Brimstone & Treacle & Brimstone & Treacle

Here's a release I've been alternatively excited for and nonplussed by leading up to its release.  I'm referring specifically to Vinegar Syndrome's new UHD of the 1982 film Brimstone & Treacle, although I'll be covering both films here today.  Just for a start, this is a brand new 4k restoration and special edition of a film I never thought would get one.  I mean, an audio commentary by Sting?  Holy cow!  And I'd forgotten, until I went back to my old MGM DVD for this review, that the previous release was non-anamorphic, so it was especially in need of an upgrade.  On the other hand, it's a remake of a another, better film from just five years earlier, which would seem to render the whole endeavor utterly pointless?

The original Brimstone & Treacle is Dennis Potter's 1976 Play for Today that was banned and went unseen until 1987 (ironically making the remake the version people got to see first).  Michael Kitchen (Dracula AD, Mrs. Dalloway) plays a grifter who cons his way into the household of Denholm Elliot (Raiders Of the Lost Ark, Blade On the Feather), where he and his wife care for their invalid daughter.  Little do they suspect that the man they've invited in is the literal devil and their daughter being completely cognitively impaired doesn't deter his designs on her.  Yeah, the material's pretty edgy and you can see why the BBC would've taken issue with it.  But it's also some of Potter's sharpest writing and wonderfully acted.

Ultimately, I would say the remake is not pointless, but it should be primarily of interest to those who already have the original.  It's definitely interesting to see the what sporadic, sometimes seemingly arbitrary, changes they decided to make while otherwise sticking line for line, beat for beat to the original.  Some of those changes may've been landed upon casually during the filming, but others required some definite intent in the planning stages.  And all the little "whys?" can be a fascinating puzzle.  For the most part, they weaken the story being told.  One or two changes really undercut the story's inherent power.  Unfortunately, it would be a spoiler to lay into the biggest ones, but a couple smaller, but still weakening alterations include taking out the entire political subtext re: The National Front, and swapping it for some silly business about working for a religious greeting card company, or changing the nature of the father's tryst, which makes it more PC but far less dark and shameful, to the point where you'd wonder why anybody but his wife would be traumatized by it.

But then, since most of it is so similar - right down to the recasting of Elliot in the same role - anyone familiar enough with the first version can easily take all that as written and just enjoy what they get right the second time around, appreciating what the original would've looked like had it been shot on 35mm.  There's one additional line of dialogue I quite like.  But I'd hate to think of people approaching Brimstone & Treacle story from the 1982 end.  It would've been a shame even beforehand, but it's especially so since the ban on the original was lifted in 1987, and it was released on DVD by 2 Entertain in 2004.

2004 2 Entertain DVD.

This DVD sports an interlaced, fullscreen (1.29:1) transfer, which is to be expected, since this is a television broadcast presumably shot on videotape, though I imagine it could look at least a tiny bit better if restored for HD today, especially if the exteriors were shot on film, which was frequently the case with the BBC.  The AR should probably be tweaked to 1.32:1 or so, a modern scan might clean up a little noise and the higher resolution should at least clean up a little compression smudginess along the edges.  But basically, you can see why this has been left as a DVD-only title so far, and I wouldn't hold off purchasing it waiting for the unlikely upgrade.

The audio is the original mono track in Dolby Digital, and happily they have included optional English subtitles.

And more good news: it's not barebones!  It's basically got one extra: a vintage half-hour made-for-BBC program called Did You See? that aired when BBC lifted their ban and aired Brimstone in the 80s. At first, it looks a bit doofy: a panel discussion with three finger waggers about whether the show should be seen.  But they actually have a reasonably and surprisingly smart discussion on the matter, and far better still, the program also includes separate interviews with key players including Potter himself, the producer, a journalist from The Guardian and the head of BBC programming, and those - -especially Potter - are invaluable.

And that takes us to the remake, which was released on DVD in the UK by Prism in 1999 and here in the US by MGM in 2003.  Both are barebones and, as I mentioned at the top, non-anamorphic.  So this new special edition 4k restoration on a BD/ UHD combo-pack from Vinegar Syndrome is pretty essential, at least for anyone who considers this film to be essential at all (although it should be noted a 2009 anamorphic DVD was released in the UK in the interim). 

