New 4K and Blu-Ray reviews.
Sorcerer — 4K/Blu-ray Special Edition — Criterion
“Both Apocalypse (Now) and Sorcerer were made at a time where if you wanted to show something extraordinary, you had to do something extraordinary. And photograph it.”
–Francis Ford Coppola from the 2018 doc, Friedkin Uncut.
Sorcerer proves a fantastic example that revisiting films can be essential. I disliked it when I first saw it. Of course, I was a pre-teen. And because of my less than reverential feelings about the films of William Friedkin, I had no real desire to reexamine the movie that the director considers his most important work. I did recently rewatch To Live and Die in L.A. and appreciated it for its nasty slickness.
But when I heard Criterion was giving it the 4K treatment, I felt a duty to view it fresh and, while it’s not perfect, it’s certainly significant and a worthwhile sit.
This taut thriller is based on the novel, The Wages of Fear, by Georges Arnaud—and not a remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s brilliant The Wages of Fear—Friedkin is quite vehement about this distinction. I was able to see the Clouzot gem for the first time thanks to Criterion and was absolutely transfixed by it. The Friedkin version is not better than Clouzot’s by any stretch, but, it is it’s own animal—except for the final third.
Friedkin and screenwriter Walon Green (The Wild Bunch) change up the characters and give the story a new intro. We meet a quartet of morally reprehensible men: a ruthless hit man (Francisco Rabal), a Palestinian terrorist (Amidou), a Parisien embezzler (Bruno Cremer) and a NJ mobster (Roy Scheider).
They all escape to a remote Latin American village where desperation begets their taking on a doomed mission to transport two trucks loaded with highly explosive nitroglycerin across treacherous jungle for an American oil company needing to literally put out an out of control fire.
The rest of the film chronicles the harrowing, nail-biting journey—the best part of the film, which includes an anxiety-inducing bridge scene and the blowing up of a tree.
In terms of the acting, Rabal has only one-note to play since Green’s script is short on character development. Ditto Cremer. Amidou manages to eke out some nuance. And Scheider’s face tells us more than any of his limited lines. The script was apparently written for Steve McQueen, who turned it down–and who Quentin Tarantino thinks would have been better in the role—along with Robert Blake. Interesting to note that Scheider was coming off the great success of Jaws, two years earlier as well as Marathon Man.
Politically, whereas the Clouzot film was scathing in its depiction of the American oil company’s ruthless behavior, Friedkin glosses over it. He does include a scene where the horrifically charred corpses of the workers are being unloaded off a truck and is met with understandable anger by the indigenous people of the village. They end up setting the truck on fire. I wish he had included more moments like this one devoted to the villagers.
I appreciated that there were no heroes in the story—these men have pretty unforgivable pasts and are seeking some kind of redemption. Green’s script could have probed that notion further.
The homoeroticism in the Clouzot film is absent in Sorcerer. These are the kind of throwback men from all those tough-guy 1960s flicks (The Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven). This might be seen as odd from the director of Boys in the Band and Cruising, or it could justify the accusations of homophobia often hurled at the director (who has some repressive anti-gay speak during his chat with Nicolas Winding Refn on the Blu-ray).
The movie was not a commercial or critical success upon its release in late June of 1977, one month after Star Wars began dominating the box office. It was recut when released internationally where it was also a failure. The film might have been too challenging for audiences wanting spectacle and entertainment. But Sorcerer has been reassessed in the last few decades with film fanatics like Tarantino labeling it, “ one of the greatest movies ever made.” Agree to disagree with QT’s ridiculous hyperbole. But it is a damn good film despite its flaws.
It’s no surprise that the Criterion Special Edition looks and sounds amazing. The visuals are from a new 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD master audio soundtrack approved by Friedkin, and alternate original theatrical 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master audio soundtrack.
The Blu-ray disc offers a bounty of fascinating special features, starting with the 2018 doc, Friedkin Uncut (2018), by Francesco Zippel featuring interviews with Friedkin, Green as well as Wes Anderson and Francis Ford Coppola—where Friedkin’s arrogance shines through.
There is a new conversation between director James Gray and film critic Sean Fennessey about the film, archival audio interviews with Green and editor Bud Smith, from the collection of Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, author of William Friedkin (2003) and behind the scenes footage.
My favorite disc goodie is a very probing 77-minute conversation, from 2015, between Friedkin and filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn where the latter really forces Friedkin to delve deep into discussing the making and reception of Sorcerer, often to the director’s obvious irritation and exasperation. Friedkin discusses the reasons that McQueen, Marcello Mastroianni and Leno Ventura all agreed to do the film and then bowed out. Refn pushes so much that he reveals Friedkin’s hubris, but also his vulnerability.
