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"Days of Heaven" on Criterion

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 16, 2007 at 12:26 PM

Coast-to-coast alarm bells are ringing in DVD-aficionado circles in response to yesterday afternoon's posting about the forthcoming Criterion Collection DVD of Days of Heaven (due 10.23), which has been described by producer-technician Lee Kline as deliberately unsweetened and "very different" from the previous version due to the input of director Terrence Malick, who wanted it to look as natural as possible. Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding...!!

Malick didn't want the film to look" too postcard-like" so the watchword during the color correction session was "not too pretty," says Kline. The "gold and the warmth" were taken out, the transfer went "to a really different place" than previous versions, and what emerged was something "beautiful but boy, was it different!," he writes. "I told Terry people were really going to be pretty surprised by this new transfer, since it was such a radical departure from before," Kline relates, but Malick said it was "perfect."

Obviously aware of Days of Heaven's rep as one of the most hauntingly beautiful narrative films of the 20th Century (Nestor Almendros' naturalistic magic-hour photography is a hallmark) and probably anticipating fan reactions to terms like "really different" and "radical departure," Kline ends his piece with a dash of backtrack-sidestep exuberance.

"Back at Criterion a couple of weeks later, our New York crew went to work on the restoration. I came into the room where Betsy Heistand was cleaning up some damaged frames, and I said, 'So, what do you think?" She said, 'It's beautiful.' I had to see it again for myself to make sure we really did everything right, since I was still a bit nervous about how different it was from the old transfer (especially with DVD Beaver around!).

"I sat down in our QC room, turned off the lights, and watched the entire film on our great 24-inch Sony Pro-monitor. Betsy was right: it was beautiful. Days of Heaven finally looked the way it should, and I got goose bumps once again."

I saw Days of Heaven in 70mm at the Cinema 1in 1978, and no viewings since have ever come close in terms of basic visual grandeur. It seems inconceivable that Malick would change his mind about how the film should look over the last 29 years, so the Criterion DVD will most likely replicate the way the film looked under the best circumstances way back when, in a tip-top screening facility.

Still, one wonders what Kline really and truly means by this Malick-approved DVD being a "radical departure," and whether or not he isn't just protecting his political ass by writing a nice upbeat closing graph so no one will get upset, no ruffled feathers.

Comments

This sounds suspiciously like George Lucas saying "SW" finally looks the way it should have. I'm worried. However, I did hear through the grapevine that cinematographer John Bailey, who was Almendros' camera operator on "Days of Heaven," was involved in this restoration/timing. Bailey has impeccable taste & I have a hard time believing he'd sign off on something that stinks.

Posted by: erniesouchak at August 16, 2007 01:16 PM

My worry is that since the Malick of today makes movies that look and feel different from the ones he made in the 70s -- not appreciably *worse*, just different -- that the Malick of today will be second-guessing his younger self, and going for an effect that suits the older him. Man, I hope not. DAYS OF HEAVEN is a movie that holds a special place in both my heart and my wife's, since it's one of the movies that we first bonded over, and the movie we watched when she started going into early labor with our first child.

Posted by: Noel Murray at August 16, 2007 01:19 PM

Wells to Souchak: No one thinks it's going to "stink." The alarm that Kline admits to having felt all through the color-correcting and final tweaking was almost certainly due to Malick naturalizing the look by making sure the visual values were in no way heightened or warmed-up or made to look "too pretty." In other words, to go by Kline's words, it's going to look perfect by 1978 standards but perhaps not so much of a knockout by today's standards. (That is to say, by the standards that DVD buyers apply compared to other "pictorial knockout" movies.) The Criteron "Days of Heaven" may be perfectly fine, but something tells me it's going to look much better on high-def with a perfect plasma screen than on, say, my Sony flat-screen or other tube screens owned by Regular Joes. Malick is a visual artist of the first order but he's also a gentile Texas-Oklahoma elitist -- the Russell Chatham of film directors. He very much into capturing God's natural landscapes which means by definition nothing glossed or prettied up in any way, shape or form. And that shit means a kind of softer beauty, and that tends to look better when you're looking at a DVD with the absolute best equipment (top of the line plasma monitors, etc.) as opposed to a 32" flatscreen you bought two or three years ago, much less a set you've had since the mid or late '90s or whatever. See what I'm saying?

Posted by: gruver1 at August 16, 2007 01:30 PM

The movie, visually speaking, is one of the most amazing films ever made. There are certain ways to tweak the look, but I can't see how this version could be anything less than stunning.

Posted by: Larry at August 16, 2007 01:34 PM

"He said he was gonna buy me a fuh."

Posted by: GeorgePrager at August 16, 2007 01:54 PM

love the soundtrack.

Posted by: christian at August 16, 2007 01:54 PM

Criterion are saints, no question, but still, they've been known to make the wrong choice on good principles-- they put out on laserdisc the old, inaudible version of Welles' Othello rather than the 90s restoration (which admittedly had some authenticity issues) because Jonathan Rosenbaum convinced them it represented Welles' vision (more like, it represented what his bank account could afford in post). I hope this isn't one of those cases.

