Blue Underground

[dwk]

Monkey Paw, something that isn't Jess Franco. Wish granted:
on 4/23, BU is unleashing Goodbye Uncle Tom 4-disc UHD set (& 4-disc Blu-ray set):

EVERY SCENE LOOKS YOU STRAIGHT IN THE EYE… AND SPITS!

The film considered too shocking for the world! Written, edited, produced and directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi of MONDO CANE fame, this epic recreation of the American slave trade atrocities was both condemned as depraved exploitation and acclaimed as an unprecedented cry of Black anguish and rage. The Detroit Chronicle hailed it as “a graphic, moving, nerve-paralyzing film.” Legendary film critic Pauline Kael called it “the most specific and rabid incitement of the race war.” It became one of the most reviled and misunderstood films of its time. Five decades cannot diminish GOODBYE UNCLE TOM’s impact or quiet its controversy as it has become even more relevant TODAY!

In 1971, distributors forced the filmmakers to completely re-cut the film and radically re-write its extreme narration, removing more than 13 minute of race-war politics and inserting alternate scenes – creating what would become an entirely different film – before it could be released. Now more than 50 years later, both versions of GOODBYE UNCLE TOM can finally be seen in brand-new restorations, scanned in 4K 16-bit from their original negatives, with Dolby Vision HDR & newly restored DTS-HD Master Audio, and packed with over 5 hours of Extras!

Extra Features / Sell Points

Disc 1 (4K UHD) Feature Film + Extras:
• English Version (123 Mins.)
• English Trailer

Disc 2 (4K UHD) Feature Film + Extras:
• Italian Version (136 Mins.)
• Italian Trailer

Disc 3 (Blu-ray) Extras:
• THE IMPORTANCE OF SHOCKING: GUALTIERO JACOPETTI – A feature-length documentary by Director Andrea Bettinetti (94 Mins.)
• THE GODFATHERS OF MONDO – A feature-length documentary by Director David Gregory (89 Mins.)
• Goodbye Cruel Mondo - Interviews with Writers/Directors Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi, and Composer Riz Ortolani (20 Mins.)
• Behind-the-Scenes 8mm Footage with Audio Commentary by Production Manager Giampaolo Lomi (50 Mins.)
• Mondo Mercenaries - Interview with Author & Academic Mark Goodall (27 Mins.)
• Abjection Under Authoritarianism - Interview with Professor Matthew J. Smith (20 Mins.)
• Extensive Still Galleries, including Giampaolo Lomi’s Behind-the-Scenes Photos

Disc 4 (CD):
• GOODBYE UNCLE TOM Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Riz Ortolani

BONUS! Collectible Booklet with new essay by Dan Madigan

Sell Points:

• STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION – ONE PRESSING ONLY!
• One of the most shocking and controversial films of all time, now on Blu-ray and UHD for the first time ever!
• WORLD PREMIERE! New 4K 16-Bit Restorations of both the English and Italian Versions from their original negatives
• UHDs feature 2160p Ultra HD Resolution and Dolby Vision HDR, with newly restored DTS-HD Master Audio
• Bonus Blu-ray Disc with over 5 hours of Extras, including 2 feature-length documentaries and NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN interviews with Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, and Riz Ortolani!
• Deluxe packaging includes embossed slipcover, reversible sleeve with alternate artwork, and collectible booklet

[Peacock]

That’s unbelievable, I had to check it wasn’t the first of April. I didn’t think we would even see a blu-ray from anyone as this is such an extreme and unpc film. Certainly down there amongst the most controversial of all time. Wow!

I’ll definitely be preordering! I wonder if they’ll do Mondo Cane someday too?!

[CSM126]

(pre-ordered)

[What A Disgrace]

I would have assumed they would do a box set. I've been wanting to see the films since their old DVD release, but never had the guts to actually buy and watch them.

[TechnicolorAcid]

I wonder if they’ll do Mondo Cane someday too?!

Do not raise my hopes up Birdman. No but seriously, the fact that practically every Mondo Cane cash in has been released in high definition while Mondo Cane is stuck in DVD purgatory is kind of shocking, but I do hope if it gets released, it’s in a 4K, if not because it’s a tad more well known and influential then Goodbye, Uncle Tom. Africa Addio however, that’s a different case.
In regards to this announcement though specifically, I am indeed surprised that this is getting a 4K but it is a film with a lot of striking visuals so I do understand why it’s getting one and I respect that Blue Underground is taking a chance with it considering it’s legacy.

[dwk]

I think BU's policy is anything they are releasing now will be in UHD. I am a little surprised that they are doing separate UHD and Blu-ray versions as their previous limited edition UHDs were dual format.

[TechnicolorAcid]

To be fair, they'd be releasing a 6-Disc set for Goodbye Uncle Tom (2 UHDs, 2 Blu-Rays with the 2 cuts, 1 Blu-Ray with the Extras, and 1 with the CD). Not that it's a bad thing, it'd just be a bit odd (I think that's the right word).

[pistolwink]

It became one of the most reviled and misunderstood films of its time.

Oh, I think the film was pretty well understood, if I take their implied meaning....

(I find the movie fascinating and may indeed buy this, but there's just no way to ret-con this project or its makers as anti-colonial or really anything but pretty cynical and vile. Seeing Africa Addio, an even more convulsive and horrifying film, clarified this for me. The Ortolani song is incongruously gorgeous, though.)

[Mr Sausage]

I think it's pretty clear the misunderstandings are all on the filmmakers' side...

[colinr0380]

It became one of the most reviled and misunderstood films of its time.