2003 MGM DVD top; 3035 VS BD mid; 2025 VS UHD bottom.

Despite being non-anamorphic, the MGM DVD has almost the same, proper aspect ratio: 1.63:1, compared to Vinegar Syndrome's 1.67:1, which just very tiny slivers of extra picture along the sides, and barely adjusted vertical framing.  The old DVD has some gentle color bleeding and edge enhancement, but for an old non-anamorphic DVD, it holds up to the VS release better than you'd expect.  Still, Vinegar Syndrome has a clearer image with corrected colors and proper film grain, especially on the 4k.  The new restoration makes the picture quality look especially impressive, which is important, since that's one of the few things the 1982 version has going for it.  It's basically a lesser-written piece with fancier photography, so thankfully that fanciness shines.

MGM gives us the original Dolby stereo track, with its fancy Police soundtrack, and optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.  VS bumps that up to DTS-HD and keeps the English subs, while dropping the foreign language options.

And they did not skimp on the extras either!  First and foremost is a partial audio commentary by Sting and director Richard Loncraine (Richard III, The Haunting of Julia).  It sounds like they recorded a traditional commentary, but they left a lot of dead air, so VS just trimmed it down to a tight, involved talk that runs about half as long.  It was absolutely the right decision; it's a don't miss track.  Then there's an additional on-camera interview with Loncraine (a bit redundant), a good one with the production designer, and a featurette with two experts who are okay, but repeat a lot of information from the Did You See? program nearly word for word, and generally just feel like a couple of guys with a passing interest in Potter who looked some stuff up online before recording.  In other words, it's a decent explainer for newcomers, but fans won't learn much.  Both this and the MGM disc also have the trailer.  But only VS's edition includes a 16-page booklet with notes by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.  It also has reversible cover art, and if you ordered the limited edition, an exclusive slipcover.

Conclusion: Vinegar Syndrome has given the remake a brilliant edition I'm not at all sure it warrants, but it makes me happy.  Again, how could I pass up that commentary track?  But for anybody reading this who's not already in the paint for this movie, I cannot stress enough how much more I recommend the 2 Entertain of the original Brimstone & Treacle instead.

Ian McKellen's Re-Revamped Richard III

Maybe it's not entirely proper to call the 1995 film of Richard III, "Ian McKellen's Richard III," since it was actually directed by Richard Loncraine. But besides starring as our titular Richard, McKellen does share a producer and writing credit (along with Loncraine) for this particular adaptation, so it's hard not to think of him as the driving force behind this film. But maybe that's just the influence of the story itself, William Shakespeare's famous play where the villain breaks the fourth wall and guides you by the hand through his fiendish plot. At any rate, it shows McKellen has surely succeeded in capturing the role in that we now often picture him when we think of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. And BFI's smashing new edition is only going to further cement that.

Update 5/7/12: To really do this comparison right, we've got to bring in the US blu-ray from Twilight Time, right? Right! DVDExotica needs more Twilight Time anyway.

I guess there are a couple things to know before going into this particular Richard III. First, thankfully, it keeps the original language. This isn't one of those updated Shakespeare films where they modernize the dialogue to "Hey, where's Hamlet." "He's over by that grave." "Super, thanks."  So why do McKellen and Loncraine get writing credits? Well, because it's not 100% of the complete original play being filmed here. It's abridged by, oh, almost half? Alterations have been made. So, if you're looking for a definitively faithful presentation of Shakespeare's Richard III, original language or not, you can do better. And finally, this 1995 version is part of a surprisingly long tradition of transposing Shakespeare's play into alternate timelines and settings. Here, we stay in London, but into a weird sort of alternate timeline where it's a Nazi government in the 1930s. It takes a bit of clever contrivance to make the famous "my kingdom for a horse" line now apply to a military jeep. But, given Shakespeare's cavalier attitude towards the real history of King Richard III in his work, it's hard to hold a little artistic license against the filmmakers here.

But if you're in the market for a good telling of the tale, you're going to love this film. It may not quite dethrone my personal favorite Richard III film (Olivier's, which by the way, is far from perfectly faithful itself), but it does deliver some strong elements that one does not; and it's certainly different enough that there's room in our collections for both. What has this film got? Production values! Beautiful photography, lavish costumes, a cavalcade of delicious murders, stunning locations and epic war scenes with tons of extras, explosions and people running around on fire. And most importantly, it's got great actors delivering brilliant speeches from perhaps Shakespeare's most entertaining story. McKellen was born to deliver Shakespeare (if you haven't, be sure to see his 1990 Othello and especially his 1979 Macbeth with Judi Dench), and he's far from alone. This film has a terrific supporting cast including Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Maggie Smith, Blackadder's own Tim McInnerny, Annette Bening and Nigel Hawthorne. If that's not enough to get you to want to watch this movie, what if I told you McKellen drives a tank through an occupied castle? This movie is everything for all people!

