The mailman came today and he brought me this.
Then I almost came. Because I thought I was going to jizz in my pants... from the orgasmic rush that was watching "Easy Rider" for the first time on blu-ray. Good God! that was fucking awesome. But more on that later.
Anyway, two films in, my first impressions of the Criterion box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story is that it's great. The overall packaging is awesome for a set of seven films and a book providing detail and insight to all of the films.
While there will be a lot said, no doubt, from me on these movies ... especially for two of my favorite films "Easy Rider" and "The Last Picture Show" ... so far, I find BBS Productions to be quite interesting.
"Head" is a very trippy film and showed a lot of panache and very awesome effects on the film itself to create this movie. I never was a big fan of The Monkees. My impressions have always been that they were some type of joke band from a TV show that was popular. Well, they are... sort of. The Monkees are just one big parody of other bands of that era and "Head" allows them to poke fun at themselves while goofing off in the movie. It was actually quite nice to see a new side of the group and learn something new about them than my knowledge that they had some type of lame variety show and that everyone's mom was in love with Davy Jones (who isn't even the star of this show... nope, it's Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith who are absolutely fucking hilarious the entire movie). It was also nice to see a new side of Dolenz as my only knowledge of him prior to this film and knowing he was a Monkee was seeing him on Broadway in "Aida" (which sucked). The cameos in this movie were kind of fun to see too... like Teri Garr or Jack Nicholson (who wrote the movie) and Bob Rafelson (who directed it) showing up in one scene or, best of all, Frank Zappa walking a cow. And Ray Nitschke make an appearance for you Packers fans...
All I ever thought I knew about The Monkees was that they were kind of lame. But this movie changed my entire perception of that. And I get it. They are a joke. And they're meant to be a joke. And it's kind of funny...
As for "Easy Rider," I said, GOD DAMN! I've owned the standard DVD of this film for close to 10 years now. And this is by far the best I've EVER!!! seen this film. I'm sure that the Criterion remaster on standard DVD is awesome because Criterion does very good work when they give the treatment to new movies in the collection. They always do a wonderful job. But in blu-ray? WOWSERS!
The crystal clear picture on blu ray is amazing. I'm noticing things I never saw before because the standard def versions of the film were either so blurred that I was missing details in the picture or because I was watching on a tube TV. The colors are much more vibrant and there's more brightness to it so you can see what's going on, especially in scenes that are and were poorly lit, like the campfire scenes.
The big thing about BBS is that these were experimental films back in 1969. This is guerilla film-making at its finest where you give a guy or a small crew some filming equipment and what you get is a gritty, realistic movie that isn't sanitized like the shit the stuffed shirts in the established studios were producing. These were independent films getting picked up. And because of the lack of good lighting available for the camera, it's amazing that Criterion was able to pick out the detail on the original negatives for these scenes. But, aside from the technical bullshit, it's just awesome that they were able to brighten it and get the rich details in the dark, which were hard to decipher on the standard edition. That faces are easier to see in these scenes and no one is getting lost in the shadows.
The movie stays the same... that doesn't change. Which is too bad, because I was kind of praying that Peter Fonda would finally get his way and cut out the city kids trying to grow crops in the desert scene. But that didn't happen... :( jk.
The crystal clear picture on blu ray is amazing. I'm noticing things I never saw before because the standard def versions of the film were either so blurred that I was missing details in the picture or because I was watching on a tube TV. The colors are much more vibrant and there's more brightness to it so you can see what's going on, especially in scenes that are and were poorly lit, like the campfire scenes.
The big thing about BBS is that these were experimental films back in 1969. This is guerilla film-making at its finest where you give a guy or a small crew some filming equipment and what you get is a gritty, realistic movie that isn't sanitized like the shit the stuffed shirts in the established studios were producing. These were independent films getting picked up. And because of the lack of good lighting available for the camera, it's amazing that Criterion was able to pick out the detail on the original negatives for these scenes. But, aside from the technical bullshit, it's just awesome that they were able to brighten it and get the rich details in the dark, which were hard to decipher on the standard edition. That faces are easier to see in these scenes and no one is getting lost in the shadows.
The movie stays the same... that doesn't change. Which is too bad, because I was kind of praying that Peter Fonda would finally get his way and cut out the city kids trying to grow crops in the desert scene. But that didn't happen... :( jk.
That's OK, though. This film -- camera tricks, soundtrack, story, acting -- it's just plain awesome. And even my wife, who walked into the room midway through the film, was like this soundtrack is awesome. It features some of the best songs from 1969 and Dennis Hopper, Fonda, Jack Nicholson ... they don't disappoint.
i think its time to add some foreign films to your reviews... i have some that i think youd like so let me know when youre ready. trust me on this... just think how right i was about mason jennings :D
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