Werner Herzog's Death Row Documentaries: Released and Unreleased (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

If you're a Werner Herzog fan in the United States, you're probably familiar with his 2012 documentary Into the Abyss: A Tale Of Death, A Tale Of Life. In it, he explores the life and pending expiration of Texas death row inmate Michael Perry. It was released on DVD and blu by IFC Films, but that's about where the story ends here in the States. In the UK, however, Herzog made four more interviews for Channel 4, collectively titled Death Row. This was released on DVD over there by Revolver Entertainment, but it never made it over here, which is a shame, because they're just as gripping. And even those four Death Rows turn out not to be the end of the story.

What makes Into the Abyss so powerful is that it's played out like a typical reality crime show played as a mystery, and even more because it's not didactic. Herzog does let you know up front that he doesn't agree with capital punishment and doesn't feign any false objectivity. We hear him say flat out to a couple convicts when he doesn't believe them or even that he doesn't like them. But after that, he lets the documentary simply document. We hear from people with both pro- and anti-death penalty feelings. And going even further, he doesn't really use the film to argue the issue one way or the other. He just interviews and studies the lives of the people in this case: the convicted, the victim's families, the investigative officers, lawyers, the Chaplin, and even the executioner himself.

We're not here to debate, we're here to look into these peoples' fascinating lives. Herzog's primary interest, in fact, seems to be how people on death row are about the only people in the world who know the time of their own death and exactly what it will be like, while it looms mysteriously over the rest of us, and what's that difference like? It's pretty much everything a documentary should be, with all of Herzog's long mastered skills in use, on perhaps the most intense subject he's ever tackled.

Exactly the same image as
the Into the Abyss covers.

Death Row focuses on a different death row inmate's story each time, but it's very similar in tone and style. The opening credits footage and narration start out the same, the music is the same, some of the footage was shot during the same prison visits. I'm guessing the original intention was not to make Michael Perry's life a special film above and beyond the others, but it was maybe just a little more involved case, or that's just what he could find funding for, and so Into the Abyss became a stand-alone film. Because it doesn't really stand apart from the other episodes, particularly, except for it being double the running time.

And I don't mean to give the impression that these are just hastily slapped together first person interviews recorded around a short period of time. Some of these were clearly filmed over long stretches of time, at many locations. Herzog visits crime scenes, drives the route from the prison to the death house that one of the prisoners recounts, goes to families' homes and facilities in all different states. And it never devolves into the trappings of your average crime show. It never gets hung up on, as Herzog explains each of the prisoners at the start of their interviews, to exonerate or find any "real killers." There doesn't seem to be much doubt in any of the cases presented that the subjects are guilty. We're never asked to guess or play along weighing evidence as it's doled out to us, just see these people - the inmates, victims and everyone around them -

And the focus isn't entirely on the whodunit and how. We learn a lot about how last meals work in one episode, and in another Herzog seems to spend most of his interview time with a convict bonding over their shared time in Ecuador, because he'd been hiking right around where and when Herzog had been filming Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo. One inmate recounts an episode of Twilight Zone about a man trapped in a time loop of perpetual execution and how it changed his outlook, and it features heavy use of black and white clips from the show. In another, he interviews an executioner who had to quit and give up his pension because he couldn't continue to put people to death. Actually, that was in Into the Abyss, but again, there's really no distinction between that and Death Row except Into the Abyss is a single longer episode. So it's kind of crazy to me that most people have only seen the one.

And like I said, the story doesn't end with this Death Row DVD. The following year, Herzog released four more of these for television, and these have never been released anywhere in the world. These episodes are just as compelling and filmed in just the same way, but focus on four more subjects. A particular interview that sticks with me is a cousin of a couple who are on death row for murdering their maybe, calmly and rationally explaining to Herzog how the footage we see in William Friedkin's The Exorcist is entirely real:

"It happened to them people for real. The guy, the preacher, that was actually trying to get the demon out of her, he actually really had a heart attack and died on the set. That real, the real priest of it all. So the things you see in that movie are things that really happened, 'cause they were filming it as it happened. So it was very bad. (So the film, in fact, as you see it, had a real demon in it?) She had a real demon in her. (It was not just staged?) No. There's no way you can turn your head all the way around and not die from that. I mean, her body bent in half."

