nicholas Sheffo
