Will be curious to see the original cut of this flawed but atmospheric thriller -- as well as whether or not it has Maurice Jarre's score in it. One thing's for sure -- that abrupt ending will be explained one way or another!
SPECIAL FEATURES
NEW 2023 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative NEW Two Cuts Of The Film, Including A Never-Before-Seen Alternate Ending
NEW “Is It Dark Yet?” Looking Back At Jennifer 8 – A Retrospective With Brand-New Interviews With Writer/Director Bruce Robinson And Stars Andy Garcia And Lance Henriksen
NEW Deleted Alternate Ending
Original Theatrical Trailer
Eric W. wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 9:36 am
Solid and arguably underrated movie.
It got lost in the wave of post-Silence Of The Lambs serial killer movies in the early 90s, but it's gorgeously shot by Conrad L. Hall, well-acted and effectively scored by Christopher Young. Looking forward to the new cut, the changing of which caused writer/director Bruce Robinson to walk away from Hollywood for almost twenty years.
My review copy already came in. I want to sit down and watch this fresh this week (I came down with the flu and am still pretty crappy), but I did see the "extended cut" looks like it's a branching derivative that runs 5 minutes longer. It's not a workprint.
The transfer looks spectacular, the documentary is 42 minutes or thereabouts so it seems pretty meaty.
Well, so much for that. The extended cut's only difference is a 4 minute extended climax, which has John Williams' PRESUMED INNOCENT temp music attached (so obvious they used that score as a guide for the movie, but now we know for sure!). It's not really necessary and just offers an expected beat for the bad guy's non-demise.
Issues with the movie remain as they were. Great looking disc at least and the documentary is good, but it's probably a case where there wasn't any magical longer assembly of this movie out there that worked any better. A shame because there are sections of the film that are really compelling, and the cinematography is spectacular, but it just stops/starts and never works as a whole. Bruce Robinson seemed more interested in the characters than the thriller angle, and the movie comes off that way.
Robinson does take some shots at Maurice Jarre in his interview (without naming him), saying the studio pushed him onto the film, while noting he always wanted Christopher Young and was happy he scored the final film after test reels showed Jarre's score not working.