...And that's not one of the people on death row, that's someone who's out on the street, living her day to day life as you read this.

These later four Death Rows have never been released in any country, and the more time that passes, the less likely it seems that Revolver is going to come out with a second disc. This is a real shame. The episodes are, however, floating around the internet (apparently ripped from a television broadcast with a woman giving completely redundant descriptions of everything you're about to see at every commercial break); but it's crazy to think that such great work by such a renowned and revered filmmaker is left unreleased.

IFC's blu-ray on top and their DVD bottom.

blu left; DVD right

So now, taking a look at IFC's two releases of Into the Abyss, the differences are a little surprising considering they're concurrent discs of a new and relatively recent release. First of all, the DVD looks a little too red. The framing is identical at 1.78:1 (with occasionally varying archival footage), which is probably exactly how it came out of the camera, with the standard def DVD having some unattractive compression thankfully absent from the blu-ray. But for a 2012 new release, I was disappointed to see the DVD also had a serious interlacing problem. This is pretty sub-par work for IFC, so if you're someone who sometimes gets blu-rays and sometimes still buys the DVDs, this is one to definitely buy the blu for.

Revolver's DVD.

You don't get a choice with Death Row, as their is no HD option. But I'm happy to report that Revolver's DVD does not have the interlacing issue the Into the Abyss DVD had. Considering these aired on UK television, and Into the Abyss is basically just an extended interview, I'm guessing all of it was shot PAL, and IFC just had trouble with the NTSC conversion. I'd be willing to be that if you bought Revolver's UK DVD of Abyss, it wouldn't have the interlacing either.

Extras-wise, unfortunately, there's really nothing available anywhere. Herzog has proven to be great at audio commentaries, and I'm sure we'd all love if follow-ups on these peoples' cases. Were any of their appeals successful, have any since been executed or are they still sitting on death row? Both versions of Into the Abyss include the trailer at least, but that and a couple bonus trailers (including Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams) is all we get. The Abyss blu at least has a lossless 5.1 audio mix with optional subtitles.

The Into the Abyss blu-ray is a fine presentation for a barebones disc, and you could say the same about the Death Row if you're okay with standard def, but it's essentially incomplete. Some label in some country really needs to package them all together in a proper blu-ray (clearly everything was shot in HD) special edition set. There is an Australian set that combines Abyss with the first four Death Rows, but it's also missing the second four, and it's DVD only with zero extras. As it is, you're better off getting the four available Death Rows separately so you can at least have Abyss in high def; but this is really a situation crying out for somebody like Shout or Arrow to come in and do it right.

Branagh's Shakespeare Far Superior In the UK: Love's Labour's Lost

In 2000, when Kenneth Branagh's latest (at the time) Shakespeare adaptation, the underrated Love's Labour's Lost, came out on DVD, the UK didn't just get it a couple months earlier, they also got it better. I've never seen anyone compare the US and UK releases before (except dvdcompare's look at the fundamental specs), and I've never really bothered to myself until now. But having just borrowed a copy of Miramax's US DVD and really delving into the differences between that and the Pathe edition, I'm surprised what a clear winner of them is. And it makes me extra happy that I was impatient and imported rather than waiting the extra months for a local disc.  (=

One of the appeals of all of Branagh's Shakespeares is that, unlike most Hollywood adaptations, he doesn't dumb down or modernize the language. He uses the the original writing and uses the immense talents of himself and his cast to make them still effective for contemporary audiences. Mind you, he's not the only filmmaker to have done this, there are some amazing Shakespeare films out there by the likes of Trevor Nunn, Laurence Olivier and others (another hint of future posts you can probably expect). But Branagh's gotta be one of the most consistently at the top of the list.