So Richard III debuted on DVD from MGM in 2000. It was a pretty no frills flipper disc, with a widescreen presentation on one side, and full-screen on the other. It came out only a few months later in the UK from Pathe, which was also pretty light on features. Finally, in 2015, Twilight Time released it on blu-ray for the first time. But now BFI has topped them with their new blu-ray/ DVD combo pack with a brand new 2k scan of the original 35mm negative, for the first time, a noteworthy collection of special features! Well, I've got both the old DVDs, and the new BFI set, so prepare to see Richard III in many different aspect ratios:

1) MGM wide 2) MGM full 3) Pathe 4) Twilight Time 5) BFI DVD 6) BFI BD

MGM came out first but I bought the Pathe DVD because it listed a featurette the MGM didn't have. It was only when it arrived that I found out Pathe was in the incorrect aspect ratio of about 1.74:1. So then I went back and picked up the MGM, which had the correct aspect ratio and did look a lot better. I'd actually forgotten, until revisiting it for this post, that the Pathe DVD isn't even anamorphic - yikes! MGM doesn't have that problem and actually looks pretty good, except for a warmer color scheme that's so extreme it could almost be called an orange overcast. It also gives us the added bonus of the fullscreen mode, which is of course an incorrectly framed pan & scan mess, but at least gives us a lot of upper and lower open matte picture for curiosity's sake.

But of course, the newer HD presentations usurp all the standard def DVDs. Interestingly, the framing's are a bit different.  I mean, even excluding the fullscreen version and the Pathe disc, MGM is 2.31 while Twilight Time and BFI are 2.40 and 2.39. respectively. And they are framed a smidgen differently... in the top set of shots, you'll notice MGM has a sliver more along the top, and BFI has a smidgen more along the bottom. But horizontally, they're pretty identical. So why the difference in ratio? The picture is actually slightly stretched on the BFI, or more accurately, squished (to use a technical term) on the MGM.  Meanwhile, Twilight Time has a tiny bit more on the left than BFI; that's the 2.39-2.40 difference.  Otherwise, the two blus' PQ might not seem wildly different, but BFI's new scan definitely makes their grain more distinct.  Just compare the skies in the second set of shots and it's very obvious.  Also, color-wise, BFI pushes a bit more to the red.

Both DVDs had 5.1 audio and English subtitles/ captioning. MGM also has a French 2.0 dub, plus French and Spanish subtitles. Twilight Time brings the 5.1 mix to DTS-HD and also includes English subtitles, but BFI offers the best audio options of all, offering the choice of the DTS-HD 5.1 mix or, for the first time ever, the original 2.0 stereo track, which they present in uncompressed LPCM.  And yes, it has English subs, too.

Pathe's promo featurette

Extras-wise, BFI is playing to win, but there is a bit worth mentioning across the prior releases. MGM basically just had the trailer (non-anamorphic, 1.68:1 on both sides of the disc), although it also came with a nice, fold-out insert with interesting notes. Twilight Time has the trailer, a nice little 6-page booklet by Julie Kirgo and, as per their usual m.o., the isolated score on a separate audio track.  And Pathe also had the trailer, no insert, but did have an exclusive 'making of' featurette. It's only five minutes long, and heavy on clips from the film, but it does let us hear from McKellen and co. at the time of filming, and includes a voice or two not heard from on BFI's extensive extras.

BFI has a ton of stuff with McKellen and Loncraine, but nobody else. I suspect some of this might've been made for British television; but anyway, you really can't say we don't get enough from these two. They do an audio commentary, a brief retrospective featurette, and a substantial live Q&A together. Then there's a 79 minute special of McKellen lecturing on Shakespeare. It kind of reminds me of his Acting Shakespeare DVD, which was interesting but a bit dry; however, this is definitely brand new. Still a bit dry, though. Finally, there's a new 2016 trailer, which advertises the reunion of McKellen and Loncraine as well as the movie. BFI's set also comes with a weighty 34-page booklet, which definitely surpasses MGM's old insert and even Twilight Time's booklet.

I highly recommend the film and in particular BFI's new blu. I confess to being a little bit disappointed that they didn't include the original making of featurette (and even the original trailer), but it's certainly nothing to hold out for or double-dip on. The extras could've been a little more well-rounded, i.e. interviewing any of the slew of other highly talented people involved in making this film, but they certainly plumbed the depths of its two key players. How many special editions seem to get everybody except the film's big star? Well, contrary to that, we have to be grateful for McKellen's thorough involvement here. He even wrote the booklet for gosh sake. So definitely pick this one up; but if you're like me, hang onto your grubby little Pathe disc as well.