BD 120 Medium Cool

Discuss releases by Eureka and Masters of Cinema and the films on them.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

BD 120 Medium Cool

#1 Post by swo17 » Tue May 26, 2015 10:58 am

Medium Cool

Image

A carefully crafted, open-to-everything mixture of live-wire reality and controlled narrative, Medium Cool is the debut fiction feature of Haskell Wexler, who had already established himself as one of Hollywood's premiere cinematographers in the post-studio-system-era on such films as Elia Kazan's America, America and Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In 1968, he hurled himself into the tear-gas of the cultural-political moment. The result was, alongside Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider, a seminal early work of what came to be known as "the New Hollywood".

John (the prolific Robert Forster, who would find latter-day fame in Jackie Brown, Mulholland Drive, and Breaking Bad) plays a television cameraman who has become disenchanted as a creative subservient to the mainstream. Eileen (Verna Bloom latterly of High Plains Drifter and After Hours) depicts a newly relocated war-widow swept up in the maelstrom of the conflicts of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago — the actual events of which serve as the spontaneous backdrop for Wexler's picture.

Documentary and narrative blur in the upheaval and chaos, and perhaps only Peter Watkins' Punishment Park stands analogous as such a powerful statement on the politics, media, and cinema of the late-'60s — and the present. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool for the first time in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD.

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION:

• Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray from the 4K digital film transfer approved by director Haskell Wexler
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Audio commentary with writer and director Haskell Wexler, editorial consultant Paul Golding, and actor Marianna Hill
"Look Out Haskell, It’s Real!", extended excerpts from Paul Cronin's documentary
• Excerpts from Sooner or Later, Harold Blankenship is interviewed almost 40 years after appearing in Medium Cool
Haskell and the Cameras, Wexler demonstrates the cameras used to make Medium Cool
• Original theatrical trailer
• 28-PAGE BOOKLET featuring a summary of the government-commissioned report on the Democratic National Convention riot of 1968 illustrated with archival imagery

User avatar
GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: Forthcoming: Medium Cool

#2 Post by GaryC » Thu May 28, 2015 11:01 am

swo17 wrote:Coming Aug 24
Sold. Hopefully the music rights issue can be sorted out, though I'm not holding my breath for that given that the substitution is on Criterion's Blu-ray.

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: Forthcoming: Medium Cool

#3 Post by MichaelB » Thu May 28, 2015 11:36 am

GaryC wrote:
swo17 wrote:Coming Aug 24
Sold. Hopefully the music rights issue can be sorted out, though I'm not holding my breath for that given that the substitution is on Criterion's Blu-ray.
If Criterion couldn't do it, I'd be very surprised indeed if the much less well-resourced Eureka can. My money's on exactly the same master.

User avatar
GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: Forthcoming: Medium Cool

#4 Post by GaryC » Thu May 28, 2015 11:46 am

MichaelB wrote:
GaryC wrote:
swo17 wrote:Coming Aug 24
Sold. Hopefully the music rights issue can be sorted out, though I'm not holding my breath for that given that the substitution is on Criterion's Blu-ray.
If Criterion couldn't do it, I'd be very surprised indeed if the much less well-resourced Eureka can. My money's on exactly the same master.
So is mine.

The track in question, Wild Man Fischer's "Merry-Go-Round", was cleared for the DVD release Derailroaded along with several other tracks from the same Fischer album - the film is a documentary about him after all. Obviously I'm not party to the legal issues here (which would involve the Frank Zappa estate as they own the rights to that album and so far have not released it on CD - original vinyl copies change hands for quite a bit of money these days) but the fact that the track was cleared there led me to hope that Criterion's Blu-ray would be the original theatrical cut, but sadly that wasn't to be the case.

The rights issue wouldn't apply to TV showings, but the last two on the BBC were of the music-substituted version, so it's becoming quite difficult to see the original version now. I saw it in a rather worn ex-UK distribution print at the BFI Southbank back in January.

User avatar
rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: BD 120 Medium Cool

#5 Post by rapta » Thu Aug 20, 2015 8:38 pm

Beaver review...looks like we loose the Wexler interview, 'Revisited' featurette, and Cronin commentary but instead gain 'Haskell and the Cameras' featurette and different booklet material. Transfer looks very similar, just a tad lighter (which actually makes the image seem a touch clearer...but these are just screen-grabs and the difference is pretty negligible).

User avatar
GaryC
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:56 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hampshire, UK

Re: BD 120 Medium Cool

#6 Post by GaryC » Fri Aug 21, 2015 2:09 am

Release date has gone back a week to 31 August.

User avatar
Rayon Vert
Green is the Rayest Color
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:52 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: BD 120 Medium Cool

#7 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Oct 11, 2015 1:40 pm

A vimeo channel that includes the full 6-hour version of Look Out Haskell, It's Real! and the full version of Sooner or Later: https://vimeo.com/user3954622/videos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
ryannichols7
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:26 pm

Re: BD 120 Medium Cool

#8 Post by ryannichols7 » Tue May 10, 2022 1:36 pm

deletion notice has been posted

User avatar
rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: BD 120 Medium Cool

#9 Post by rapta » Wed May 11, 2022 1:03 pm

The end of an era. I expect lots of the other 2015 Paramount titles will start to be deleted now, so a huge swathe of decent MoC titles. Doubt a lot of these will get reissued either (by Paramount or anyone else at this rate, unless Imprint license them).

Post Reply