2-3 Nighthawks / Strip Jack Naked

[Matt]

Nighthawks



Nighthawks is the story of Jim, a geography teacher at a London comprehensive school. Living alone in a cramped flat, his sexuality a half-open secret to everyone but his pupils and his parents, he spends the evenings at gay bars and discos looking vainly for ‘Mr. Right'.

Hugely controversial on its initial release, Nighthawks was one of the first British movies to accurately depict the life of a gay man in London.

Special Features

• Nighthawks Reflected - (dir. Paula Nightingale)
A newly commissioned 30-minute documentary on the making and impact of Nighthawks, presented by Matt Lucas.
• An Open Script - Improvisation and Working with Non-professional Actors. A new short film by director Ron Peck.
• New digital transfer with fully restored image and
sound, supervised by the Director.
• Optimal quality dual-layer disc.

• Booklet featuring Essay on the film.


Strip Jack Naked (Nighthawks II)



Strip Jack Naked is a companion piece to Ron Peck and Paul Hallam's ground-breaking Nighthawks. It is an autobiographical film that tells not only of the struggle to make Nighthawks but also of the director's life as a gay man growing up in late 20th century Britain. Its unusual honesty marks Strip Jack Naked as not just a lucid account of the responsibilities of a gay filmmaker, but as one of the most honest and abrasive British biographies ever made.

Special Features

• 3 newly-commissioned personal films by the makers of Nighthawks and Strip Jack Naked, reflecting their London:
• Soho - A short film by Ron Peck and Paul Hallam
• King's Cross - A short film by Paul Hallam and Kate Boyd
• 149 - A home movie by Ron Peck
• New digital transfer with restored image and sound, supervised by the Director.
• Optimal quality dual-layer disc.

[Martha]

Um, holy cow. If those "three newly commissioned personal films by the makers of Nighthawks and Strip Jack Naked, reflecting their London" on Strip Jack Naked don't completely suck, they could be the most thoughtful, kickass extras ever. Shit. As if I need to spending MORE money on dvds.

[pianocrash]

dvdbeaver review.

[der_Artur]

To make this DVD even better they should do something about the menus.

[rs98762001]

Another review below.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58180

Shame there doesn't seem to be any English subtitles on what looks like an otherwise excellent disc. Especially for overseas audiences, they probably would have helped.

[Cinephrenic]

I wonder if Stallone did a commentary.

[antnield]

DVD Times review for 'Strip Jack Naked'.

[Bikey]

A wonderful piece about Ron Peck in Time Out London this week by Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame (which will probably mean nothing to those of you outside the UK). No link I'm afraid so you'll have to look at the pdf at the Second Run site here:

http://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_nh.php

[zedz]

I've finally caught up with these two films. Nighthawks is just as awkward as I expected, given its subject matter and production history, but it's shot through with moments and sequences of such brilliance and honesty that I couldn't help but love it, flaws and all. I was particularly impressed by how it's immediately apparent (at least to me), that Jim, cruising the nightclubs, is looking for love, not just sex.

I thought Strip Jack Naked was even better: an exemplary personal film (in an exemplarily bad video-esque transfer that I assume was the best available) that shadowed the first film while adding considerable depth to it. The copious outtakes from Nighthawks included were pretty good too, many of the scenes as strong as anything in the finished film.

[zedz]

I was particularly impressed by how it's immediately apparent (at least to me), that Jim, cruising the nightclubs, is looking for love, not just sex.

Do you really think so zedz? I found part of the movie's essence the way it portrays the sheer cold bloodedness of the guys cruising the meat markets. (And my memory of the London scene back then is far from pleasant - this from one not exactly a wilting violet, then.) Certainly Jim's outburst at the party and other moments express some disaffection with life etc.

I think it's this dissatisfaction I latched on to. To me, Jim seemed a little out of his depth in that world (that great, long close-up on his cruising eyes read a lot like deer-in-the-headlights to me, though I acknowledge that there's a lot more going on there), but I found it quite poignant that this was the only world available to him. The cold-bloodedness of that world was a precondition to which Jim was forced to adapt, but it seemed to me that he was to some degree uncomfortable with the rules of that game.

I was also rather taken by the film's own cruising - there are a couple of times that the camera lingers on, or returns obsessively to, faces of people who never actually enter the story, as if Jim was attracted to them, but didn't have the courage to follow through.

In the encounters afterwards, I also sensed a longing in Jim for prolonged contact (even if it's only a cup of tea the morning after), and I was moved by how difficult this seemed to be to maintain (as when the boyfriend at the beginning of the film clearly signals that he's ready to move on, or agreements to keep in touch are repeatedly broken).

That's how I saw it (maybe I'm an old softie). I do, however, bow to your experience!

[zedz]

The mirror it held up to most of us was too hard to look at, and herein lies Peck's strength as a filmmaker. Anyhow you have convinced me to buy the discs - I have never seen Strip Jack Naked.

