William Devane as a POW veteran whose military training does not go to waste after his homecoming, in the Paul Schrader-scripted ROLLING THUNDER.
provide more information about the movie and its odd history than Schlossberg-Cohen. A theatrical trailer is also included.
A DVD edition is also part of the package and, while the stan- dard definition half of these BD+DVD packages usually offers fewer features, Vinegar Syndrome breaks that tradition by including the full-length version of John Carr’s GRETTA (aka CARNIVAL OF FOOLS, THE DARK SIDE TO LOVE, and DEATH WISH CLUB, 90m 50s), which was cut down into “The Case of Gretta Connors” for NIGHT TRAIN. A truly bizarre and unpredictable black comedy/ love story, GRETTA is so off-the- wall that the movie’s “Death Wish Club” (some rich thrill seekers playing potentially fatal games of chance for perverse kicks) empha- sized in the short edition is not even one of the main story threads! No film elements were available for the 1983 feature, so an old 1" tape master was utilized. The image (upconverted from fullscreen to anamorphic 1.78:1)
56
is soft and murky at times, but watchable enough, given the age of the transfer and rarity of the material (which includes a prologue missing from some versions). GRETTA’s assistant editor, Wayne Schmidt (whose letter about his experiences working for Yordan appeared in VW 15:77), reminisces in a half-hour audio interview about his collaboration with Charles Band on THE DAY TIME ENDED (1980) and the long post- production and re-shoot process GRETTA went through. Schmidt was also involved with HARRY and relates the situation which caused that movie’s production to fall apart. He also discusses Yordan and Ruggiero, and adds some additional light on how the jumbled mess that is NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR came to- gether. The two commentaries and this interview were all appar- ently conducted over Skype, so the audio is not always optimal—but it’s a treasure trove of insider in- formation, essential to any future scholarship on the subject.
ROLLING THUNDER
1977, Shout! Factory, 99m 49s, $19.97, BD-A By Eric Somer
As Tommy Lee Jones sug- gests on this disc’s making-of featurette, the returning war veteran’s struggle to find his place in society is something of a genre unto itself. Screenwriter Paul Schrader almost single-handedly gave rise to this “genre” with his creation of TAXI DRIVER’s Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) and Charles Rane (William Devane) from ROLLING THUNDER. Many of the themes explored by Schrader in the above films were given serious consideration in 1946’s THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, directed by William Wyler (himself a veteran). The Wyler film sympathetically exam- ines the challenges faced by re- turning soldiers who learn their country has moved on without them. Children have grown up, job opportunities have diminished, past romances may never be the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94
