A Pair of Warner Archives #1: The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist tells the story of a man (William Hurt) who writes books for travelers who hate to travel.  His son is killed, he breaks his leg falling down the basement stairs and his wife (Kathleen Turner) leaves him because he's not able to give her the kind of support she needs.  If that sounds super depressing, it is, but things quickly turn around when Hurt finds a pet sitter for his super cute corgi, Geena Davis (who won her Academy Award here), who turns out to be a bit of a low-key manic pixie love interest.  And it's the expert push and pull between these rather extreme Hollywood cutesy comic and darkly realist halves that turn TAT into a enveloping, endlessly rewatchable yin and yang.  Credit for this has to be equally shared by the original novelist Anne Tyler, and the delicate adaptation by director/ screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.  And that's only elevated tourist by the fantastic cast, which also includes Bill Pullman, Ed Begley Jr. and M.A.S.H.'s David Ogden Stiers, as well as one of John Williams' (Star Wars, Superman) most touching scores.

Warner Bros released TAC as a pretty nice, widescreen special edition DVD in 2004.  It came in an annoying snap case, but apart from that, it was perfectly fine to carry us through the whole SD era.  They released virtually the same disc in all the other regions, too.  When it went out of print, Warner Archives reissued it as a DVD-R in 2014.  But eff that noise.  By then, the world needed a proper blu-ray release with an updated HD transfer; and in 2017 they came through.

2004 WB DVD top; 2017 WA BD bottom.

So the first thing you're probably noticing is the color correction, which thankfully dabs away the red hue that goopily bled into the old DVD.  The blu's colors are warmer, much more attractive and authentic.  The next fix Warner Archives gave us is the aspect ratio, from 2.33:1 to 2.40:1.  Now, if you're looking at the edges of the screenshots above, you're probably thinking to yourself that the framing actually looks to be almost exactly the same.  That's because the DVD was horizontally squished, making everyone a little taller and skinnier, which the BD corrects.  Beyond that, there's the naturally crisper nature of the HD image, which sharpens the photography and clears away all the compression noise.  Grain is subtle and natural where it was just blotchy before.  It may not be the complete overhaul we've seen on some past releases - like, for example, this one - where the previous DVDs were deeply troubled, but it's a very pleasing all-around upgrade.

The original DVD featured the original stereo mix, as well as a French dub, with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.  The blu does away with the foreign language choices, but boosts the audio to DTS-HD and keeps the English subs.

Warner Archives don't specialize in coming up with lots of special features, but in this case that's okay, because WB already did that job in 2004.  We start out with a pleasant introduction to the film by Kasdan, which leads into a brief but rewarding 'making of' doc that mixes new interviews with vintage EPK clips.  And there's a surprisingly whopping amount of deleted scenes that run well over half an hour.  And most impressive of all is a partial audio commentary by Geena Davis.  A major film star is a rare get for a commentary track, and she's quite enthusiastic.  She only covers about 30-40 minutes of the film, but that's not a criticism at all.  After suffering through enough commentaries full of long pauses and sweaty moderators asking actors about their entire life story in a desperate bid to fill the entire movie's running time, I much prefer one that lets her say everything she has to say, and then send us all home without feeling like we've lost an hour of our lives in the Bermuda Triangle.  Anyway, the trailer's the only other extra, but it's already more than enough.  This is a very rewarding package, and a fuller one than we tend to find in the Archives.

The Accidental Tourist is a staple title none of our collections should be without.  And Warner Archives have given this particularly deserving catalog title the kind of quality edition we're glad to have on our shelves.  I wish I could say this about many of my other favorites, but at least I can about this one.

Criterion Catch-Up, Part 5: The Big Chill (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)

And we wrap up Criterion Catch-Up with Lawrence Kasdan's 80's staple The Big Chill. This is a film that seems to attract as much derision as praise, but I think that's a little misguided.  I mean, I know it's tempting to dismiss yuppie angst, and it's hard to imagine that, as good as the music may've been, baby boomers thought the gang breaking out into a cringy, impromptu dance for the famous kitchen scene was genuinely cool.  But it's still a pretty great film that was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, back when that still maybe meant something.