And that's not to say his films are dry or scholarly. Indeed, while the bard's words are all original, he's updated the setting to a 1930s musical, and great songs by the likes of Cole Porter and George Gershwin have been inserted into the play. They're big, glorious musical numbers on broad, theatrical sets with a fitting sense of unreality. that somehow manage to match the tone of Shakespeare's lesser known comedy perfectly. Branagh knows how to succeed on the entertainment end of the spectrum just as well as the academic. I mean, he's got the one and only Nathan Lane as Costard the fool. And admittedly, it can look from the outside that maybe Kenneth leaned a little too heavily towards the entertainment side this time around, casting American movie stars like Drew Barrymore and Matthew Lillard rather than some of the RSC heavyweights he's used in the past. But he understands just how to use their strengths, I'd clever casting is one of Branagh's more hidden talents; and frankly, he doesn't give Lillard much of the dramatic lifting.

Miramax's US DVD on top; Pathe's UK disc underneath.

This film is beautifully shot in vividly colorful 'scope. Although the colors are pretty faded and muted on the US disc. It's also less 'scope, coming in at 2.30:1 as opposed to the UK's 2.40:1. This results in considerable amount lost on the sides, and even a bit along the bottom of Miramax's DVD. You can hardly blame US audiences for failing to appreciate this film as keenly as European viewers when this is what they were given. The magically blue, softly hued lake is just grim and grey in the shot above.

Extras-wise, too, the UK comes out well ahead. They start out with some good features in common: five deleted scenes, a light 'making of' featurette (it's only about 8 minutes, but at least it's not made up of lots of clips from the movie we've just seen), and an amusing outtake reel. But then the US DVD misses out on the most important feature of them all: an audio commentary by Kenneth Branagh. And it's a good one, too; he's interested and has a lot to share. But for whatever reason, you don't get to hear it in the US. And just for a little extra salt, only Pathe's disc has the trailer.

So the UK is clearly the one to own, it wins by a large margin. Of course, looking at these screenshots, I can't help but notice how much they would benefit from a fresh HD scan. Even the superior shots are clearly compressed, soft and lacking detail. And considering how this was shot, I think seeing it treated on blu-ray could be a huge revelation. But that may well be a long way off, if it comes along at all, so you might want to snag that Pathe disc in the meantime. But hopefully it will get the release it deserves someday, and if that release is state-side, it had better remember to include the commentary.

THX-1138: The Other Movie Lucas Lucas'd (Laserdisc/ DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

Even people who don't care about movies know about how George Lucas "Lucas'd" his Star Wars trilogy by using CGI to go in and change the movies decades later, and robbing the world of the original films. "Han shot first," right? But it's a little bit less well known that he did the same thing to his other science fiction film, THX-1138. And just as with the Star Wars film, you can get the latest blu-ray, the 2-disc special edition DVD, the older DVD, import DVDs, it doesn't matter. The only way to see his 1971 sci-fi flick on disc and un-doctored is via the laserdisc.

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

Part of the reason Lucas's changes to THX-1138 are less widely known that Star Wars, is of course, because THX-1138 is a lesser known film to begin with. I mean, it's a pretty substantial, major studio (Warner Bros) science fiction film, but Star Wars is an epic cultural landmark. It's just a far more accessible, mainstream kind of film as well: a fantastic, interstellar romp full of laser gun battles and wacky aliens. THX-1138 is more classic science fiction, where the purpose is to make commentary on current sociopolitical situations. I suppose both films are dystopian, but Star Wars lets the characters out to fly around all kinds of colorful planets, where here we're trapped with the lead characters in a seemingly hopeless 1984-style, prison-like world.

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

Of course, the world's not hopeless and Robert Duvall is broken free of his drug-induced trappings of mindless labor and thoughtless consumerism, along with the lovely Maggie McOmie and the more devious Donald Pleasance, who steals the show every scene he's in. It's hard sci-fi, sure, but it's actually rather funny and very attractively designed. From SS-like robot police clad all in black marching around these wild, all white interiors comes these very friendly, helpful voices. They stop pursuing THX (minor spoiler, I guess; but I don't think this reveal will actually spoil any aspect of the movie for you) when the budget to arrest him runs out. There's some action, especially towards the end, with some impressive car and motorcycle racing, and there's some obvious catharsis. But it's mostly a pretty intellectual, which I think is really its strength, especially as it might come as a welcome to surprise to modern audiences who've developed lower expectations from Lucas over the years.

