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rapta wrote:Strange that there are Blu-ray and DVD listings for Charles Burnett's The Glass Shield up on Amazon and HMV (with an August 22nd release date), yet there was no mention of it in the announcements. I wonder if they forgot, or they're just planning to push it into their Autumn lineup?

The Amazon listing for the Blu-ray has disappeared--is this DVD-only now? In any case, here's the cover:

I suspect The Glass Shield is now explicitly tying in with the BFI's autumn celebration of great black actors.

At first, I read " is not explicitly tying in with the BFI's autumn celebration of great black actors." and thought "Ice Cube isn't that bad" before realising what you wrote.

I edited my post after MichaelB's reply, which seems to suggest that The Glass Shield might only be part of a theatrical series. There's official DVD artwork now (and a listing on the BFI's website) so I doubt that's the case, though it's surprising that there may not be a Blu-ray release after all.

The news article and press releases for their Black Star season mentioned it as being DVD-only now, and the Amazon listing for the Blu-ray has now been deleted as of today. I think that's confirmation enough that it has been cancelled - I did ask them on Twitter twice, and they never responded (they're usually quite helpful).

I might email a contact I have at BFI and ask what happened with this one. I'd love to see some Charles Burnett on Blu-ray eventually, and this would've been an interesting one to start on. Perhaps the materials weren't suitable enough?

Too bad the director's cut can't be salvaged. Remember, this was a Miramax release.

For those that have seen it, how much of this is "a Charles Burnett film" vs. a '90s cop movie starring Ice Cube?

swo17 wrote:For those that have seen it, how much of this is "a Charles Burnett film" vs. a '90s cop movie starring Ice Cube?

heartthesilence is pretty spot on, it's a mixed bag...you can see Burnett's touch in its visual style, and performances, but yeah-it's very "90s." Petty and Cube are as good as always though.

It didn't feel like a star vehicle to me but it did feel like a movie being pulled in two directions: a paint-by-numbers genre picture and Burnett's penetrating and politically informed take on one.

Jonathan Rosenbaum's original review, where he mentions seeing three different cuts, including a very a different ending.

A weeklong exclusive engagement of a new digital restoration of To Sleep with Anger comes to the Film Society of Lincoln Center on September 9, and Burnett will appear in person to present a special screening of The Glass Shield.

swo17 wrote:For those that have seen it, how much of this is "a Charles Burnett film" vs. a '90s cop movie starring Ice Cube?

To answer my own question, this is actually more of a '90s court procedural starring Ice Cube (for five minutes). I kind of liked it though! It resembles a Burnett film less and less as it goes along, but there are lots of great actors here (I'm surprised Gould, Ironside, and Walsh don't get higher billing) and in spite of the too-busy plot, there's a refreshing simplicity and wide-eyed innocence behind it all that, in the end, is perhaps the main directorial mark that he was able to leave on it.

This is now a dual format release, due January 23, 2017 (per Amazon UK).

Well, maybe. I checked again and it is showing up as unavailable at present (at least it was when I first posted, now it shows as available again/has been officially confirmed). Guess we'll have to wait and see, since the DVD-only release remains listed as well.

No this definitely is now Dual Format and coming out on January 23rd. I noticed the Amazon listing too, and then checked the BFI Store where it's also listed, and it was confirmed to me today as well - apparently the BFI requested an HD master and the licensor found one they didn't know they had, and they're working with it now. Great news!

Full announcement tomorrow apparently.

Excellent. The long, strange journey of my original Amazon pre-order continues...

rapta wrote:No this definitely is now Dual Format and coming out on January 23rd. I noticed the Amazon listing too, and then checked the BFI Store where it's also listed, and it was confirmed to me today as well - apparently the BFI requested an HD master and the licensor found one they didn't know they had, and they're working with it now. Great news!

Full announcement tomorrow apparently.

...and that also explains the delay.

But I don't envisage too many complaints.

Full specs announced:

The Glass Shield
A film by Charles Burnett

Michael Boatman, Lori Petty, Ice Cube

The first black recruit in his squad, rookie cop JJ Johnson (Michael Boatman, The Good Wife) struggles to adapt to life on the force when confronted by the inherent prejudices and corruption of his precinct.

Directed by Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother’s Wedding), The Glass Shield is a thrilling drama that shines a light on the deep-rooted racial tensions of the American justice system and the toll of opposing institutionalised bigotry.

Following the BFI’s current BLACK STAR season, it will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in a Dual Format Edition on 23 January 2017.