And where is Malick's AFI short Lanton Mills, which is said to be the model for Days of Heaven? That's totally dropped off the face of the earth. Maybe the great lost film of the 70s.

Posted by: Mgmax at August 16, 2007 02:04 PM

Okay, I got my own curiosity up and I found this article:

http://www.rohstoff-filmmagazin.org/contributions/Terence_Malick_Schwartzman.html

Tells a little more about the situation with Lanton Mills.

It also shows that the Village Voice writer 25 years ago who said there was any resemblance between Lanton Mills and Days of Heaven must have been smoking something.

Posted by: Mgmax at August 16, 2007 02:11 PM

Criterion is an archival company, not a production house. Their first commitment is to preservation, not the DVD market. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Posted by: NV at August 16, 2007 02:14 PM

Criterion is an archival company, not a production house. Their first commitment is to preservation, not the DVD market. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Um... say what? Criterion is a DVD label, not an archive or a restorer as such (although they obviously work with those).

Posted by: Mgmax at August 16, 2007 02:21 PM

What about Deadhead Miles?
http://imdb.com/title/tt0068452/

I saw part of it on Cinemax back in the day when they would show interesting movies at 9am on a Wednesday.

And while looking at Alan Arkin's credits I found this one:

The Monitors
http://imdb.com/title/tt0064684/

I haven't thought about this movie in a long time.

Movie Review
The Monitors (1969)
October 9, 1969
' The Monitors' Opens
HOWARD THOMPSON.
Published: October 9, 1969

CHICAGO, that stronghold of improvisational satire, is the source of "The Monitors," which landed rather uncertainly yesterday at the DeMille, the Riviera and a clutch of neighborhood showcases. As satires go—and this one clips along with considerable verve—the picture is perfectly respectable. Beautifully photographed in color, crisply paced by Jack Shea's direction and with a cast headed by Guy Stockwell and Susan Oliver, the picture also scatters cameo appearances—everybody, from the late Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen intoning Scriptural analogies to Xavier Cugat clutching his latest pet pooch.

The idea, utilizing a few futuristic settings and some urban facades and byways, is to depict a pacifistic, nonviolent United States, dominated from the White House down by a horde of neat, steely robot-like young men in bowlers, the Monitors.

Underground a faction led by a reactionary, bomb-minded general plots a Monitor overthrow. Caught between, in a maze of intrigue and a careening chase, are Mr. Stockwell, as a pilot, and Miss Oliver, as a film star.

But the movie is neither as funny nor as stinging as it was intended to be. We are asked to consider a Monitor-controlled existence as the just deserts of a blighted nation. To underscore this there is a head-on documentary montage depicting Establishment folly, ranging from a rocket-launching (apparently at Cape Kennedy) to the temple scene in Griffith's "Intolerance."

But it's not easy to bleed for humanity one minute and chuckle at the specimens frolicking through the picture the next. The endless wisecracks seem none too wise or witty, or, for that matter, new. Even a thickly accented monologue by Alan Arkin, as a sanitation worker, seems curiously antiseptic.

In the screenplay that Myron J. Gold has adapted from a Keith Laumer novel, the tone determinedly switches from outright slapstick to somber philosophy, as voiced by Shepperd Strudwick (in a good, dignified portrayal as the Monitor chief).

As the President, Ed Begley also acquits himself quietly, in contrast to the hard-breathing antics of Keenan Wynn, Larry Storch and Avery Schreiber. Miss Oliver and Sherry Jackson make personable eyefuls. The real surprise, after some thankless assignments, is the pivotal performance of Mr. Stockwell, who manages to make an All-American type look and sound intelligent.

Around this key role the commotion churns, often as obvious as a runaway fire brigade. At times, considering the endless, peek-a-boo cavalcade of guest comedians, it suggests that the Marx Brothers—and their sisters, cousins and aunts—had been turned loose on George Orwell's "1984." But essentially "The Monitors" is a one-joke warning that states its case and asks where we go from here.

THE MONITORS, screenplay by Myron J. Gold, from a novel by Keith Laumer; directed by Jack Shea; produced by Bernard Sahlins; presented by Bell & Howell Productions, in association with Commonwealth United Entertainment, Inc. At the DeMille Theater, Seventh Avenue at 47th Street; the Riviera Theater, Broadway and 96th Street, the Waverly Theater, Avenue of the Americas at Third Street, and other showcases. Running time: 91 minutes. (The Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code and Rating Administration classifies this film: "M—suggested for mature audiences, parental discretion advised.")
Harry . . . . . Guy Stockwell
Barbara . . . . . Susan Oliver
Max . . . . . Avery Schreiber
Mona . . . . . Sherry Jackson
Tersh . . . . . Shepperd Strudwick
The President . . . . . Ed Begley
The General . . . . . Keenan Wynn
The Colonel . . . . . Larry Storch

Posted by: GeorgePrager at August 16, 2007 02:53 PM

Yeah, I thought of Deadhead Miles when I read that Lanton Mills synopsis.

