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domino harvey wrote:Can you name any other commentary that so radically redefines the film under discussion? Like any interpretation, the question isn't whether you sign off on the thesis or not, but he absolutely makes a compelling case and backs up his claims with textual evidence.

Agreed. It is too easy to take the well-trodden critical path with this one. Stephen Prince dares to be different. Not only that, but he has the intellectual weight to back up his arguments. Prince's commentary illuminates both the subject matter and Peckinpah's craftsmanship, rather than simply describing the action on screen, or reeling off an endless stream of facts about the cast and crew, as so many such tracks do.

I've mentioned it on this board before, but I really cannot recommend Prince's book, Savage Cinema, highly enough. It is essential reading for budding Peckinpah scholars, or, for that matter, anyone with a serious interest in screen violence.

Ste wrote:Agreed. It is too easy to take the well-trodden critical path with this one. Stephen Prince dares to be different. Not only that, but he has the intellectual weight to back up his arguments. Prince's commentary illuminates both the subject matter and Peckinpah's craftsmanship, rather than simply describing the action on screen, or reeling off an endless stream of facts about the cast and crew, as so many such tracks do.

I like Prince's commentary, but it is not without its moments of silliness. The most obvious example for me, being the moment when he criticizes A Clockwork Orange for being more overtly artificial and distancing from the viewer, and then almost immediately goes on to fucking drool over the one single intentional moment of self-reflexivity in the whole movie (and not without name dropping Brecht) as an act of genius.

I returned my library copy, and got my sealed copy in the mail. Should I open it? I haven't looked at disc 2 at all. Should I just keep it sealed, and continue to request it from the library? I don't want to open it and it loses its value.

teddyleevin wrote:I returned my library copy, and got my sealed copy in the mail. Should I open it? I haven't looked at disc 2 at all. Should I just keep it sealed, and continue to request it from the library? I don't want to open it and it loses its value.

Depends on why you bought it.

If you plan on reselling, were getting kind of late in the SD game for you not to decide whether you plan to eventually resell it or not.

Straw Dogs doesn't sell for that much over MSRP anyways, might as well open it

I bought it to watch it again, and to watch the features, so I might as well. It cost me $40, so it isn't really a big deal. I guess I'm just fascinated by the fact that I have a sealed, OOP dvd. But, I'll open it. There really isn't a reason not to at this point.

domino harvey wrote:

teddyleevin wrote: I'll be checking out that commentary shortly.

Get ready to have your mind fucking blown

It was very good. Stephen Prince's Ran commentary taught me so much about how films are made, and since I watched it, I've never been the same. This commentary was perhaps a bit better. I wonder how many pages of notes he has. He never even takes a break. Do these guys rehearse this stuff? Maybe they just stop the tape once in a while. Heck, I don't know.

uh, commentaries can be edited by sound editors before being encoded on the DVD, do he can stop innumerable times, or not.

teddyleevin wrote:

domino harvey wrote:

teddyleevin wrote: I'll be checking out that commentary shortly.

Get ready to have your mind fucking blown

It was very good. Stephen Prince's Ran commentary taught me so much about how films are made, and since I watched it, I've never been the same. This commentary was perhaps a bit better. I wonder how many pages of notes he has. He never even takes a break. Do these guys rehearse this stuff? Maybe they just stop the tape once in a while. Heck, I don't know.

It's also likely he's lectured on the movie enough times to be comfortable giving an extended spoken analysis.

Adam wrote:uh, commentaries can be edited by sound editors before being encoded on the DVD, do he can stop innumerable times, or not.

All completely true, but I do know of one commentator (I'd best not name him) who was horrified to discover at the absolute last minute that the DVD producer had booked only enough studio time for a single take!

But when I officiated over a commentary recording myself, it took half a day to record an hour of commentary, and another half-day to edit out all the "ums" and "ahs", which I think is more typical.

Didn't the author who did the Trouble in Paradise commentary say it took a week to record?