It's crisply written, threading genuinely witty comedy with a sincere, maybe even touching look at the mid-life crisis.  It's smarter and more self aware than it's given credit for.  I mean, just think about the satirical glint in Jeff Goldblum trying to pitch the film's story into a piece for People Magazine.  And speaking of Goldblum, holy crap, the cast is untouchable.  Goldblum, Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, William Hurt.  That line-up would make anything amazing.  And even the cast members you mightn't expect so much out of, like Tom Berenger or Meg Tilly, shine with this material.  Of course this movie isn't for people looking for gun battles and spaceships, but if you're in the market for high quality human interest and you write this film off, more fool you.

The Big Chill debuted on DVD in 1999 as a 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition from Columbia Tri-Star.  For such an old DVD, it held up pretty well, and it was never upgraded or reissued until it was blu-ray time.  That's when Criterion took over the title, and released it in 2014 as a 3-disc blu-ray/ DVD combo pack (the third disc is another DVD with the extras on it).  In 2015, they split the pack and released the DVD and blu as two separate packages, with the extras no longer isolated to a different disc from the feature.

1999 Columbia Tri-Star DVD top; 2014 Criterion DVD mid; 2014 Criterion blu bottom.

Both releases are slightly letterboxed to 1.85:1, though the 1999 DVD actually has a thin windowbox.  It's anamorphic; I guess it's just an old school concern about overscan.  It's also not interlaced, though I guess there is a bit of edge haloing.  But really, the old DVD still holds up fairly well, especially for its age.  Naturally, the HD blu-ray is a stronger, clearer image, with a fresh 4k scan of the original 35mm negatives (and no more halos).  But if you're only buying for PQ (i.e. not taking into account special features and what not), but still stuck in standard def, there's not a lot of reason to upgrade to the Criterion DVD from the Tri-Star.  In fact, there might even be a reason not to.  Once again, Criterion's colors are different than the old DVD.  Does that parking lot hug look a little green?  More than that, look at the fireplace in the top set of pics.  On the old DVD, it's a white fireplace with pink trim and surroundings.  On the Criterion, it's all pink.  I'm not bothered by a new scan having slightly different colors than an old DVD edition; if the old colors are off; I want them corrected.  I'm just anxious that these new colors are accurate.  But Criterion's booklet promises us that their whole process was supervised by the D.O.P. John Bailey, and approved by Kasdan; so I guess they have to be right... right?

Criterion gives us choices, audio-wise, with both a 5.1 mix in DTS-HD, and a mono track for the purists in LPCM 1.0.  Surprisingly, the 5.1 is also what the 1999 US DVD had (plus Spanish and French dubs).  I guess they figured with this film's strong use of music, they wanted to pump up the audio mix, and it does sound good.  Both versions offer optional English subtitles (the old DVD also throws in French and Spanish).

Extras-wise, the original DVD wasn't too shabby.  We got about ten minutes of deleted scenes, and a really good, hour-long retrospective documentary that talks to Kasdan, some crew and most of the big stars.  It also had the trailer, a trailer for Silverado (another Kasdan film) and a nice, six-page insert with an essay by Kasdan himself.  A pretty nice package.

Happily, Criterion carried over everything, except Kasdan's essay.  I"m surprised they didn't include that in their booklet; maybe they just didn't know.  But they've got the deleted scenes and the documentary (and the trailer), which is what really matters.  On top of that, they filmed a new, on-camera interview with Kasdan and more notably, a 45-minute reunion with Kasdan, his wife Meg Kasdan (who had a bit part in the film), Kline, Close, Place, Berenger, Williams, Tilly, co-writer Barbara Benedek and producers Michael Shamberg & Marcia Nasatir.  Some anecdotes do repeat between this and the documentary, but fans still won't want to miss it.  The only disappointment is that all these extras are in SD only, because they're stuck on a DVD, even if you bought the blu-ray version.  Oh, and Criterion also has a 22-page booklet, with notes by Harlan Jacobson and yes, that Lena Dunham.

Big Chill fans should definitely be happy with Criterion's blu.  More extras, a new 4k scan from the negatives, the original mono track restored; it's all great.  A little soundbite or something from Kevin Costner would've been fun, but you rarely see this many major stars participating in DVD features as it is.  It's a pretty great set.  And if Kasdan says the fireplace is pink, I guess it must be.