Casting Jack Warden as the President of the United States is but one of the many strokes of genius that Hal Ashby brought to his adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's Being There. The film celebrates its thirtieth birthday this year, but it hasn't aged a bit.
I read just moments ago that the film is being reissued on DVD and Blu-Ray, which is in theory exciting, though I was disappointed to learn that only the Blu-Ray release will contain newly discovered deleted scenes and an alternate ending. Is this how they're going to get us to convert? It reminds me of the early days of CDs, and the bonus tracks that weren't available on vinyl. Sigh....
The alt-text clue was a reference to friend and Filmmaker Magazine writer Nick Dawson, whose highly anticipated biography, Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel is just over a month away from publication. I can't wait to read it.
This week: From Being There to being there. And oh what a time it must have been. Name the film. Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!
I remember that Ocean's Thirteen was released with a commentary track exclusively on the Blu-Ray disc for no particular reason except to provide a bonus for those who had the latest technology. I didn't at the time so just got the DVD and to be honest, while I was upset at losing an extra feature for around the same cost, I have not been that concerned about upgrading for a commentary over the Ocean films, as much as I love commentaries.
Now if there had been an exclusive commentary on The Good German Blu-Ray, that might have been a different matter!
Posted by: colinr | 2009.01.31 at 01:00 PM