criterionforum.org

John Sturges (1911-1992)



"Film is reactive: what counts is what your players react to."

Filmography
Features
The Man Who Dared (1946)
Shadowed (1946)
Alias Mr. Twilight (1946)
For the Love of Rusty (1947)
Keeper of the Bees (1947)
The Sign of the Ram (1948)
Best Man Wins (1948)
The Walking Hills (1949)
The Magnificent Yankee (1950)
The Capture (1950)
Mystery Street (1950)
Right Cross (1950)
Kind Lady (1951)
The People Against O'Hara (1951)
It's a Big Country (1951)
The Girl in White (1952)
Jeopardy (1953)
Fast Company (1953)
Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Underwater! (1955)
The Scarlet Coat (1955)
Backlash (1956)
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
Saddle the Wind (1958) [uncredited]
The Law and Jake Wade (1958)
The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
Never So Few (1959)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
By Love Possessed (1961)
Sergeants 3 (1962)
A Girl Named Tamiko (1963)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Satan Bug (1965)
The Hallelujah Trail (1965)
Hour of the Gun (1967)
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
Marooned (1969)
Joe Kidd (1972)
Valdez, il mezzosangue AKA Chino AKA The Valdez Horses (1973)
McQ (1974)
The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Shorts
"Thunderbolt" (1947) [documentary short]

Books
Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges by Glenn Lovell (2008)

Web Resources
1992 Los Angeles Times obituary for Sturges
Cinephilia and Beyond's collection of resources on Bad Day at Black Rock
Cinephilia and Beyond's collection of resources on The Magnificent Seven

Forum Resources
187 The Valdez Horses
1027 The Great Escape

Perhaps it has been available online for some time in certain circles, but I just now finally found it due to a link posted by Peerpee on Twitter. Here is the infamous John Sturges Bad Day at Black Rock Laserdisc commentary. Paul Thomas Anderson claimed it was the track that taught him everything about filmmaking in his hyperbolic way of the time. I've listened to half thus far and it is quite good. How I wish more directors of that era lived to record such tracks.

That commentary is one of the few reasons I still have a laserdisc machine. I'm hoping Criterion will bring Bad Day at Black Rock back into the fold from MGM and that it won't be ghettoized to Twilight Time or worse, just passed over for Blu-ray altogether.

warren oates wrote:That commentary is one of the few reasons I still have a laserdisc machine. I'm hoping Criterion will bring Bad Day at Black Rock back into the fold from MGM and that it won't be ghettoized to Twilight Time or worse, just passed over for Blu-ray altogether.

Doesn't Warner Bros. own the film?

Yes.

Oops. Well, then, let's hope it doesn't end up in the Archive.

It's in the first Controversial Classics boxed set, on pressed normal DVD-- albeit with a Dana Polan commentary, not the Sturges one

Also, if you're trying to get Grand Wazoo's link to work, right click "Save As," as even though the URL doesn't say so, it's a direct link to an MP3

warren oates wrote:Also, if you're trying to get Grand Wazoo's link to work, right click "Save As," as even though the URL doesn't say so, it's a direct link to an MP3

Oh weird, it worked for me yesterday playing in the browser. This link will be more helpful. It has the full commentary at the top, plus links to some edited version in youtube for some reason.

domino harvey wrote:It's in the first Controversial Classics boxed set, on pressed normal DVD-- albeit with a Dana Polan commentary, not the Sturges one

Had the standard def disc since it first became available. I was talking more about what happens when it goes out of print or when Warner decides that their old HD master for this title is good enough and throws it up streaming on the Archive instead of producing a new master and perhaps a restoration for Blu-ray.

And what were the logistics of how Scorsese's Taxi Driver commentary finally ended up back where it belonged? Did Criterion just gift it back to Sony in exchange for their increasing access to titles like On the Waterfront? Now that they a relationship with Warners I suppose it's at least theoretically possible this could happen for Bad Day at Black Rock too.

Suppose this is as good a place to ask this as any. Does anybody know where I can find the Ebert commentary for Floating Weeds? I have the MOC BD and really don't want to double dip when Criterion is probably going to come out with a BD of their own at some point.

The old links are dead for the Bad Day at Black Rock commentary in the above posts so scroll down halfway in this Cinephilia & Beyond article to access it.