But that's not to say he doesn't live up to any of the more negative aspects of his reputation with this film... Particularly his revisionism. Like with Star Wars, he's used CGI to create a new director's cut and made the original film unavailable. Now, the changes he's made to THX-1138 are admittedly maybe a little less egregious. Okay, maybe he tweaked the colors, brushed away some seams, cleaned up a few spots. But there's no terrible looking "Jabba walking" scenes, right? Maybe the changes here aren't so dramatic. I don't know, is this a dramatic change?

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

Whoa! The opening shots of Duvall's assembly line sure have changed! Lucas has used CGI to really create some images that were not present in the original, that's for sure. Story-wise, he's barely changed anything. There's a bit of dialogue replacement going on in one or two points, and some shots swapped with other shots; but by and large, almost all of the changes stay in sync with the original film's audio. It's mostly about using computer graphics to improve the picture. And probably, many would argue that they do.

And for a lot of it, I'll even agree. It's a bit of a shame the original film isn't available in its original form. This was a very creative, inventive film, and some of that has been washed away with much more typical CGI. The film does have an early 70s, young filmmaker rough-around-the-edges vibe, and it's kind of a shame we can't see that film anymore, but smoothing those edges away could easily be described as flat-out improvement. Nobody wanted to see Hayden Christensen pasted into the finale of Return Of the Jedi, but how many of us really mind that the blocky matting around the model spaceships flying through space was cleaned up in the original?

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

In that sense, it's a mixed bag. When the creatures pictured above first jumped Duvall near the end of the film, the film has thrown a real surprise at us. The new CGI monkey versions they've been replaced with definitely don't have that surprising impact. For the most part, they look good (they're mostly obscured by low lighting and fast moving action), but they do suffer being the creations of early CGI. Some of their animation, especially their tails, don't match the natural movement of Duvall and the rest of the scene. They look CGI'd in. On the other hand, the originals are clearly midgets in funky fuzzy suits which would derive laughs from modern viewers. I still find the dropped impact the most significant loss, so I prefer the original; but I could certainly see people preferring the remade shots.

Also, notice that the white lines on the pavement have been erased for whatever reason.

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

Yeah, plenty of the changes on hand are just puzzlingly arbitrary. Why is a big 3 on the door preferable to the more complex and depressing code on the door in the original version? Is it some kind of in-joke? I don't know, but they spent the money to change it. And that door opens and closes throughout the shot, with characters walking behind it, so it was no simple, zero effort swap. Somebody really wanted that change. As a viewer, it's hard to argue a strong preference for either one. A lot of the changes could be filed under this category: No Big Deal.

This is probably also a good time to point out something else about these screenshots. Let's bring the conversation back to the more traditional picture quality comparisons. The laserdisc is clearly faded compared to the other two, and we're basically looking at a very expected order of quality you'd expect to see between a laserdisc, DVD and blu-ray. The blu and DVD have the same 2.34:1 transfer, apart from the blu naturally being in HD and so less compressed. But if you'll notice (and it's hard to catch, considering some laserdisc shots are so different in content), you'll notice the laserdisc has some extra picture on the lower and right-hand sides that the later releases crop away. So there's one extra little point in the laserdisc's favor.

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

Some of the changes are a big deal. If you look closely, you'll see the entire shot from the laserdisc above has been shrunken and inserted into the center of the of a big, animated foreground on the DVD and blu. That illustrates the difference between the two versions perfectly for me. I think, conceptually, it's an improvement. But the early CGI doesn't hold up and looks phony. Maybe if they could take another pass at those effects now in 2015 they could really hit it out of the park. On the other hand, though, it's still more exciting to just watch the original and see the film they were capable of at the time, without the high budget cheating added decades later. The only real shame isn't that the changes were made, but that the original was quietly taken away from us at the same time. Why not package them together, a 2-disc set? Instead, Lucas seems to prefer to hide the originals and pretend they never existed. The extensive extras on the DVD set and blu don't mention the film being a new version at all; they just act like the film was always like this.