Immediately positioned as an outsider, along with fellow novice cop Deborah (Lori Petty, Tank Girl, Orange is the New Black), JJ witnesses at first hand the brutality and implicit racism of his white colleagues. When an unlawful search results in the arrest of Teddy Woods (Ice Cube, Boyz N the Hood) on dubious murder charges, JJ risks his job and his life to reveal the truth.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• Newly filmed interview with Charles Burnett (2016, 26 mins)
• Alternative ending (1994, 2 mins)
• Illustrated booklet with full film credits and new writing by Bridget Minamore

Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1258 / Cert 12
USA / 1994 / colour / 110 mins / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.85:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 stereo (48kHz/16-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (320kbps)

I am curious to see this. I know someone who is personal friends with Charles Burnett and apparently he found it to be a troubling production. He liked the idea of working with stars and a large crew, something he apprently would prefer to do over his indie films, but found it troubling that another film about black America had to be a film about gang members and that apparently it was all he was offered for a while. I'm still curious as any Charles Burnett film is better than none and he must like it enough to give an interview on the disc.

I still hope the BFI can bring To Sleep With Anger back from out of print purgatory.

The Glass Beaver.

Too bad BFI couldn't license out the DVD commentary and featurettes...

I got this is in the mail and watched a little bit of last night. My memory of the film wasn't so sharp - I saw it once at the Burnett retrospective at MoMA in 2011, eight years ago this month - so I wasn't sure what to expect. I watched three random scenes, and it's amazing how much of a difference eight years make, because they certainly packed an emotional punch that I didn't recall experiencing in the theater. During that time, there was one incident not far from my apartment involving an African-American postal worker who was arrested by a NY police officer clearly abusing his power and looking to bully him to show off his authority. (This was witnessed by many people and recorded on at least one phone. Basically, the officer was a dick and parked his car in a way that blocked the postal worker's truck so he couldn't go anywhere. He was told he had to move it - and legally he had to since it was a postal vehicle making deliveries - but he decided to arrest the postal worker for non-existant offenses. People in the recorded video can be heard saying "he didn't do anything!") All of that came flooding back when I watched the scene of Ice Cube getting arrested. The attitude, the way the officer steered things toward an arrest, a lot of it had unfortunately become too familiar.

I did watch the alternate ending, and I can see why a crowd-pleaser like Weinstein changed it. It's harrowing, powerful and denies anyone real closure. Decades later, it seems like the honest way of ending the picture.

I skimmed a little bit of Burnett's interview. I'll have to watch the whole thing to see if he expresses those disappointments mentioned by Dandy, but he made the point that the racial tensions between police and community remain a big part of the world he grew up in, so it sounded to me like the film had a strong personal connection in that respect.

Be sure to catch the short films of Charles Burnett currently on Criterion Channel. While four of them are on Milestone’s “Killer of Sheep” set, the fifth — The Final Insult — is otherwise unavailable anywhere else, as far as I know. It’s not even listed in IMDB under Burnett’s filmography.

I watched To Sleep With Anger and this over the past few weeks, and while I liked To Sleep With Anger (though I find it dragging a bit in its last third), I felt most of The Glass Shield seemed too over-the-top. I don't doubt the behaviors shown in the movie are happening in real life, but on the screen, they felt like mono-dimensionnal caricatures. Most of the racist white cops are just lacking recurring maniacal laughs. It gets better over the course of the movie, but I came close to just stop it after about 30 minutes.

tenia wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:50 pm

I watched To Sleep With Anger and this over the past few weeks, and while I liked To Sleep With Anger (though I find it dragging a bit in its last third), I felt most of The Glass Shield seemed too over-the-top. I don't doubt the behaviors shown in the movie are happening in real life, but on the screen, they felt like mono-dimensionnal caricatures. Most of the racist white cops are just lacking recurring maniacal laughs. It gets better over the course of the movie, but I came close to just stop it after about 30 minutes.

Didn't you dismiss the use of racial tensions with the police in Get Out on similar grounds? I'm not trying to be flip, but I'm just wondering if this is something that just hasn't moved you that much when it's been depicted on screen.

Are you talking about when Howery goes to the police and get laughed at ? I genuinely don't remember, but I don't think I did, since I thought that scene was illustrating black-on-black issues and found it efficiently doing so.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 09, 2016 3:53 pm

know someone who is personal friends with Charles Burnett and apparently he found it to be a troubling production. He liked the idea of working with stars and a large crew, something he apprently would prefer to do over his indie films, but found it troubling that another film about black America had to be a film about gang members and that apparently it was all he was offered for a while.

Something must have gone awry through that grapevine because I just saw this again, and there's actually no mention (much less depiction) of gang activity whatsoever. But as mentioned before, Burnett did feel a strong, personal connection with the material. Surprisingly he dispels the notion that Weinstein forced him to change the film. Apparently, he also believed in changing the tone of the ending (and presumably adding those "what happened to everyone" title cards).