malthursday

I first saw this movie on Canadian TV on the midnight movie on CJOH and it has stuck in my head ever since. Back then, I enjoyed it for the psychedelic dream sequences, the dolly birds, and the good ol' "frank sexuality." Watching it again on DVD thirty years later, I find it still resonates, but for different reasons. Now, I relate more to Quint's rejection of his entire way of life and the way he wants to be free of it, but ultimately can't escape it.

The Super-8 commercial he makes at the end of the film is still dazzling -- one would think that Michael Winner would have gone on to greater things, but this film is the best thing he ever did. Same goes for Oliver Reed, although he made some good ones in the late '60s and early '70s. Several other Reed-Winner collaborations, THE SYSTEM (a/k/a THE GIRL GETTERS), THE JOKERS, and HANNIBAL BROOKS, are also worth checking out.

Excellent performances by Reed, Orson Welles, Carol White, and Harry Andrews, and a top script by Peter Draper (who also wrote THE SYSTEM).

Favorite bit of dialogue:

QUINT: I'm going to find an honest job.

LUTE: Silly boy. There aren't any.

As rock docs go, this is pretty good; As a DVD, it's pretty lame. There are so many of these career retrospective videos that make the same mistake: presenting great vintage clips in truncated form without the option of viewing the entire performance. Obviously, the filmmakers got the rights to use the footage, so why not use the whole clip, or at least offer it as a bonus feature? Here we get the entire version of a few numbers, but others -- the excellent live takes of "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and "Dazed and Confused," to name but two -- are presented as mere snippets. And that's a drag, because they are unavailable elsewhere. The clip from Antonioni's BLOW-UP is also cut short, but you find that easily enough on the DVD re-ish of that film.

Rhino does a great job with their CD reissues, but this DVD seems to have been slapped together from the original VHS release, with no extras. Also, the sound quality on the vintage TV clips certainly could have been tweaked a bit.

That said, there is much to enjoy here, not least of which is the music made by this great group, which influenced many a teenage garage band here in the US. Not to mention the go-go girls, and the haircuts that inspired a generation. The interviews are also good, and one can't help but notice the resemblance of Jeff Beck to Nigel Tufnel (Chistopher Guest's character in THIS IS SPINAL TAP)!