1991 laserdisc on top; 2004 DVD middle; 2010 blu-ray bottom.

And those extras are pretty extensive. The blu and DVD set (there's also a single disc DVD missing most of the goodies) are loaded with goodies, while the laserdisc has nothing except for the opening Buck Rogers trailer, which is arguably meant to be an actual part of the film and not an extra at all. But the blu and DVD has an excellent commentary by Lucas and his co-writer Walter Murch, who are both very enthusiastic and enlightening. Then there's two substantial documentaries, one on the making of the film and one on the film company American Zoetrope in general. There's also a vintage promo featurette which focuses on the bemusing side of convincing the film's actresses to shave their heads for the part, and Lucas's original student film version of this movie, the short THX 1138 4EB. Plus trailers.

It's great stuff. Even if you're a total purist and are only interested in ever watching the original laserdisc version of the film - I'm not that extreme, but overall, it is the one I prefer - I still recommend getting the DVDs in addition, just for the comprehensive extras. Combined they make a sweet, if non-anamorphic special edition (meaning the original laserdisc; the DVDs are naturally anamorphic). And if you're not so bothered by the changes, the blu is a pretty easy choice.

Japanese Story: The Essential Australian Cut

Perhaps a better term for it would be the International cut, because the United States is pretty much the only country in the world that didn't get the original, full-length version of the Australian film Japanese Story released in our country. Instead, we got an abridged version on DVD, wherein director Sue Brooks happily shares and restates that this is not her preferred version of the film. Our DVD also has less extras... except it's got more deleted scenes. Because that's because it's got more footage cut out of the main feature!

 

If you'd written this one off as just another quirky independent slightly comedic romances (not that there's anything wrong with those), I definitely urge you to go back and find this film. Japanese Story isn't so much a story of romanticism so much as an exploration of life once all the illusion romance has been stripped away from our vision.  Toni Collette is amazing as a geologist who has to take a Japanese business man (Gotaro Tsunashima, who should get more work) on a tour of her company's mining facilities in the outback. Unfortunately for her, she's stuck indulging his whims while he seems to be abusing his authority, using the trip simply as a thinly veiled vacation. Yes, a culture-crossing affair blooms, but it's far from a saccharine tableau, and that's even before the story takes a very dark turn. To go any further would be stumble into some very hefty spoilers, but it film quietly becomes a very powerful and moving look at the existential choices we make with our lives, and questioning the issues people spend the most effort avoiding thinking about.

It's a great showcase of talent all around. Not just the two leads, who naturally command the spotlight, but the entire supporting cast is quite good. It's got some excellent, 'scope photography and a great score that slowly sneaks up on you right up until the very ending. Great writing, excellent direction; it's the whole package. I can't even really think of any nitpicks, and if you know me, that's quite a statement.

So, let's talk cuts. The US release is 99.37 minutes long, and my copy of the original Australian cut is 101.19 minutes long... and that's with PAL speed up. So really over six minutes have been cut, which is considerably more than just shaving a few frames off a particularly graphic scene here and there. In fact, there really aren't any particularly graphic scenes in this film... though I suppose one or two are, a bit. You know, it's an R-rated film; but this is no bloody horror film or anything. In fact, none of the cuts were made for censorship reasons. Someone - I'm guessing the US distributors, though the filmmakers don't specifically name them in their commentary on the matter - urged them to trim it down for pacing "Americans have shorter attention spans" reasons. It's tempting to find that insulting, but they're probably right. Either way, though, this is a very deliberate film. When a scene unveils slowly, it's because it's trying, and in this case very effectively, to put you into the reality of that moment with the character. Cutting these scenes down is working pretty specifically against the film, in the same way that cutting the gory shots out of a splatter movie or the nudity out of a porn film would. Ironically, you're cutting away exactly what the audience came to see in the name of satisfying your audience.

