Stacy Keach and James Earl Jones are featured (as well as DARK SHADOWS star Grayson Hall!) in the little-seen film adaptation of John Barth’s novel END OF THE ROAD.
Horner describes the film as “false to the novel,” but com- plains that the novel itself was false to his earlier non-fiction (and, of course, non-existent) account entitled “What I Did Until the Doctor Came.” Ava- kian’s END OF THE ROAD is actually quite a faithful adap- tation (nominally updated from the mid-’50s to the late ’60s), the only significant de- viations (in more than one sense) involving the inhabit- ants of Doctor D’s farm (in the book, they are simply geriatric patients). Avakian would subse- quently direct only two more fea- ture films: COPS AND ROBBERS (1973) and 11 HARROWHOUSE (1974), both commercial as- signments that he attempted to make visually interesting—
before returning to editing. He died in 1987.
For all my reservations, END OF THE ROAD is, in many ways, an admirable and historically important work, and Warners are to be commended for re- leasing it on DVD (as opposed to making it available as a manufactured-on-demand DVD-R, now the usual fate of rarities owned by major stu- dios). Originally rated X (for some nudity and scenes of sexual intercourse, not all of which involve chickens), the film has been re-rated R with no cuts. Key Video’s tape looks quite good for a mid-’80s transfer, but obviously pales by comparison with this flawless, anamorphically enhanced edi- tion, which is much brighter and
more detailed. The video print was unmasked, whereas the DVD masks the film at 1.85:1, a ratio which, judging from the compositions, would seem to be ideal.
Aside from English, French and Spanish subtitles, the only extra is an interesting 34m documentary entitled “An Amazing Time: A Conver- sation About END OF THE ROAD” (2011) consisting of interviews with several of the cast members (Keach, Harris, Yulin), as well as Gordon Willis (who made his debut with END OF THE ROAD) and Terry Southern’s son Niles. It was di- rected by Steven Soderbergh, whose advocacy is apparently the main reason this Region 1 disc exists.
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