Criterion on Social Media

[souvenir]

Maybe they really are doing Working Girl

[johnnysnatchclub7]

I'd rather have Glengarry Glen Ross, Married to the Mob or Talk Radio. Even Miami Blues would be cool.

[dwk]

I think WB is re-releasing Beetlejuice later this year (who knows if they'll finally give it some special features or if it'll be the current disc in a box of junk.)

I think someone posted here that Lionsgate's rights to Glengarry Glen Ross have expired (or will be expiring soon) and the film is on Westchester Films' website, so there is a good shot that Criterion will be releasing it.

[ianungstad]

Glengarry Glenn Ross is still very much at Lionsgate.

This was ages ago but someone on Criterion's Facebook wall had actually posted that they had heard that Criterion were going to work on Oliver Stone's Talk Radio. Seems plausible.

[Murdoch]

Miami Blues or bust.

[Noiradelic]

Talk Radio seems very credible. Niche film ripe for rediscovery. Bogosian will be able to join Spalding Gray in the collection.

Married to the Mob is MGM and OOP. Criterion seems partial to Jonathan Demme, so another possibility.

[PfR73]

I would love a Criterion edition of Talk Radio. It's one of my favorite Stone films, and one of the only ones that's barebones on DVD (I think U-Turn is the only other one).

[bamwc2]

I would love a Criterion edition of Talk Radio. It's one of my favorite Stone films, and one of the only ones that's barebones on DVD (I think U-Turn is the only other one).

I think that Talk Radio is one of Stone's weaker films from a purely narrative standpoint. Bogosian is great in his role, but the whole film just feels a little flat to me. It seems to lie in the "just okay, not great" range to me. I have to admit that I didn't even remember Alec Baldwin in the film and had to double check imdb to see who he played. If any of his films are forthcoming, I really do hope that it's Miami Blues. He's excellent as the sociopath in that, a feet that I don't think that he's ever matched in a lead role.

[mfunk9786]

Talk Radio is a good concept done really badly. Bogosian does a decent enough job trying to replicate actual talk radio, but the flashbacks and portraits into his character's life are incredibly dull, and the ending is telegraphed from the moment one finds out about the film's existence. I don't know that it's even close to being Criterion quality, beyond the names involved. Throw me into the pot of folks hoping it's Glengarry Glen Ross.

[colinr0380]

Talk Radio is fantastic! I actually watched it again the other week mostly because I have recently gone back to rewatching 24 and remembered that Jack Bauer's wife in that first season (RIP) is played by Leslie Hope, who had an earlier role here as one of the radio show co-workers/semi-new love interest for Bogosian's character.

The film isn't really about the inevitable end in store for someone who stirs up controversy, or even the allusions to then up-and-coming shock jockeys like Howard Stern. That's just window dressing. Rather it is about the stream of consciousness, half-heard, on the edge of sleep late night monologues, diatribes and rants either from Barry to his listeners or from his listeners back to Barry inside the claustrophobic atmosphere of the radio studio, and his mental breakdown under those kinds of verbal assaults. The job just isn't fun any more (as it is in the sepia-tinted flashback scenes, where Barry is upending conventions and making his individual mark, before getting co-opted by the establishment into becoming an acceptable love-to-hate figure), and getting steadily more disturbing. It also doesn't help that Barry keeps mixing his professional, public and private lives together into one noxious concoction that might inevitably be going to end badly, but the question is will he self-destruct before someone kills him.

I also like that final sequence of all the telephone callers reminiscing. I posted about that elsewhere on the forum:

Gosh I love Talk Radio, featuring some of the best ever Alec Baldwin rants (amongst many other great ranters in that film!) I remember years later the Telephone & Rubber Band music featured as underscore in some adverts for a British telephone company in which minor celebrities described which person from history they would like to have a telephone conversation with if they had the chance. The only way of remaining sane during those asinine ads was to get some wry dark amusement from thinking of the hauntingly appropriate way the tune was used over the end credits of Stone's film as it underscored saccharine reminisences, angry threats, dumb opinions, various howls of outrage and desperation, the occasional sad attempt to cut against all that and place the previous events of the film into some kind of context and genuine attempts at communication showing the way that the technology had helped to bond all these disparate people together into a virtual community, both for better and worse. That seemed to beautifully sum up the role of the telephone in modern life.

Until the internet came along and changed all that of course!

It is also a timely warning to media gatekeepers that they rattle that cage to elicit opinions at their own peril (one of the many seeming parallels with the journalists in Stone's previous film Salvador).

Plus if the film got released it would add another role from Rockets Redglare (best known for his roles in Jim Jarmusch films) into the collection!

[johnnysnatchclub7]

Well said!

[John Doe]

I'm pretty sure it's Glengarry Glen Ross.

[colinr0380]

I'm pretty sure it's Glengarry Glen Ross.

Oh, I don't care for that film [-(

(Just kidding - it's great too!)

[Cronenfly]

Well, if subUrbia ever happens, Talk Radio would make for a fine Bogosian two-fer a la Spalding Gray...

[Perkins Cobb]

Talk Radio. The new Border Radio.

[bamwc2]

And now we know why Alec Baldwin was in their closet.

[mfunk9786]

Yup.

- Actor Alec Baldwin on Frankenheimer and Seconds

[duck duck]

Someone's posting iphone grabs of what appears to be an Early Hitchcock Eclipse set.

[Moe Dickstein]

I've been wanting that since Eclipse started. Would be my first Eclipse purchase.

[swo17]

Those images are just related to this.

[chatterjees]

Its true what swo17 said above. The guy who's posted the pictures probably visited iTunes after a long time and discovered the 2 early Hitch films (added 3-4 months ago)! Go to iTunes and you will find those covers there. I bought the digital copies when they first became available (they were on sale for 9.99 bucks each).

An eclipse set with those films (with available HD masters) will not be a great idea!!! I am sure CC knows their business well and realizes that any Hitch film on blu will sale like hot cake. A box set with all the early Hitch films would make much better sense (I wouldn't mind including Foreign Correspondent in that set). It seems that the HD versions of other early Hitch films (silent ones) are still available from Lionsgate @iTunes!!!

[Moe Dickstein]

Or maybe time for Blu Eclipse

[domino harvey]

Criterion will never release a Hitchcock film without copious supplements. Bet money on it, no Eclipse ever

[FakeBonanza]

I'd expect them to do a relatively barebones, Pierre Etaix-style box set rather than release the Early Hitchcock films as an Eclipse set.

[chatterjees]

I'd expect them to do a relatively barebones, Pierre Etaix-style box set rather than release the Early Hitchcock films as an Eclipse set.

I agree with you. Its fine with me. Also, Keep in mind if they are going to release these two film on blu, there are probably three options - either a set like Pierre Etaix (with may be another one of two films) or a "twofer" in a month, or just solo releases with lots of extras, one at a time, probably in 2 or 3 years!!! I don't mind if they start doing Eclipse blu soon. Hitch could be a good starter