British filmmaker Ken Loach has spent his long, rich career taking on social and political issues in films with compassionate portraits of everyday citizens struggling to get by in difficult situations and provocative criticisms of injustice and inequities. Hidden Agenda (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD), set in the violence of Northern Ireland, is one of the director’s more pointedly provocative films, a political drama about the killing of a civil liberties activist by British security forces.
Frances McDormand and Brad Dourif star as the American human rights workers investigating allegation of illegal detention and torture of Irish citizens and Brian Cox is the steadfast British police detective who arrives when the killing of an American creates an international uproar. As the title suggests, there is more behind this investigation than a single act of police brutality, but the script goes into unexpected territory: a political conspiracy with tentacles that go to the highest levels of power. The film is inspired by a real-life incident and plays out like a British answer to Costa-Gavras’ Z, also about a politically-sensitive investigation that the government tries to sabotage. It gets a little talky and polemic and the suggestions of the vast conspiracy distract from the real-life politics of violence and oppression in Belfast, but it’s nonetheless effective and compelling, and it was very controversial in Britain. Loach proves quite adept at crafting a tense political thriller while making his political points and providing a documentary-like attention to detail that grounds the incendiary political revelations in real world events and experiences. Blu-ray and DVD, no supplements.
The Satan Bug (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD), directed by John Sturges from a script adapted from an Alistair MacLean novel (writing under the name Ian Stuart), is a biological warfare thriller from 1965, before it had become a familiar part of spy and espionage cinema. The premise involves the theft of six vials of deadly virus cultures from a top secret, well-guarded military research lab in the middle of the Nevada desert. One of them, nicknamed the “Satan Bug,” could potentially destroy all life on earth. George Maharis (Route 66) is the retired military investigator called back to duty to find the stolen vials before they are unleashed on American soil and Richard Basehart is the top scientist at the facility. John Sturges had directed The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape before tackling this project but he fails to bring any energy to the slow, talky film. He shoots the film in CinemaScope, which only draws attention to the static direction as characters interview suspects, argue over tactics, or brief Washington over the phone. Maharis hasn’t the screen presence or charisma to anchor the lumbering production, Dana Andrews is given little to do but intone gravely as the General overseeing the mission, and Anne Francis is wasted as a love interest with little chemistry with Maharis. Simon Oakland and Edward Asner have small roles. The theme is handled far better in The Andromeda Strain, which is both more scientifically interesting and dramatically thrilling. Blu-ray and DVD, no supplements.
The 1976 drive-in action drama Vigilante Force (Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Blu-ray, DVD) follows in the footsteps of Walking Tall (1973), the classic of blue collar justice in a small town culture of corruption. This one stars Kris Kristofferson as the black sheep son who returns home to clean up the criminal element and ends up taking over the graft and the protection rackets and holding power by killing his adversaries, including the girlfriend (Victoria Principal) of his younger brother (Jan-Michael Vincent). It’s set in an oil boom town in Southern California but it could just as well be the Deep South or the rural Midwest with its culture of redneck bars and TV small town imagery, and it is assaulted by bikers and hookers and a maverick police force that arms itself with military grade weapons. George Armitage, who graduated from the Roger Corman stable, writes and directs this for Roger’s brother Gene Corman and he brings energy and explosive action to cover the cheap production. It’s a little sloppy and feels like a knock-off (the script was written around the title), but it has a fun cast, including Brad Dexter as the Mayor oblivious to the crooked turn taken by the cops, Bernadette Peters as a tone-deaf bar singer, and Andrew Stevens as Vincent’s buddy, and there are unbilled appearances by pre-frame Loni Anderson as a gambling house girl and Dick Miller as a piano player with a single line, which he turns into the film’s biggest laugh.
The Blu-ray and DVD is poorly mastered, I have to say. It was surely a cheap shoot but the digital transfer has trouble with night scenes and becomes a distracting grainstorm in some scenes. The reds shift into magenta in the final reels. I checked this on two different set-ups and the issues were the same, though it was less pronounced on my home system. Other home video reviews haven’t found the issues as pronounced as me so is it possible I received a bad pressing? Perhaps. It features a fun, easy-going commentary track with writer/director George Armitage moderated by filmmaker and B-movie buff Elijah Drenner, which looks at the origins of the production and is filled with stories on and off the set. Also note that it’s a reversible cover and both sides feature original artwork.
Black Caesar (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD), shot in the streets of New York by writer/director Larry Cohen, stars a swaggering, self-confident Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs, a shoeshine boy who becomes a Harlem crimelord and takes on the white mob. With a racist, high ranking cop (Art Lund) in his pocket he begins his expansion with a bloody takeover bid but finds himself betrayed from within and the target of both the cops and the mob. Cohen invests this fast paced tale (partially inspired by the 1930 gangster classic Little Caesar with a touch of Scarface) with colorful characters (notably a hustling religious leader played by D’Urville Martin ), high energy and scruffy style. It’s one of the most entertaining films to come from the 1970s explosion of low budget black cast genre pictures, more commonly known as “blaxploitation.” Unfortunately, the director commentary from the earlier DVD releases has not been included in this edition.
Prick Up Your Ears (Olive, Blu-ray, DVD), Stephen Frears’ 1987 follow-up to My Beautiful Laundrette, tells the story of rebellious British playwright Joe Orton, whose farcical satires were a huge influence on British theatre of the 1960s. Gary Oldman, fresh off a career-launching performance in Sid and Nancy, is Orton and Alfred Molina is his muse, longtime lover, and murderer Kenneth Halliwell in this portrait of his bright but brief career, directed from Alan Bennett’s adaptation of John Lahr’s biography. Vanessa Redgrave co-stars as Orton’s agent and friend. No supplements.
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