Sorcerer will be available June 24, 2025
https://www.criterion.com/films/34370-sorcerer
Midnight — Blu-ray Special Edition — Criterion
The great Billy Wilder began making films in Germany in the early 30s before emigrating to the U.S. and escaping the Nazi terror. Arriving in Hollywood in 1934, he began collaborating with Charles Brackett and they wrote three films that were released in 1939, Theodore Reed’s What a Life, Ernst Lubitsch’s Ninotchka (which brought them their first Oscar nomination) and Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight.
The latter film was based on a story by Edwin Justus Mayer and Franz Schulz about an American showgirl, Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) who loses the fortune she swindled from a suitor in Monte Carlo and arrives in Paris with nothing but an evening gown. She soon persuades a kind Hungarian taxi driver, Tibor Czerny (a suave Don Ameche), to chauffeur her around the City of Lights so she can snag a nightclub job. Alas, no one wants to hire her. Feeling guilty and concerned she is falling for Tibor, she gives him the slip and inadvertently ends up being shuffled into an elegant dinner party and concert where she introduces herself as a baroness, Madame Czerny. She soon finds herself involved with a scheming nobleman (a hilarious John Barrymore) wanting to hold onto his wayward wife Helene (Mary Astor) by having Eve/The Baroness seduce the dashing Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer), who Helene fancies. That’s a lot of plot and it’s just for starters.
Midnight is an irreverent screwball rom-com that takes aim at class (an omnipresent Wilder theme) even when you know exactly where it’s going. And it benefits greatly from a marvelously comic turn by Colbert, who was not the first choice for Eve. Apparently, Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck and Marlene Dietrich were all offered the role first.
Wilder made it pretty clear that he wasn’t thrilled with script alterations Leisen insisted on, which led to his decision to direct his own films—so we thank the movie gods for Leisen’s misguided demands since Wilder would embark on one of the most impressive filmmaking careers of the 20th century. His output includes, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, A Foreign Affair, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Sabrina, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, One, Two, Three, Avanti and Fedora—just a few of his masterworks.
Leison was best known for Hold Back The Dawn (co-written by Wilder), To Each His Own, Easy Living, Remember The Night and The Mating Season—showcasing great (often award-winning/nominated) female performances like those of Olivia de Havilland, Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck and Thelma Ritter.
The Criterion Blu-ray, from a new 4K digital restoration, is stunning to look at. A few close ups of Colbert (who hated her left profile) seem to be filmed through a vaseline-laced lens. The sound is clear and crisp.
Special Features include an informative audio commentary by author/film critic Michael Koresky as well as a fascinating audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with Leisen and the Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film, from 1940, with Colbert and Ameche reprising their roles.
1939 proved to be one of the most significant year’s in cinema history and you can add Midnight to the fabulous list of great films released that year that include, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, The Women, Only Angels Have Wings, Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Of Mice and Men, Love Affair, Destry Rides Again, Gunga Din, The Roaring Twenties, Drums Along the Mohawk, Intermezzo, Golden Boy and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex—to name but some.
https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight
Black Bag — Blu-ray — Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Somehow I missed Steven Soderbergh’s tense, wholly enveloping thriller, Black Bag, early in the year. But I am sure glad I was able to experience it on Universal’s Blu-ray release. It’s a slick, sexy, suspenseful spy flick with a dynamite cast. And along with Soderbergh’s terrific horror thriller, Presence, provided a smashing early-year one-two punch for the director and for the clever screenwriter of both, David Koepp.
The plot centers on six members of a legendary British intelligence agency who get caught up in a plot that involves malware (Severus, named after the infamous Roman Emperor) leaked to the Russians that could cause a nuclear disaster. Everyone is a suspect and George Woodhouse (a perfectly stone-faced Michael Fassbender) is set on finding the mole, even if it means spying on his beloved wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett, oozing charm and sophistication). To start the investigation off, George assembles everyone to a dinner party to attempt to identify the saboteur. They included characters played to the enigmatic hilt by Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke and, especially, Marisa Abela.
Black Bag is a bit of a throwback to great 1970s thrillers like Sydney Pollack’s Three Days of the Condor and Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallex View, shaken and stirred with Soderbergh’s masterfully inventive filmmaking style. Lighting, framing and composition are key in creating and maintaining the suspense. The interiors are awash in browns and yellows and the dinner table sequences are illuminated from the table top, distracting us just enough to force us to focus on each character’s facial expressions. What are they hiding?
The psychological motivations of each character are also explored in a fascinating manner since they all work in espionage and as one character puts it, “we’re all fucking liars.” The answer to any question can invoke the “black bag,” since what’s in the black bag cannot be discussed. Soderbergh and Koepp delve into themes of loyalty, trust, devotion and deception—as well as how far two bonded people will go to protect one another.
The Blu-ray visuals are fantastic as is the sound quality. Extras are disappointing. We get a 10-min cast assembly doc, 3 deleted scenes and a 10-minute design doc. With this caliber of talent involved a more comprehensive featurette should have been created.
