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Repo Man



A quintessential cult film of the 1980s, Alex Cox’s singular sci-fi comedy stars the always captivating Harry Dean Stanton as a weathered repo man in desolate downtown Los Angeles, and Emilio Estevez as the nihilistic middle-class punk he takes under his wing. The job becomes more than either of them bargained for when they get involved in reclaiming a mysterious—and otherworldly—Chevy Malibu with a hefty reward attached to it. Featuring the ultimate early-eighties L.A. punk soundtrack, this grungily hilarious odyssey is a politically trenchant take on President Reagan’s domestic and foreign policy.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

- New high-definition digital restoration, approved by director Alex Cox, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary featuring Cox, executive producer Michael Nesmith, casting director Victoria Thomas, and actors Sy Richardson, Zander Schloss, and Del Zamora
- Interviews with Cox, Richardson, and Zamora; producers Peter McCarthy and Jonathan Wacks; actors Olivia Barash, Dick Rude, Miguel Sandoval, and Harry Dean Stanton; musicians Keith Morris and Iggy Pop; and Sam Cohen, the inventor of the neutron bomb
- Deleted scenes
- The complete “cleaned-up” television version of the film, prepared by Cox
- Trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Sam McPheeters; an illustrated production history by Cox, with his original comic and film proposal; and a 1987 interview with real-life repo man Mark Lewis

And of course, I just got the Masters of Cinema Blu-Ray. Joy.

The MoC has more extras and the PQ difference will be negligible, why moan?

I think the only extra that the MoC edition has and the Criterion doesn't is the introduction by Alex Cox. Plus, the booklets are different.

In a booklet war, no sane man bets against MoC!

I don't think Criterion includes 2006 featurette RePossessed, but a totally new one with more people.

I'm thinking the Criterion edition will have most of the same interview pieces as the MOC; they're just not breaking them up into different segments like the MOC announcement did. The only difference I see is the interviews with Keith Morris and Iggy Pop, which I assume is focusing on the soundtrack.

Sad that Criterion couldn't get Emilio to sit down with them; that would be the biggest get compared to the older editions. But they've had luck adding interviews after the fact in the past (James Taylor for "Two-Lane Blacktop"; Michael Nesmith again for the "Head" commentary) so maybe in a few weeks we'll see something.

The Criterion release seems to not have the isolated music and effects track.

The Olivia Barash interview is new/exclusive to the Criterion.

A definite buy!

Out of curiosity has anyone watched Repo Chick? Is that a sequel to this one? I was browsing through Cox's filmography and saw this from 2009

dwk wrote:The Criterion release seems to not have the isolated music and effects track.

So does the MoC have the complete soundtrack on it? in stereo? this will likely be the deciding factor for me, as it'll probably be same transfer.

It certainly mentions a M&E track in the specs - I'll dig my copy out when I have a moment.

But I can confirm that Rumble Fish, released at the same time from the same source, definitely had a separate M&E track.

stroszeck wrote:Out of curiosity has anyone watched Repo Chick? Is that a sequel to this one? I was browsing through Cox's filmography and saw this from 2009

It's not really a sequel in any direct sense and very different stylistically!

Pretty funny too, but definately an acquired taste. More so than any other film from Alex Cox, I would think.

RobertAltman wrote:Pretty funny too, but definately an acquired taste. More so than any other film from Alex Cox, I would think.

Caught the trailer. Looks pretty damn horrible...Surprising considering Cox made some incredible films in the 80s.

Repo Chick isn't that bad - I found it actually improved on a second viewing recently and as RobertAltman said is quite broadly funny in a 'Valley Girl goes into the repossession business' way. It also strikes me as Cox doing something in a similar cartoony-lunatic style to a film like Alex de la Iglesia's Accion Mutante (especially in the way that the lead character's dumb entourage get summarily dispatched!), which might not be so far fetched given that Cox has turned up in small cameo roles in a few of that director's films such as Perdita Durango and The Oxford Murders.

However it's really got nothing to do with Repo Man and you have to be OK with the whole film being acted in front of those strangely out-of-proportioned, badly matched perspective digital sets which make it look as if the actors have been fuzzy-felted on top of the background (something which I had already encountered from the use of the same in those straight-to-DVD Pulse sequels, so I'd already had my initial shock at the technique, and gotten over it, from seeing those films!)

Anyway, I would perhaps be quicker to recommend Searchers 2.0 of Cox's recent films, a film which like Repo Chick plays cheeky games with audience expectations (and itself bears some comparison to De la Iglesia's 800 Bullets)!

If Criterion are following this though, they really should try to get their hands on Highway Patrolman for release. That's perhaps Cox's best film (and I think Soderbergh stole a few things from it for Traffic!)

Microcinema would appear to have the US home video rights for most of his other films right now, including Highway Patrolman (released late last year).

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!

Same here. Moviedrome pretty much opened my eyes to what cinema could be so I figure I owe the guy a few bucks.

Blu-ray.com review

As with Two-Lane Blacktop, this looks superior to the MOC edition.

I especially like the menu screen, perhaps their finest since Belle de jour.

bainbridgezu wrote:As with Two-Lane Blacktop, this looks superior to the MOC edition.

I beg to differ. As far as I can see from Beaver's comparison, Criterion have once again fumbled with the colour scheme to such an extent that characters look like they're permanently blushing: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreview ... review.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also, grain seems to have been wiped out by compression, especially in screenshot #2. To me, Criterion only outdoes the MOC in the aspect ratio-department. Which doesn't look like a minor issue, that is. I see cropped heads on the MOC on both #2 and #7, unfortunately.

I find it odd, though, that Alex Cox would approve of these now permanently blushing Estevezes and Dean Stantons in his classic movie.

jegharfangetmigenmyg wrote:To me, Criterion only outdoes the MOC in the aspect ratio-department. Which doesn't look like a minor issue, that is. I see cropped heads on the MOC on both #2 and #7, unfortunately.

But surely MoC's 1.85:1 is truer to the original theatrical aspect ratio? It certainly wouldn't have been screened in 16:9 back in 1984!

And the phrase "cropped heads" suggests far more in the way of compositional vandalism than is actually the case - namely, a tiny sliver off the top of Emilio Estevez's head, of no dramatic or pictorial significance whatsoever. Same with #7 - and I suspect the differences matter even less when in motion.

MichaelB wrote:

jegharfangetmigenmyg wrote:To me, Criterion only outdoes the MOC in the aspect ratio-department. Which doesn't look like a minor issue, that is. I see cropped heads on the MOC on both #2 and #7, unfortunately.

But surely MoC's 1.85:1 is truer to the original theatrical aspect ratio? It certainly wouldn't have been screened in 16:9 back in 1984!

And the phrase "cropped heads" suggests far more in the way of compositional vandalism than is actually the case - namely, a tiny sliver off the top of Emilio Estevez's head, of no dramatic or pictorial significance whatsoever. Same with #7 - and I suspect the differences matter even less when in motion.

Point taken. I should have said "cropped hair", and in hindsight would probably classify the aspect issue as a minor problem. The colour "correction" done by Criterion on many of their later blu-rays concerns me quite a bit. I haven't seen a theatrical showing of Repo Man, though, so maybe someone could enlighten us as to whether or not everybody should look sunburned throughout this movie. My guess is that they shouldn't.

Everyone looks sunburned in the MoC transfer too--that's just L.A. The only caps where I can really notice a color difference are the second set with the orange vs. red car.

swo17 wrote:Everyone looks sunburned in the MoC transfer too--that's just L.A. The only caps where I can really notice a color difference are the second set with the orange vs. red car.

You joke, but the pollution makes it hard to get a natural tan.