Kino Lorber Studio Classics

[domino harvey]

Sam Whiskey (1969) coming in November

[Ashirg]

Answering someone's questions about ONE TWO THREE and MISSISSIPPI BURNING, MisterLime says in another forum:

Not with Kino. Both have been acquired by 2 other labels and hopefully you will see their announcements soon.

I wonder if ONE TWO THREE is with Criterion and MISSISSIPPI BURNING with Twilight Time? Neither title fits with Shout Factory's line-up.

[cdnchris]

It will probably be the other way around and there will be a collective WTF when they're announced.

[domino harvey]

Mississippi Burning is about one two three million times better than One Two Three, not that it's a fair comparison

[jsteffe]

Mississippi Burning is about one two three million times better than One Two Three, not that it's a fair comparison

That's highly debatable, especially since the films are so very different. I think it's a matter of taste. The first time I watched Mississippi Burning I found it emotionally powerful, but I'm not even sure that it's Parker's best film. One Two Three is a sharp screwball comedy, and I *literally* fell out of my chair laughing the first time I saw it. (It was the "torture" scene that killed me.)

But regardless it's great that both films will get the Blu-ray treatment, because they both deserve it.

I'm still waiting for that AIP Beach Party box set, Kino, Shout Factory or whoever!

[The Narrator Returns]

Mississippi Burning is about one two three million times better than One Two Three, not that it's a fair comparison

I was about to say, Criterion is getting in the business of releasing things solely to piss domino off. I imagine One, Two, Three will contain a commentary by Stephen Daldry and an essay by Stanley Kramer.

[FrauBlucher]

Answering someone's questions about ONE TWO THREE and MISSISSIPPI BURNING, MisterLime says in another forum:

Not with Kino. Both have been acquired by 2 other labels and hopefully you will see their announcements soon.

I wonder if ONE TWO THREE is with Criterion and MISSISSIPPI BURNING with Twilight Time? Neither title fits with Shout Factory's line-up.

For what's it worth, Alan Parker does not have a phantom page.

[domino harvey]

It'd be an essay by Lena Dunham on Stanley Kramer that'd do it for me



It's interesting speculation, because I can honestly say either Twilight Time or Criterion releasing either film would make "sense" based on their past releasing, so who can say. And of course there could be some other label we're not factoring in, though I'm not sure who it would be?

[Gregory]

Maybe the FBI should release Mississippi Burning on Blu-ray, since it's essentially a promo film for them, depicting them as a crime-fighting investigative agency that protected people's rights, whereas in reality they were engaged in espionage against the civil rights movement and its leaders (virtually all socially engaged black Americans, really) in order to disrupt their activities by means of secret COINTELPRO projects (see the books of Kenneth O'Reilly for evidence, among others). But for those who don't mind whitewashing, it's perfectly ordinary '80s feel-good-about-the-imagined-past cinema.

[knives]

I actually could see Shout! releasing the Parker, though if that means dealing with the personalities that would come out with a Crit release of the Wilder I'd rather not.

Edit: Gregory, the film is pretty open about the FBI, with all the references to Hoover, being filled with racist scumbugs even giving Hackman a speech about the FBI's work against MLK. The film does not seem to be praising the institution, but rather the people at the bottom who did do good things. All portrayals of FBI officers don't need to have a negative angle you know.

[domino harvey]

Gene Hackman comes off good only when he plays by his own rules, separate from the bureau. The young FBI by-the-books character of Willem Dafoe only makes things worse throughout the picture. It's hard for me to see the film as pro-FBI when the central agents only get results when not acting like FBI agents

[Gregory]

Fair enough. Just curious: who were some of these FBI agents the Hackman character was based on, who were able to further the cause of fighting injustice against civil rights activists with FBI resources by working against the grain of the agency's higher-ups? All too often the malignancy of the agency is attributed to Hoover alone (usually portrayed as a loose cannon, overly vindictive, and a deviant to boot!), and there is a particular whitewash of the "the organization wasn't all bad" type.

[knives]

I don't think he's actually based on anyone. The initial murder is very loosely based on an actual incident, but all of the stuff concerning the FBI is fiction.

[Gregory]

Exactly.

[Cronenfly]

Well, whichever label is more likely to provide the film with a dismissive Jonathan Rosenbaum interview/commentary (he feels just about the same as Gregory about Parker's movie) is the one I would get behind.

[domino harvey]

Rosenbaum can be a great and insightful critic (and indeed he's one of my favorites) but his "review" of Mississippi Burning is so unfair and ridiculous that it boggles my mind that anyone, consciously or not, would be trying to align themselves with it. His essay is irresponsible at best and bears no real relation to the film itself.

[Red Screamer]

Rosenbaum can be a great and insightful critic (and indeed he's one of my favorites) but his "review" of Mississippi Burning is so unfair and ridiculous that it boggles my mind that anyone, consciously or not, would be trying to align themselves with it. His essay is irresponsible at best and bears no real relation to the film itself.

Rosenbaum has to be the most uneven critic I've ever read, his pieces are either brilliant and piercing or lazy and condescending. I still enjoy reading him, but man is he frustrating

[knives]

I wouldn't really call this one condescending though (definitely lazy though). He makes a lot of really good and interesting points and ties it well to his own life making for a compelling essay which just has the misfortune to completely ignore the text of the film it is about and what it is choosing to say given the conditions it was made in. The jabs against Parker are also pretty silly and that's as someone who isn't particularly fond of his films.

[Cronenfly]

Irresponsible or not, I would have very much enjoyed, say, a now strictly hypothetical Chicago critics' cage match commentary between Rosenbaum and Ebert (with the addressing of blind spots on both sides, one would hope). It seems, at the very least, like a movie which would benefit from some contrasting viewpoints and not the usual fawning of all too many supplements, scholarly or otherwise, if not the out-of-hand dismissal Rosenbaum would be apt to give it. The likely Kirgo/Redman/guest commentary on what will almost certainly be a Twilight Time disc might do some of this, but any further contextual supplements/outside perspectives seem beyond their current scope as a label.

[domino harvey]

White Lightning also coming in November. This label sure has the Burt Reynolds completists covered

[domino harvey]

This label sure has the Burt Reynolds completists covered

Truer words were never spake: Gator is now also coming in November

[knives]

Finally.

[dwk]

Tentative street date is 10/28

[domino harvey]

[Feego]

Interesting that they based the Topkapi cover on an old VHS edition rather than original poster artwork as they have for most of their pre-1970s releases.