Revolution

[antnield]

Revolution



A tour-de-force of epic filmmaking set against the American War of Independence. Al Pacino heads a stellar British/American cast (Nastassja Kinski, Donald Sutherland, Joan Plowright and Annie Lennox) in this definitive version of Hugh Hudson's powerfully unsentimental film.

Single father Tom Dobb (played with dogged resilience by Al Pacino) struggles hopelessly against the violent course of history to protect his only son, meeting many obstacles and hardships along the way. Accompanied by John Corigliano's poignant score, Hudson's 1985 film is an uncompromising evocation of chaos, squalor and upheaval of war which he has re-cut and updated with a new voice over by Al Pacino.

Specs:

- Standard Definition and High Definition presentation of The Director's Cut (DVD & Blu-ray)
- Optional High Definition presentation of Original Theatrical Cut (Blu-ray only)
- Revisiting Revolution (2008, 23 mins): Al Pacino and Hugh Hudson in conversation (DVD only)
- Original theatrical trailer (DVD only)
- Revisiting Revolution (2012, 13 mins TBC): Hugh Hudson talks about the making of Revolution, accompanied by production stills by celebrated photographers David Bailey and Don McCullum
- Deleted scenes: Re-cutting Revolution (21 mins TBC): a look at the differences between the different versions of the film

[MichaelB]

Yes, the Hugh Hudson film from 1985 with Al Pacino.

The BBFC have just classifed both cuts of the film for BFI Video. No further info, although here says it will be Blu-ray.

Well, I've been asked to cover both cuts in my booklet essay, so it's a pretty safe bet that they'll both be included!

I don't know any of the other specs, though - but I understand Hugh Hudson is involved.

[Cronenfly]

Does Warner control this title in the UK as well-i.e. is there the possibility of more down the line from them than this and The Devils?

[ellipsis7]

Excellent... Now I can feel ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS coming to Flipside, but perhaps even now that would be too much hubris exposed for those involved in the production...

[ellipsis7]

Hudson's REVOLUTION dual format on 18 June...

[MichaelB]

No great surprise, given that it's licensed from Warner, but Revolution is definitely Region B.

[Calvin]

Is the movie really as bad as it looks considering its 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and four Razzie nominations?

[MichaelB]

Is the movie really as bad as it looks considering it's 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and four Razzie nominations?

Bear in mind that the vast majority of those reviews (if not all of them) will be of the original 1985 release version, which even Hugh Hudson admits was very seriously flawed - it was rushed through post-production at breakneck speed in a doomed attempt to qualify for the Oscars that year. And, much like Heaven's Gate five years earlier, mocking it became something of a national and indeed international sport, most cruelly in the form of the Comic Strip's The Strike a few years later, which is based around a prolonged piss-take of Pacino's performance.

But the Revolution Revisited cut is a different matter - I doubt anyone's going to hail the film as an undiscovered masterpiece (though it's worth noting that even the 1985 version had its champions - in fact, I believe the near-rave review in the Monthly Film Bulletin is being reproduced in the booklet), but the new Pacino voiceover makes it far clearer what's going on (an almost crippling problem with the original version), and Hudson's original concept of a worm's eye view of great historical events is much easier to follow. I was a little worried that the additions might end up explaining too much, but it's more sparing than I'd feared from the wodge of information conveyed at the start.

And if nothing else, the film has genuine ambition - Hudson's models were things like Peter Watkins' Culloden rather than big sweeping costume epics.

[colinr0380]

Typically I had bought Revolution Revisited on Region 1 DVD about six months before this announcement! The Revisiting Revolution featurette is repeated from that release. This looks far better though with the inclusion of the theatrical cut and being released Dual Format.

And, much like Heaven's Gate five years earlier, mocking it became something of a national and indeed international sport, most cruelly in the form of the Comic Strip's The Strike a few years later, which is based around a prolonged piss-take of Pacino's performance.

Ah, yes The Strike - the parody being that it was a big Hollywood film doing a hack-job on historical events by creating a torrid romantic saga set in 1980s Britain between two deeply unsexy people, Miner's Union leader Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher. Starring 'Pacino' as Scargill and 'Meryl Streep' as Thatcher!

Here's a clip!

