654 Repo Man

[dwk]

Alex Cox on the new Blu-ray

[Jeff]

Alex Cox on the new Blu-ray

That's a great piece. Very interesting about Universal giving Anchor Bay the rights to Evil Dead 2 (I wonder if he meant Army of Darkness) in order to get Repo Man back early. I'm looking forward to attending a 35mm screening of Repo Man with Cox in attendance at the new Alamo Drafthouse in Denver this weekend. Only wish I could get my hands on a copy early enough to have him sign it.

[andyli]

Well, the thing is, technically speaking, already signed.

[dwk]

He definitely meant Army of Darkness, Anchor Bay had Evil Dead 2 before they started releasing DVDs.

[tenia]

He also targets the wrong person when stating that the region locking is due to MPAA, no ?

[MichaelB]

He also targets the wrong person when stating that the region locking is due to MPAA, no ?

Yes, absolutely - it's Criterion's own policy to region-lock all their Blu-rays.

And even if it hadn't been, the decision would be down to Universal.

[rspaight]

Well, *he* seems to like the cover.

[Adam X]

When Repo Man came out, Cox optioned Harry Harrison's sci-fi novel Bill the Galactic Hero, hoping to make it his next film. Obviously, that never happened, but Cox still owns the rights, and has now started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $100 000 he needs to make it. It will be in black and white, shot on monochrome film stock, and Phil Tippet will help out with the effects. This is a Kickstarter campaign I'm backing!

Damn, 5 days to go and still $11,500 to go.
If there's any fans of Cox's anarchic filmmaking left on this forum who haven't pledged any dosh, now's the time to do it. This sounds like a really exciting project for him, and it'd be a shame to see it get so close to completing funding and yet, not making it past the finish line.

[colinr0380]

4 days to go and it has just reached its target (currently at $101,747)

[movielocke]

Blind bought this last week. It's a film I've heard about for years, but never got around to seeing. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but in retrospect putting it in the Monty Python esque anarchy tradition helps to appreciate and understand it a bit more (in forgiving the continuity errors and sketch like lack of cohesion in the story). The film would make a wonderful double feature with the far superior Kiss Me Deadly, particularly as both are such interesting dystopian takes on the wonderful city of Los Angeles, thirty years apart.

It's the sort of film I feel like I need be in a stoned audience (or be stoned myself) to really get the most mileage out of it, because watching it sober on a first time means it only produces a handful of chuckles at best, since most of the jokes miss or require a second viewing to even know it's a joke.

[colinr0380]

The film would make a wonderful double feature with the far superior Kiss Me Deadly, particularly as both are such interesting dystopian takes on the wonderful city of Los Angeles, thirty years apart.

Or even a triple bill with Southland Tales, given that Richard Kelly's film also features its share of allusions to Kiss Me Deadly.

[gajahduduk]

I bought this Criterion Blu Ray, twice. Neither copy will play on my Samsung BD-P3600 blu-ray player. I've not been able to get ANY response from Criterion by email, twitter, or facebook. Samsung at least responded by twitter but in the end only had me fill out a trouble ticket form on the disc. How else can Criterion be contacted?

[Apollinaire]

Ok, so Olivia Barash’s character Leila is a member of an UFO cult, but somewhere during the film it turns out she’s with the secret government types? Can someone explain how this shift happened?

[Yaanu]

I bought this Criterion Blu Ray, twice. Neither copy will play on my Samsung BD-P3600 blu-ray player. I've not been able to get ANY response from Criterion by email, twitter, or facebook. Samsung at least responded by twitter but in the end only had me fill out a trouble ticket form on the disc. How else can Criterion be contacted?

Try emailing [email protected] and seeing what happens. CC [email protected] as well, just in case.

[Roger Ryan]

Ok, so Olivia Barash’s character Leila is a member of an UFO cult, but somewhere during the film it turns out she’s with the secret government types? Can someone explain how this shift happened?

It's been years since I've seen the film (much longer than the last time this thread was active!), but my impression of the character was that she was a government agent who infiltrated the UFO cult as a mole.

[Apollinaire]

Ok, so Olivia Barash’s character Leila is a member of an UFO cult, but somewhere during the film it turns out she’s with the secret government types? Can someone explain how this shift happened?

It's been years since I've seen the film (much longer than the last time this thread was active!), but my impression of the character was that she was a government agent who infiltrated the UFO cult as a mole.

Thanks! I watched the film again and I think it’s kind of ambiguous. Leila is without a doubt a part of the cult and she was kidnapped by the secret government types. On the other hand, she’s allowed to torture poor Otto together with the woman who’s a part of the CIA. So who knows?

[nitin]

When she is captured but the government agents, there is offscreen dialogue asking her if she wants to join the CIA (and her reply is “I have to ask my boyfriend”). After that I assumed she did join the CIA because as you say she stays with them for the rest of the movie.

[Apollinaire]

When she is captured but the government agents, there is offscreen dialogue asking her if she wants to join the CIA (and her reply is “I have to ask my boyfriend”). After that I assumed she did join the CIA because as you say she stays with them for the rest of the movie.

Yes! I watched the film again and that answers my question. Thanks!

[therewillbeblus]

I believe I've mentioned somewhere on this forum that this was my most-rented VHS from the video stores as a kid (with Brazil and Nolan’s Following being runner-ups), and it’s easily the childhood favorite that has most retained its impact all these years later. I can’t think offhand of a more tonally fluid comic representation of American disillusionment and paradoxical traps of existence.

Cox draws an absurdist proclamation of Reagan’s America where the nihilist punks are just as inauthentic as the corporate suits, or Estevez’s hippie parents brainwashed by the tube into giving away all their savings to a Christian goodwill organization for elevated status membership and artificial moral gratification. Capitalism is the DNA of the country, so revolution ironically must coincide with embracing an occupation as a platform through which one can actualize their identity, and find a rush within the confines of that setting; resigning hollow ideological stances from all diverse corners of America to hypocritically adapt in order to live free.

“A repo man’s life is always intense,” because their own gain is based on extracting material possessions, robbing individuals of their (literal) vehicle for social mobility. They are taking away the only thing that matters to people: objects, and covet a holy grail in the form of such an object, like a noirish sole existential motivator in the wake of a barren world. The irony is that this philosophical endpoint is completely aligned with the capitalist blood of the people they resent. Hell, even the punk robbers deviate towards “settling down” and having children! It’s that ingrained into the structure of 'being.' The film always feels on the verge of the social apocalypse, where aliens and nuclear weapons can exist without being the strangest details about the milieu’s functionality. When even the anarchist friends and eccentric girlfriend are manipulative and compromised, riding a nuclear car through the sky (with the only "authentic" character in the film!) sure feels like the optimal way to be truly liberated from our world.

[TheKieslowskiHaze]

I saw you also posted a big thing in a Thomas Pynchon thread, so I'll add that Repo Man always, to me, seemed indebted to Gravity's Rainbow. I mean this in a good way. The car is like the 00000 rocket, and Estevev a kind-of 80's punk Slothrop. I also like the idea of shadowy, conspiratorial organizations that are never fully explained (very Pynchonian).

[beamish14]

Taking another stab at producing a sequel

[shankle73]

Per Dawn of the Discs Criterion to release Repo Man on 4K UHD.

https://x.com/dawnofthediscs/status/180 ... 36482?s=19

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

What's the song used on the disc menu? I thought it was the Plugz. I've been listening to the soundtrack and it doesn't come up.

[billfitzgerald]

The music on the Criterion menu is a couple of excerpts from the movie's score which is credited to two members of The Plugz. Most of the score isn't used on the soundtrack album.