I also believe Frank Darabont took 6 months on and off to record "The Green Mile"

I just watched this for the first time recently and was struck by how one could really view this film as a precursor to Fight Club. Both present an unflinching examination of where men stand within our society. It’s very interesting to me to think about how our civilization has evolved in relation to the role of men, and how close we may still be to some of our primal impulses.

LeeB.Sims wrote:I just watched this for the first time recently and was struck by how one could really view this film as a precursor to Fight Club. Both present an unflinching examination of where men stand within our society. It’s very interesting to me to think about how our civilization has evolved in relation to the role of men, and how close we may still be to some of our primal impulses.

John Boorman's bracing film version of James Dickey's, Deliverance is a powerful study on this theme, too. A government announcement of "no more food" would be enough for me to aim a shotgun at one of grandma's knees while I stole the car of a certain wheelchair-bound best friend! #-o

psufootball07 wrote:I do not however have Straw Dogs, damn you MGM for making this OOP.

Copies of Straw Dogs can be still be found at reasonable prices, usually below the MSRP for when the set was still in-print.

Yeah, it's not an expensive OOP Criterion at all. Snatch it up. Prince's commentary is one of the best.

kaujot wrote:Yeah, it's not an expensive OOP Criterion at all. Snatch it up. Prince's commentary is one of the best.

Agreed. Even if one disagrees with Prince's final analysis of Straw Dogs (and there's certainly room for discussion), I can't recall a more thought-provoking and insightful commentary.

Prince is really the central reason I hunted down the CC, and it was the first commentary I listened intently to. It's been some time since I've listened to it, but what was Prince's interpretation of the rape scene? Did he touch upon the misogynistic qualities of the scene or did he focus primarily on David's absence and it's implications in terms of his character?

(After buying the Peckinpah Warner set almost 5 years ago....) I finally watched "Ride The High Country" (which was really something, surprised at how good it was), and during the commentary by Redman, Seydor, Simmons, and Weddle, the guys who have done commentaries on multiple Peckinpah films talk about "the Straw Dogs commentary we did".

I'm guessing this was never released? Or was there a release somewhere that had it?

It was on the Freemantle UK disc along with a second commentary between Nick Redman and Peckinpah's PA Katy Haber. The 'Peckinpah scholars' commentary is excellent and nicely complements Stephen Prince's one on the Criterion, so I've kept both versions. The isolated score is on both releases, as is the black and white local news footage.

The interviews with Dan Melnick and Susan George on the Criterion disc are from the Freemantle disc but Criterion has added pertinent photo cutaways during the talk which do not feature in the Freemantle.

I think the on set Dustin Hoffman profile film and the Moving Pictures documentary on Peckinpah's career (both BBC licences), along with the booklet of course, are the unique aspects of the Criterion...plus how could I have forgotten the Freemantle does not have any English subtitles but the Criterion of course has removable ones for the hard of hearing! The Freemantle exclusives are Radio Spots and a booklet with liner notes by Kim Newman.

EDIT: Oh, and the Freemantle disc is Region 0

colinr0380 wrote:EDIT: Oh, and the Freemantle disc is Region 0

So is the Criterion

Yes, I just mention it in case the idea of a UK disc automatically creates the suggestion of 'region locked' to members.

I have a Region Free DVD player that also plays PAL, but my Blu-Ray player supports PAL but won't play region locked DVDs. So that is definitely helpful information, and puts me over the top in favor of buying the UK Straw Dogs disc. The idea of two new commentaries is exciting to say the least.

And while browsing at the UK editions, how could anyone pass this version up:



Also noticed that Fremantle UK lists a Bluray for Straw Dogs.
October 10th, 2010 as the release date.

10/10/10... I don't remember any significance with that date and the movie, but there it is.

(edited to fix the 1000 year error... haha!)

manicsounds wrote:Also noticed that Fremantle UK lists a Bluray for Straw Dogs.
October 10th, 1010 as the release date.

Well, they really blew that deadline!