[MichaelB]

Ah, yes The Strike - the parody being that it was a big Hollywood film doing a hack-job on historical events by creating a torrid romantic saga set in 1980s Britain between two deeply unsexy people, Miner's Union leader Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher. Starring 'Pacino' as Scargill and 'Meryl Streep' as Thatcher!

Meryl Streep played Mrs Scargill - Thatcher wasn't featured at all.

And it was particularly unfair on Revolution because the Pacino parody implied - and almost certainly reinforced the notion amongst people who hadn't seen it (and I'm sure far more people watched The Strike than ever saw Revolution) - that Hudson's film was a moronic big-budget Hollywoodisation of history, which it absolutely wasn't.

Quite the reverse, in fact: whether he succeeded is still very much open to debate, but Hudson was actually attempting to make something much closer to the film that Alexei Sayle's scriptwriter in The Strike wanted to make - a look at how great political events (the American Revolution, the miners' strike) impacted on ordinary men and women on the ground.

[colinr0380]

Ah, my mistake about 'Streep' playing Thatcher. I'd hate to live in a world where that happened!

[zedz]

Quite the reverse, in fact: whether he succeeded is still very much open to debate, but Hudson was actually attempting to make something much closer to the film that Alexei Sayle's scriptwriter in The Strike wanted to make - a look at how great political events (the American Revolution, the miners' strike) impacted on ordinary men and women on the ground.

This sounds like the perfect opportunity to yet again promote Bill Douglas' Comrades. If Michael's description above sounds like a film you want to see, run don't walk.

[AidanKing]

I would agree with MichaelB that Heaven's Gate is a good reference point for Revolution in that it's a film that was remarkably underrated at the time and clearly presents how the costs of social upheaval weigh most heavily on those without wealth and power, who will also not directly benefit from the changes being fought for. I wasn't aware that Culloden was an influence but that makes absolute sense, particularly considering the scene in Culloden where the Highlanders are individually introduced and are shown to have been forced into fighting for whichever side their laird is on. Pacino's star power is perhaps a problem in this reading but I found his performance to be superb and also very moving in his relationship to his son.

In fact, I would argue that all three films which caused the sinking of Goldcrest (this, The Mission and Absolute Beginners) are highly underrated examples of mainstream British film-making. They may all be flawed, but at least they have ambition, vision and something to say. Much better this overreaching than staid and predictable films such as The King's Speech and others of is ilk.

[MichaelB]

I wasn't aware that Culloden was an influence but that makes absolute sense, particularly considering the scene in Culloden where the Highlanders are individually introduced and are shown to have been forced into fighting for whichever side their laird is on. Pacino's star power is perhaps a problem in this reading but I found his performance to be superb and also very moving in his relationship to his son.

Part of the problem is that the film was originally conceived as a medium-budget effort without major stars - and if Hudson had ultimately gone down that route, the Watkins influence might have been rather clearer. But once Pacino got involved, it became a big-budget major-star vehicle by default, complete with associated expectations that generally weren't fulfilled.

[AidanKing]

Any idea how Pacino came to be involved: was it a consequence of needing a star to secure a larger budget? (I think he was put off film acting for a while because of the dismissive, and unfair in my opinion, reaction to his performance).

A medium budget film would probably have been more successful, but I think the scale of the piece (number of extras, superb use of landscape shots and so on) does help the film's view of the poor paying all the consequences, and initially reaping few of the benefits, of historical change.

I also hope that the voiceover narration doesn't clarify too much because the fact that the main protagonists don't fully understand what is going on, and are consequently disorientated as a result, also assists the political thrust of the film as far as I can see.

[j99]

Bear in mind that the vast majority of those reviews (if not all of them) will be of the original 1985 release version, which even Hugh Hudson admits was very seriously flawed - it was rushed through post-production at breakneck speed in a doomed attempt to qualify for the Oscars that year. And, much like Heaven's Gate five years earlier, mocking it became something of a national and indeed international sport, most cruelly in the form of the Comic Strip's The Strike a few years later, which is based around a prolonged piss-take of Pacino's performance.

But the Revolution Revisited cut is a different matter...