That complaint aside, grab this one fast to see one of the best films of 2025 to date.
https://www.uphe.com/movies/black-bag
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead — Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
British filmmaker, TV director, playwright and novelist Mike Hodges had quite the eclectic career but only made nine feature films (ten if you count Damien – Omen II, where he was replaced early in the production). His work includes, Get Carter (1971), The Terminal Man (1974), Croupier (1998) and the little seen and misunderstood gem, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (2003).
This dense, seductive thriller, written by Trevor Preston, centers on former gangster Davey Graham (Clive Owen) who reluctantly returns to London when his younger brother Davey (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is found dead under questionable circumstances. It’s best not to know more than that going in to fully appreciate the film’s narrative turns.
The cast features Charlotte Rampling, Jamie Foreman and Malcolm McDowell—all stellar.
There’s quite a twist to the film that renders it even more shocking when the reason for a particular violent crime is revealed.
Owen had done especially wonderful work in Sean Mathias’s Bent (1997) and Robert Altman’s Gosford Park (2001) as well as Hodges’ own Croupier. And one year later he would receive his only Oscar nomination (to date) for Mike Nichol’s Closer.
Rhys-Meyers, so promising in Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, never seemed to find his filmic footing. On TV he did rock The Tudors.
The ubiquitous Rampling is an icon appearing in classics like Silvio Narizzano’s Georgy Girl (1966), Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories (1980) and Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict (1982). But it took a while for her to get her due, via the industry. She received her first and only Oscar nomination for Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, in 2015.
Kino Lorber does a smashing job with this Blu-ray edition. Visuals from a new HD master – from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative — are stunning. Audio is fine.
Special features include an audio commentary by Hodges and Preston, two negligible deleted scenes and a terrific BBC ‘making of’ doc featuring chats with Hodges, Owen, Rhys-Meyers, Rampling and Sylvia Syms.
I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead is a stylish, atmospheric crime flick. McDowell, in the ‘making of’ doc, when referring to Hodges, says, “It’s nice to be with a master who knows what he’s doing. So many of these bloody directors, they don’t know their ass from their elbow.” Hodges certainly knew his craft and gave us a few cinematic gems.
https://kinolorber.com/product/i-ll-sleep-when-i-m-dead-special-edition
Dark City — Limited Edition 4K-UHD — Arrow
Alex Proyas’s Dark City is a film I remember enjoying when I saw it upon its initial release in early 1998 but not really giving much thought to in the ensuing years.
Rediscovering it now on the eye-popping Arrow 4K-UHD Limited Edition disc, via the Director’s Cut—as it should be seen—was quite revelatory. While the film received positive reviews when it came out with Roger Ebert especially championing it as a “great visionary achievement,” the movie’s box office was not impressive. James Cameron’s Titanic juggernaut continued to thrash most releases well into 1998. But the movie acquired cult status shortly after it was released on DVD and has continued to amass quite the following among cinephiles.
This beguiling sci-fi thriller was way before it’s time and I’m not going to pretend to understand it all from just one revisit, but I was wholly captivated throughout. The film’s narrative (written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer) centers on John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), an amnesiac, wanted by the police, who is entrenched in a series of mysterious circumstances and surrounded by people claiming to know him intimately. He soon finds himself on the run from a bizarre group known as the “Strangers” who seem to control everything/everyone in this super dark (in every sense) city.
There’s a lot to process and it’s best not to know much more and just let the film experience engulf you.
The cast boasts impressive turns by Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt and Richard O’Brien, with Jennifer Connelly delivering yet another wooden performance. How did this actress ever win an Oscar?
Key to the film’s success is Sewell who was not the original choice. Both Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp were considering the part. Sewell, an egregiously underrated thesp, finds gray-area nuance in a role that might have been presented as simply heroic.
Arrow has done a magnificent job with the visuals and sound on the 4K disc, using a brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negatives approved by director of photography Dariusz Wolski. We are gifted 4K Ultra HD presentations of both cuts of the film. The original DTS-HD MA 5.1, stereo 2.0 and new Dolby Atmos audio options are presented for both cuts as well.
And there are a host of special features beginning with two brand new audio commentaries, one by Proyas, the second with Craig Anderson, Bruce Isaacs and Herschel Isaacs, co-hosts of the Film Versus Film podcast as well as archival audio commentaries by Proyas, film critic Roger Ebert and writers Dobbs and Goyer.
Return to Dark City, is a new hour-long documentary featuring interviews with Proyas, producer Andrew Mason, production designers Patrick Tatopoulos and George Liddle, costume designer Liz Keough, storyboard artist Peter Pound, director of photography Dariusz Wolski, actor Rufus Sewell, hair & makeup artist Leslie Vanderwalt and VFX creative director Peter Doyle—all discussing the evolution of the film in great detail.