I thought Strip Jack Naked was the better film - excellent, in fact - and it includes at least half an hour of extremely revealing outtakes from Nighthawks that would have taken that film into quite different directions (e.g. Jim getting involved with a militant queer commune; Jim behaving rather more harshly than he does in the extant film, and being called on it by a guy he stood up). This material is used to illustrate Peck's own experiences of growing up gay (and, it seems, often terrified) in the 60s and 70s, and taking the plunge to make the film. It's absolutely fascinating, and Peck is as frank and unblinking when looking at himself as he was when looking at the characters in his breakthrough film.

[Buttery Jeb]

Facets has both of these listed as coming out in R1 editions on May 9th. Any idea who's handling this?

-BJ

[Lino]

Facets has both of these listed as coming out in R1 editions on May 9th. Any idea who's handling this?

Water Bearer is and according to Amazon, Strip Jack Naked has the Ron Peck short, What Can I Do with a Nude Male as extra, which the UK disc hasn't.

[Dr Amicus]

According to the latest Second Run newsletter, both these films will be deleted from their catalogue "soon" - so now might be time to grab one whilst you still can. I'll be putting an order in for mine!

[MichaelB]

They're now formally marked as 'out of print' in Second Run's collection browser - I believe the UK DVD rights expired and couldn't be renewed.

[Dr Amicus]

£75 pounds at Amazon marketplace!

Holy crap (or words to that effect). It's tempting to sell mine, buy the bfi Blu-Ray and have over £50 change!

Given the quite reasonable price of the new bfi edition though, the fact that this edition is (presumably) sought after enough to justify the prices is interesting - are the extras really THAT good?. My copy - bought after Bikey warned it was going oop - is unwatched, I might actually get round to watching tonight.

[Dr Amicus]

I did watch this Friday night - and absolutely loved it. Whilst in no way 'feel-good', it was a lot less depressing than I thought it might be. It actually reminded me a lot of the gay scene in Canterbury in the late 80s - scrub that, a lot more exciting!

The clubbing scenes I thought were very impressive, the combination of tracking shots and lengthy gazes seemed to catch the flavour of cruising in a club far more closely than many flashier films. And the quieter moments - the coming out that Andrew Sarris rightly praises, the classroom sequence, the glimpses of another life with the exhbition - are extremely memorable. Frankly, this is one of the best British films of the 70s IMO - and will make my 70s list next time around.

I've only watched one of the extras, the interviews by Matt Lucas - these seemed very good, but I'm afraid tiredness got the better of me and I dozed off half way through...

Strip Jack Naked over the coming weekend (!) - and I think I might double dip with the BFI Blu-Ray if only for the additional short films. And Fighters / Real Money has just shot to the top of my wish list - if they're anywhere as good as this, then I want to see them asap.

[Bikey]

I did watch this Friday night - and absolutely loved it. Whilst in no way 'feel-good', it was a lot less depressing than I thought it might be. It actually reminded me a lot of the gay scene in Canterbury in the late 80s - scrub that, a lot more exciting!

The clubbing scenes I thought were very impressive, the combination of tracking shots and lengthy gazes seemed to catch the flavour of cruising in a club far more closely than many flashier films. And the quieter moments - the coming out that Andrew Sarris rightly praises, the classroom sequence, the glimpses of another life with the exhbition - are extremely memorable. Frankly, this is one of the best British films of the 70s IMO - and will make my 70s list next time around.

I've only watched one of the extras, the interviews by Matt Lucas - these seemed very good, but I'm afraid tiredness got the better of me and I dozed off half way through...

Strip Jack Naked over the coming weekend (!) - and I think I might double dip with the BFI Blu-Ray if only for the additional short films. And Fighters / Real Money has just shot to the top of my wish list - if they're anywhere as good as this, then I want to see them asap.

Really glad to hear how much you liked Nighthawks, Dr Amicus; your words are very much how we felt about the film and why we wanted so much to release it and bring the film back into view through our initial launch.

Hope you will enjoy the extras too - as most of them were made very specifically to accompany our releases of both the films. And, when you finally watch it, I'm sure you'll find Strip Jack Naked to be one of the best and most honest personal documentaries made in the UK.

Although, sadly, Second Run are not able to keep the two films in our Catalogue, I'm very happy that they will remain available through the new BFI releases.

[Dr Amicus]

I caught up with Strip Jack Naked over the weekend and, like Zedz, found it fascinating. It really adds to the experience of watching the original, the deleted scenes offering glimpses into the filmmaking process and the decisions made in postproduction. Although this makes it sound just like a decent DVD extra, the added personal nature of the film elevates it above that. And the framing shots of naked men seemingly producing the film add an extra eroticising / politicising aspect to the film, especially considering the context in which it was produced.

A strong contender for my 90's list!

[Dadapass]

£75 pounds at Amazon marketplace!

The prices have gone down and are about £20, but they are going for £6-£9 at places like the Hut and Sendit. Nighthawks, Strip Jack Naked