I remember the negative reviews at the time and didn't bother with it; Derek Jarman was particularly scathing towards Hudson and the whole Goldcrest operation. I understand why original theatre cuts can distort the film's good intentions; the theatre cut of Heaven's Gate is a travesty compared to the full version, which is a surprisingly good film, and it's a pity it hasn't had the same revisionist treatment Revolution is receiving. It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two versions. I'm in, but only on rental.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

Revolution: The Director’s Cut
A film by Hugh Hudson
Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, Nastassja Kinski, Richard O’Brien, Joan Plowright
 
"Profound, poetic and original" Philip French
 
Al Pacino heads a stellar cast in this powerful, unsentimental depiction of the American War of Independence. Since its original release in 1985, director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) and Al Pacino have returned to the film, making several changes including the addition of a voice-over for Pacino’s character.
 
Released on 18 June, this Dual Format Edition contains the definitive Director’s Cut of Revolution on DVD and Blu-ray, and includes new interviews with Hugh Hudson which explore the history of the film’s production and the differences between the different versions.
 
Epic in scale and execution, Revolution follows the fortunes of single father Tom Dobb (played with dogged resilience by Al Pacino) as he fights to protect Ned, his only son, against the violent course of history. The supporting cast includes Annie Lennox, Joan Plowright, Steven Berkoff, Dexter Fletcher and Sid Owen.
 
Superb performances, breathtaking set pieces and a poignant score by John Corigliano, played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, combine to produce an uncompromising evocation of the chaos and squalor of war.
 
As well as Revisiting Revolution in which Al Pacino and Hugh Hudson discuss their vision for Revolution: The Director’s Cut, two newly commissioned interviews feature Hudson talking about the making of the film, illustrated with production stills by renowned photographers David Bailey and Don McCullin, and about the various changes he made to the original film to create his new cut.
 
Click here to see the original theatrical trailer (90 secs).
 
Special features
* Presented in both Standard Definition and High Definition;
* Optional presentation of the original theatrical version of Revolution (Blu-ray only);
* Revisiting Revolution (2008, 23 mins, DVD only): Al Pacino and Hugh Hudson discuss their vision for Revolution: The Director’s Cut;
* Hugh Hudson on Revolution (2012, 12 mins): Hugh Hudson on the making of Revolution, illustrated with production stills by David Bailey and Don McCullin;
* Re-cutting Revolution: the Deleted Scenes (2012, 21 mins, DVD only): Hugh Hudson on the changes he made to create his 2009 cut;
* Original theatrical trailer (DVD only);
* Optional Dolby surround 5.1 audio;
* Extensive booklet with essays by Nick Redman, Philip French, John Corigliano, Michael Brooke; reviews and a director biography.
 
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1136 / Cert 15
UK and Norway / 1985 and 2009 / colour / 115 mins / English language, optional feature subtitles for the hard-of-hearing / Original aspect ratio 2.35:1
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / audio 5.1 DTS-HD / 2.0 24-bit PCM
Disc 2: DVD-9 / PAL / audio Dolby digital 2.0 320 kbps

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital.

[manicsounds]

DVDBeaver review although he doesn't go into the details of the DVD extras.

[Forrest Taft]

This is only single-layered and one of the earlier classic brought to hi-def disc

What does this mean?

[CSM126]

This is only single-layered and one of the earlier classic brought to hi-def disc

What does this mean?

Apparently no films made before 1985 have been released on blu ray in Beaverland.

[domino harvey]

Maybe he thought it was a documentary

[Perkins Cobb]

Maybe he thought it was made in 1776.

[McCrutchy]

Well according to his scan, the feature file is "single-layered" (i.e., not bigger than a BD-25) at 16,676,413,440 bytes, but then he goes on to say that the cuts are seamlessly branched, which doesn't make sense with a disc size of 44,915,421,136 bytes, considering that there is only an 11-minute difference in the cuts and there is only one 12-minute extra on the Blu-ray...

[MichaelB]

Well according to his scan, the feature file is "single-layered" (i.e., not bigger than a BD-25) at 16,676,413,440 bytes, but then he goes on to say that the cuts are seamlessly branched, which doesn't make sense with a disc size of 44,915,421,136 bytes, considering that there is only an 11-minute difference in the cuts and there is only one 12-minute extra on the Blu-ray...

It's more complicated than that, because quite a bit of the footage in the director's cut has a different soundtrack.