Also included: Rats in a Maze, a new visual essay by film scholar Alexandra West, I’m as Much in the Dark as You Are, a new visual essay by film scholar Josh Nelson, Memories of Shell Beach, a 2008 featurette on the making of the film from concept to reception and Architecture of Dreams, a 2008 featurette presenting five perspectives on the themes and meanings of the film.
Proyas’s kept being told by studio execs that his film was too weird (like there’s something wrong with that?). The MPAA echoed that. That ridiculous group of idiots slammed the film with an R-rating, because they simply couldn’t grasp it. And the marketing team at New Line Cinema obviously had no clue how to advertise the movie since it was being tagged as horror (which it is not). The movie is an intelligent, enigmatic neo-Noir that dares to ask questions about the nature of identity and consciousness, warning us of a world we could one day find ourselves in, if we’re not careful. Talk about prescient.
https://www.arrowvideo.com/4k/dark-city-limited-edition-4k-uhd/16425069.html
The Peacemaker — 4K-UHD/BluRay — Kino Lorber
Emmy-winning director Mimi Leder (China Beach, ER, The West Wing, The Morning Show) brought together two superstars for an energetic, pulse-pounding action thriller about a brash Special Forces Colonel and a wunderkind nuclear specialist (George Clooney and Nicole Kidman respectively) who must stop terrorists from blowing up most of Manhattan! Sure it’s a bit silly but it’s also a terrifically tense and enjoyable ride.
The Peacemaker was written by Michael Schiffer (Crimson Tide), based on an unpublished Vanity Fair article by Andrew Cockburn and Leslie Redlich Cockburn. Hans Zimmer provides a terrific, bombastic score.
The movie was released in late September of 1997, between To Die For/The Portrait of a Lady and Practical Magic/Eyes Wide Shut for Kidman and From Dusk till Dawn/Batman and Robin and Out of Sight/Three Kings for Clooney. Both actors get to show off their screen swagger. And the film did quite well at the box office, despite mixed notices.
Kino Lorber’s impressive 4K is from a brand new HDR/Dolby Vision Master by Paramount Pictures – from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. The 4K disc includes two new audio commentaries by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson as well as film journalist Laurence Lerman. The Blu-ray disc features stunt footage and 3 minutes of deleted scenes.
For pure, explosive entertainment—with snippets of realism—this one is worth acquiring.
The Peacemaker will be available June 24, 2025
https://kinolorber.com/product/the-peacemaker-4kuhd
Rock, Pretty Baby — Blu-ray — Kino Lorber
Blackboard Jungle meets Rebel Without a Cause is the way a Universal Pictures marketing exec may have described Rock, Pretty Baby, since the film borrows from both hit movies. Surprisingly, this pic is actually quite entertaining and even kinda sweet.
Angst ridden Jimmy Daley (a super young and hot John Saxon, channeling his inner James Dean) is a high school senior and musician wannabe who falls hard for Joan Wright (Luana Patten). Jimmy has a contentious relationship with his father (Edward C. Platt) who would prefer his son not waste his time on music. The rest of the film is really a love story set against the backdrop of a number of performed songs, some quite catchy, others forgettable.
Fay Wray (King Kong) appears as Jimmy’s mother.
Sal Mineo is featured in a throwaway role as band member Angelo Barrato. Mineo was just coming off great success as well as his first Oscar nomination (at age 17) for Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, opposite James Dean and Natalie Wood. He’d go on to win the Golden Globe and receive his second Oscar nomination for Otto Preminger’s Exodus in 1960. The closeted gay actor’s other credits include, The Longest Day (1962), John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and Don Taylor’s Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
Saxon was discovered by the infamous Henry Willson, who was Rock Hudson’s manager. Willson immediate changed the very Italian boy’s name from Carmine Orrico to John Saxon. Rock, Pretty Baby would mark his first starring role. He had a couple of significant supporting roles (Running Wild, The Unguarded Moment) beforehand and would go on to win the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year for Blake Edwards’ romantic comedy, This Happy Feeling, in 1957, opposite Debbie Reynolds. Saxon had a fairly consistent career in TV and film, most notably appearing in Otto Preminger’s The Cardinal (1963), Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974), Sydney Pollack’s The Electric Horseman (1979) and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
Directed by Richard Bartlett (who?), Rock, Pretty Baby is a film I had never heard of but was happy to discover. A sequel, Summer Love, was made two years later, starring Saxon but without Mineo.
The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is quite impressive with the black-and-white cinematography by George Robinson popping nicely—thanks to a brand new HD Master – from a 4K Scan of the 35mm original camera negative by Universal Pictures. The audio is terrific. The disc boasts an incisive audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle.
Rock, Pretty Baby will be available June 17, 2025
https://kinolorber.com/product/rock-pretty-baby
More soon.
