Ted Kotcheff‘s First Blood (’82) didn’t start the legend of Rambo — it is the legend of Rambo. The others are flotsam.

HE reply: You can praise anything you want to the heavens and you’re okay with me, bruh. But you know as well as I do that in the eyes of certain fellows you’ve compromised your credentials with this remark, at least to some extent. Just being straight with you.

…howl in the bones of his orange bloated face.

From N.Y. Times: “President Trump said on Saturday that a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left at least four people dead could have been prevented with the help of an armed guard, and that the nation’s gun laws had “little to do” with the shooting.

“If they had protection inside,” Mr. Trump said to reporters, “the results would have been far better. This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect.” Didn’t the gunman shoot three armed cops?

“It’s a terrible, terrible thing, what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world. And something has to be done.” Trump has taken ownership of all right-wing hate crimes in this country. Whether he realizes it or not, from here on he’s the father of them all. Every last one of them.

He also forgot to use his favorite rightwing code phrase: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.”

The basic gist of last night’s “To Hell With Halloween” riff by Real Time‘s Bill Maher was that Americans seriously hate p.c. fanatics. All ages, all regions, all ethnicities despise finger-wagging Twitter banshees with a passion.

Maher was drawing upon a 10.10.18 Atlantic article by Harvard University’s Yascha Mounk, called “Americans Strongly Dislike PC Culture.” The articles says the only group that’s okay with p.c. culture are well-educated lefty progressives.

Excerpt from Atlantic piece: “One obvious question is what people mean by ‘political correctness.’ In the extended interviews and focus groups, participants made clear that they were concerned about their day-to-day ability to express themselves.

More precisely “they worry that a lack of familiarity with a topic, or an unthinking word choice, could lead to serious social sanctions for them.”

Last night Home Theatre Forum’s Ronald Epstein revealed that Twilight Time will release a 4K Bluray of John Huston‘s Beat The Devil sometime in January.

This is Grover Crisp‘s two-year-old restored version, of course, which was first shown at a Reel Thing Technical Symposium in August 2016. The restoration runs 94 minutes compared to the 89-minute version that’s been around forever.

The newbie played at Manhattan’s Film Forum in February 2017, and then a couple of months later at the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival. Why have we waited two and a half years for an announcement about the Bluray version, and why is Twilight Time releasing it and not Sony? Because Sony doesn’t appear to give a damn about restored classic films. At the very least they’re indifferent and drag-assy. Crisp did a beautiful job of restoring From Here To Eternity in 2009, and Sony didn’t put a Bluray version out until 2013.

The forthcoming Twilight Time Bluray is great news, I’m sure, for the 1250 to 1300 classic film fanatics worldwide who are sure to buy a copy.

To be perfectly honest I’ve never loved Oswald Morris‘ lensing of this 1953 film — it’s too sun-filled, too bleachy. It should have been shot in color with the Amalfi Coast settings and all.

The following is from a DVD Talk report on the 8.16 Reel Thing Beat The Devil screening, written by Gary Teetzwl:

“Grover Crisp said they had put off the restoration for years, trying to locate better-quality materials, especially the original neg. Finally deciding to work with what they had, they began evaluating their elements and discovered that what they thought was a dupe negative contained about 60% of the original neg. They also borrowed a fine grain from Romulus in England, hoping that they might be able to use it for some sections where they did not have the original neg. It turned out to be in excellent condition — and was an alternate, uncensored version of the film!

“All the public domain versions of Beat the Devil that have been circulating have been of a shorter, re-cut/censored version [i.e., 89 minutes]. Interesting point: Grover insists the film is NOT in the public domain.

The release date of WHE’s upcoming, highly controversial 4K Bluray of 2001: A Space Odyssey was recently bumped back to 11.20. A colleague reports, however, that Amazon and other retailers “are apparently getting limited stock in early and have already begun shipping, and so some people got it in the mail [yesterday].”

Here’s the big news: “My copy arrives on Monday, but I have readers who have it in hand already and are saying it’s not the Chris Nolan version” that played in theatres last summer — i.e., no piss-yellow or teal tinting.

Frame capture from 2007 Bluray of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Same image copied from WHE trailer for forthcoming 4K Bluray, which contains the same colors and specificity seen in the Chris Nolan version now in theatres.

This is excellent news if true. But if the disc has indeed been shorn of Nolan’s influence I’ve no choice but to presume one of two things.