I saw The Monitors some years ago. Interesting to see Chicago (Mayor Daley I nearly banned filming here after Medium Cool) but kind of a weak comedy, needed a point....

Posted by: Mgmax at August 16, 2007 03:04 PM

Wells didn't you just run a piece chewing out Scorsese for not "fixing" TAXI DRIVER after all these years?

Posted by: BurmaShave at August 16, 2007 03:04 PM

I just got my PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK DVD and they've gone and replaced Al Pacino and Kitty Winn with Shia LeBouf and Kate Bosworth!

Posted by: GeorgePrager at August 16, 2007 03:45 PM

The big issue with the restored Othello is the re-recorded score, which is simply a hatchet job -- the worst part being there was no reason for it to happen, since the original score is still extant and a near-perfect recreation could've easily be done if they'd used it instead of a transcription. Adjusting the lip sync is okay in principle, but messing with shot lengths to do so seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face. And I never thought the original soundtrack was all that inaudible to begin with -- it doesn't sound worse than any number of unrestored films I've seen from that era, and with modern processing tech I'm sure it can be improved without re-looping anything. But we won't know until Beatrice finally shuffles off this mortal coil and it becomes possible to release or screen anything but the 1992 restoration without bringing down a hail of legal threats.

Posted by: Bob Violence at August 16, 2007 04:01 PM

THE MONITORS: "We can fathom your minds, but we'll never fathom your hearts." I remember a geology professor in college brought up DAYS OF HEAVEN one day in class by explaining that the scene with Gere and Shepard in the small lake was shot in Canada and not in Texas because the walls surrounding the water were formed by glacial retreat ... it's amazing what different people pull from a film ...

Posted by: berg at August 16, 2007 04:12 PM

Best DVD release news I've heard in a long time. Fantastic.

Can the long-awaited director's cut of "The New World" be far behind? Could it be that Criterion will make it possible? I think I'd dance down the middle of the street if such an announcement was made (and hopefully survive, in order to actually see the film).

Posted by: Overstreet at August 16, 2007 05:01 PM

2007 has turned out to the best year in DVD releases....ever.

Posted by: source188 at August 16, 2007 05:18 PM

woops

that's to BE, turned out to be the best year in DVD releases.

Posted by: source188 at August 16, 2007 05:32 PM

I'm taking this to mean that he isn't doing anything to clean it up digitally, as has been the case lately with some transfers mastered in hidef exuding a digital sort of sterility that even watching in the best cinema wouldn't have been like - grain and dirt and imprecision was part and parcel of celluloid delivery. That's what I'm hoping for, too. Too many of today's cinematographic looks have nothing to do with lighting and far more to do with DI's.

Posted by: otakuhouse at August 16, 2007 06:23 PM

I consider myself an early adopter of the DVD format, and I remember that one of the first DVDs I sought out was "Days of Heaven." The film is a masterpiece, but the DVD not so much. The Criterion edition must be an improvement.

Posted by: drbob at August 16, 2007 08:07 PM

What about the aspect ratio? Criterion announces as 1,78:1, which is how the 35mm production negative was framed, but the 70mm releases were always intended as 2,something:1 blow-up, meaning this had to be in the DoPs mind. I do not believe that they composed for two rations equally.

Posted by: bagelfilm at August 16, 2007 10:54 PM

The 70mm version of DOH was pillarboxed at 1.85:1 -- indeed, I believe it was the first 70mm blowup to be transferred in this fashion.

Posted by: Bob Violence at August 17, 2007 12:00 AM

Um... say what? Criterion is a DVD label, not an archive or a restorer as such (although they obviously work with those).>>

I encourage you to read about the history of Voyager and Criterion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Criterion_Collection

Their mission has always been above profit and marketing. Previously, Home Vision and now Image Entertainment are the "DVD Label", not Criterion.

Posted by: NV at August 17, 2007 09:35 AM

HVE and Image are (or were, in the case of HVE) Criterion's distributors. Criterion handles the actual DVD authoring and package design, and it's their name and logo that ends up all over the finished product -- you have to look pretty hard to find any mention of HVE or Image. I don't know what definition of "label" you're using, but if Criterion isn't a "DVD label" because they don't distribute their own titles, then Matador isn't an actual record label. And none of that changes the fact that Criterion is not a preservation outfit -- they're dependent on others for film elements (several releases, including Shanghai Express, have been canceled for want of suitable elements) and Criterion's in-house "preservation" work is limited to digital cleanups that exist only in the video realm.

And while I'll readily concede that nobody is buying yachts with Criterion profits (although things seem to be a lot stabler now than they were in the laserdisc era, when bankruptcy rumors were a regular occurrence), it seems naive to argue their mission transcends "marketing" -- in fact, I'd argue "The Criterion Collection" is the most brilliant branding exercise in the history of home video. They don't assign spine numbers to their releases because spine numbers magically make the movies better.

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"Days of Heaven" on Criterion

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