Admittedly, you could look at any one of those moments and say, "I don't know if it's that essential." And certainly, no one clipped out any major plot points that confuse the story. Watching the original opening as a separate, deleted scene, for example, could feel like excess well trimmed. And the majority of the film is still on screen and its emotion is still there - a lot of American viewers still probably cried. It's an effective film in either version, but it's even more effective in its uncut state. The "excess" doesn't feel excessive in context, it's all part of a journey that pulls you in deeper and gets you more invested in the final act. Plus, there's one particular cut I can't imagine anyone justifying, but for the sake of spoilers, I won't specify. If you're familiar with both versions, I'm sure you know which one I mean anyway.

So this is a 2003 film, meaning it was a new release when it hit DVD. So naturally there were plenty of DVD editions released around the world in 2004, but as it was an independent film, it's been pretty quiet since. I've got the US DVD from Columbia Tri-Star here for comparison's sake, but really you want a DVD from pretty much any other country. Naturally there's an R4 Australian disc, there's a French disc... Personally I went with the UK one from Tartan, but as long as you're avoiding the shorter, US cut, you're fine.

2004 UK DVD from Tartan on top; 2004 US DVD from Columbia Tri-Star bottom.

Transfer-wise, they look pretty identical, which makes sense as they're concurrent editions of a brand new release. Despite one being PAL and NTSC, there's no conversion issues or ghosting/ interlace junk. Both are anamorphic (thank god). The film's handled properly and very professionally. The Tartan disc naturally has the PAL speed-up, though, if that bothers you. But that's just standard region 2 stuff. Tartan also offers more audio options: English DTS 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, where as the US disc only has the English Dolby Digital 5.1. The subtitles for the Japanese lines are optional/removable in both cases.

Tartan excels again in the extras, though neither disc is barebones. Both discs have director's commentary, though I prefer the R2 of the two. There's naturally a lot of repetition between them - I'd only recommend getting both to a super completist - but she (and her producer, Sue Maslin) just come off as a little more informative and involved on that one, which probably not coincidentally, they recorded first. The US commentary also spends a lot of time explaining what was cut and why - which is good if you've only ever seen the US cut. But you're better off just watching the uncut version and sparing yourself that whole compromise all together. Then the US disc has 5 deleted scenes, all with optional commentary. 4 of those scenes are material cut from the international cut - so they're also on the UK disc, just in the film, not as extras. And the fifth deleted scene is also the sole deleted scene on the UK disc. Both versions have commentary on that scene, too; and even there the UK one is superior, as she talks about the content of the scene and why it was cut, whereas in the US one she just tells us it was cut and that it's "interesting" to see deleted footage.

So there's that stuff, the trailer (on both releases) and some bonus trailers. But then the Tartan DVD also has a 32+ minute featurette called Inside Japanese Story. It's actually a Q&A session filmed at the Australian Center for the Moving Image in December 2003 with Brooks, Maslin and screenwriter Alison Tilson, plus moderator Michael Agar. It starts off a bit dry, but once it finds its groove, it's a pretty interesting. It's professionally shot with multiple cameras, individual mics and they've edited in clips and music, etc, to keep it tighter than just the rough and raw footage a lot of Q&A extras are. It's definitely a nice addition and helps the package feel more rounded out. The Tartan disc also has a nice, fold-out insert with poster art and notes by Tim Robey, where the US disc just has a single sheet with chapter titles.

 

Looking at these screenshots, it's obvious the film would get some serious benefit out of an HD transfer. And it's hard to get too excited about the multiple audio options on the Tartan disc in the age of uncompressed tracks. Unfortunately, though, I doubt this film is on the radar of any blu-ray companies, so this is probably all we're going to get. And considering the Tartan doesn't just have better extras and audio options, but crucially, a superior cut of the film; I can't think of any reason not to add it to your collection, either if it's your first time getting the film or if you're replacing your US DVD, it's well worth it.