One, that the WHE publicists and marketers who told the world last June that the 4K version had been “built on the work done for the new 70mm prints” (i.e., Nolan’s yellow and teal-tinted nostalgia version that premiered in Cannes) and then double-confirmed this by releasing a 4K disc trailer that contained the dreaded yellowish-teal tinting…I have to presume that these people didn’t understand what was happening and thereby passed along erroneous information.

Or two, that WHE honcho Ned Price considered widespread adverse reactions to Nolan’s urine-and-teal version and got cold feet and decided to produce a 4K Bluray that — shocker! — would present Stanley Kubrick‘s classic as it actually looked when it opened in 1968.

If the second scenario reflects what actually happened (i.e., that WHE marketers were in fact told by management that the 4K would in fact contain the values of the Nolan version, only to be made to look like absolute fools when a cleaner, truer version is released to the public), then Hollywood Elsewhere has to take at least some credit for changing Price’s mind.

Because I hammered and hammered on this story for months on end, bemoaning the urine-ization of a great film and wondering why WHE would willingly vandalize 2001 just to fortify a sweetheart relationship between Price and Nolan.

My source is going to get his 2001 4K disc on Monday, and has promised to get back to me. I’m naturally hoping to be able to report that the de-urineizing and untealing of 2011 has in fact happened, and that everyone can take to the streets and shout with glee that Nolan’s 4K Bluray version is indeed dead and that the whole urine-and-teal nightmare is over. Talk about a happy ending!

The dicks at AT&T are shutting down Filmstruck because it isn’t making enough money. Here’s the HE piece I’ve written about it, and here’s a change.org petition against ATT’s decision. If nothing is done Filmstruck will vaporize on 11.29.18. If you believe in fairies…

One of my fondest childhood memories (cliche!) is lying in bed at night and listening to not-so-distant freight and passenger trains clattering along, and especially to that whauugghh sound, that honky, drawn-out groan…one of the great all-time reminders that life pushes on and that endeavor and industry never sleep, which is generally comforting.

There’s a train track a few hundred feet from the condo where I’m staying in Wilton, Connecticut, and every night I hear that sound.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

An unoriginal observation, sharing it anyway: Harry Davenport (1866 – 1949) was perhaps the greatest old-guy character actor in Hollywood history. It was Bette Davis‘ view that Davenport was “without a doubt the greatest character actor of all time.”

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

Hollywood Elsewhere and Blackfilm.com’s Wilson Morales did a chat earlier today. I tried to keep our discussion to 30 minutes, but it went 42. Largely because Wilson’s so easy to talk to. Whatever the topic, we always seem to fall into the old yappity-yap and the time just flies.

Here’s the mp3.

Wilson is a fascinating guy — split between his natural ability to step back and offer complex analysis of how this or that film may perform commercially or within the award-season bubble, and a streak of constant compulsive honesty.

I wish I could say that we stepped outside the box and explored unusual topics today, but I’m afraid we stuck to the usual-usual — new films (like Steven Caple, Jr.‘s Creed II, which pops on 11.21), Best Picture contenders, Mahershala Ali, the likeliest Best Actor and Best Actress nominees, etc.

Luca Guadagnino‘s Suspiria (Amazon, 10.26) has brought distress and left me glum and conflicted. I’m torn by my admiration and affection for a great filmmaker and a wonderful human being and my…well, my troubled responses to this strange detour film. It’s put me in a bad, self-doubting place, and as wimpy as this sounds I think my reactions to Suspiria are probably best left alone.

Am I chickening out? Yes, I am — sorry. But this is what happens when you know a guy who’s made a striking, complex film that’s put you in a weird place.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

AT&T, owner of WarnerMedia, Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks, is shutting down Filmstruck because it isn’t making enough money. I only just signed up for the service in mid-August, buying a full year’s subscription, and now it’s toast? Filmstruck will disappear on 11.29.18.

A Variety story, quoting a source familiar with AT&T’s strategy, is reporting that AT&T “is looking to eliminate peripheral projects that aren’t major producers of revenue.” Fucking weasels. Soulless corporate dicks. How about serving that portion of the public that really likes having pay services like Filmstruck and the Criterion Channel?

So how do I get my money back? Filmstruck’s farewell message says that “all current FilmStruck subscribers will receive an email with details about your account and the refund process as applicable. Please see the options below for more information or email the customer service team at help@filmstruck.com.”