Oh, I think the film was pretty well understood, if I take their implied meaning....

(I find the movie fascinating and may indeed buy this, but there's just no way to ret-con this project or its makers as anti-colonial or really anything but pretty cynical and vile. Seeing Africa Addio, an even more convulsive and horrifying film, clarified this for me. The Ortolani song is incongruously gorgeous, though.)

That's a characteristic of Ortolani as a whole, given his Cannibal Holocaust score at the other end of the decade! Glad to see the inclusion of the CD soundtrack on there. And of course its theme tune got used for a scene in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive.

Goodbye Uncle Tom and Africa Addio are a fascinating matched pair. Africa Addio is more 'documentary' in the mondo vein, and trying to be dispassionate whilst failing completely to be unbiased in both touching (that bewildered newly-orphaned baby zebra being helicoptered off into the sunset has to be in the running for the most deliriously emotive scene in any movie!) and horrifying (mostly the narration, but often the complicity of the filmmakers in the footage, which itself may have influenced Cannibal Holocaust's critiques). And then Goodbye Uncle Tom takes this 'documentary style' into an entirely erzatz recreation of slavery times (filmed under the aegis of Papa Doc's Haitian regime) that goes into wild areas of exploring all the angles of a society of the time from the perspective of time-travelling filmmakers who immediately become complicit with the slavers. And then builds up to a modern day incitement to racial uprising coda that is astonishing to witness.

It's a difficult, and dangerous, pair of films, but I think that terrifying lack of 'moral centre' or heavy handed guidance from the filmmakers (except in terms of the Ortlolani score, which ironically ends up (intentionally?) making the romantic songs simultaneously brutally earnest and upsettingly sarcastic!) makes them really powerfully important as well in charting the outer limits of 'objective documentary style' and 'historical recreation'! For all of their controversial nature, I find them strangely less pernicious in their eye-poppingly wonky filmmaking than your average Activist documentary of modern times!

In other words, I'm dreading what the young generation of TikTok'ers are going to make of this one!

[tenia]

Looks like we're going to have BD releases in France in 2024 of Goodbye Uncle Tom, Africa Addio and Mondo Cane, so I guess it'll be a fun year of reviews.

[What A Disgrace]

Deathdream UHD on May 21.


• Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) and HD Blu-ray (1080p) Widescreen 1.85:1 feature presentations
• Audio: 1.0 DTS-HD MA (English)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Francais, Espanol
• Audio Commentary #1 with Co-Producer/Director Bob Clark
• Audio Commentary #2 with Writer/Make-Up Artist (Uncredited) Alan Ormsby
• NEW! Audio Commentary #3 with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
• A Recollection With Star Anya Liffey and Writer/Make-Up Artist Alan Ormsby
• Notes For A Homecoming – Interview with Composer Carl Zittrer
• Flying Down To Brooksville – Interview with Production Manager John ‘Bud’ Cardos
• Tom Savini: The Early Years
• Deathdreaming – Interview with Star Richard Backus
• NEW! The First Andy – Interview with Actor Gary Swanson
• Screen Test with Original Andy, Gary Swanson
• Alan Ormsby Student Film
• Alternate Opening Titles
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Galleries

[dwk]

I don't know why I thought that they had already released Deathdream on UHD.

[dwk]

BU has announced they will be releasing High Crime

Coming Soon to 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD for the first time ever in America! World Premiere of brand-new 2024 Dolby Vision HDR 4K restoration of the complete uncensored version from the Original Camera Negative!

(NOTE: The last reel of the OCN has mysteriously disappeared, so the last 10 minutes of the film were restored from the best available 35mm print. It still looks pretty good!)

[CSM126]

Received Goodbye Uncle Tom last night… this has to be the thiccest Blu-ray case I’ve ever seen. It reminds me of the old chunky boxes Criterion used for two or three-disc DVD sets way back when, only it opens to one huge chamber instead of two narrow ones.

[tenia]

What is this, some kind of 4-discs Scanavo ?
I seem to recall they're indeed quite thick, like 20+ mm.

[cdnchris]

Criterion used something like that, maybe wider, for the Widerberg set.

[beamish14]

Received Goodbye Uncle Tom last night… this has to be the thiccest Blu-ray case I’ve ever seen. It reminds me of the old chunky boxes Criterion used for two or three-disc DVD sets way back when, only it opens to one huge chamber instead of two narrow ones.

It looks like the oversized cases Fox used for The French Connection and MASH

[Adam X]

What is this, some kind of 4-discs Scanavo ?
I seem to recall they're indeed quite thick, like 20+ mm.

It’s exactly that.

[pistolwink]

I'm still absolutely amazed this got a release, much less a deluxe one. I just hope that, contra Blue Underground's dubious PR that the film was "misunderstood," some of the people who talk about the film on the discs aren't afraid to acknowledge it as a fascinating atrocity.

[CSM126]

I'm still absolutely amazed this got a release, much less a deluxe one. I just hope that, contra Blue Underground's dubious PR that the film was "misunderstood," some of the people who talk about the film on the discs aren't afraid to acknowledge it as a fascinating atrocity.

I watched one of the extras today (“Abjection Under Authoritarianism”) after viewing the Italian cut and it is indeed twenty minutes of a history professor expressing his absolute disgust and contempt for the film and the people who made it (including Papa Doc Duvalier). So credit where it’s due.

[dwk]

I’ll definitely be preordering! I wonder if they’ll do Mondo Cane someday too?!

Just finished watching a recent interview with Lustig and he said no plans for any of the other Mondo titles on Blu-ray/4K.