169 The Strange One

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MichaelB
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169 The Strange One

#1 Post by MichaelB » Thu Feb 06, 2020 5:04 am

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THE STRANGE ONE
(Jack Garfein, 1957)
Release date: 20 April 2020
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World Blu-ray premiere)


Adapted from Calder Willingham’s novel, End as a Man, this uncompromising exposé of the practice of hazing in a military college features a number of actors from New York’s famed Actors Studio – including Ben Gazzara, Pat Hingle, Clifton James, and George Peppard – each at the start of their lengthy careers in film.


INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition presentation
• Two presentations of the film: The Strange One, with the original US title sequence, and End as a Man with the rarely seen UK titles
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with critic Nick Pinkerton (2020)
Finding Direction (2020): Jack Garfein recalls his directorial debut and his work with the Actors Studio
Ben Gazzara Remembers ‘The Strange One’ (2009): archival interview with the acclaimed actor
• Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography
• Original theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Brad Stevens, Ben Gazzara on The Strange One, an archival interview with Jack Garfein, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies
• Extras subject to change

#PHILTD169
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5060697920352

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domino harvey
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Re: 169 The Strange One

#2 Post by domino harvey » Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:41 am

Did Tom of Finland draw the poster? I have this in my Unwatched pile but I’m hesitant to even bother after the interminable garbage fire that was Something Wild

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Matt
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Re: 169 The Strange One

#3 Post by Matt » Thu Feb 06, 2020 6:50 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:41 am
Did Tom of Finland draw the poster?
It wouldn't be totally out of keeping with the film if he had: it's an intriguingly homoerotic, somewhat sadomasochistic film. I thought it was a worthwhile watch, but it's no undiscovered classic.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: 169 The Strange One

#4 Post by Lowry_Sam » Fri Feb 07, 2020 4:10 am

Matt wrote:
Thu Feb 06, 2020 6:50 pm
domino harvey wrote:
Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:41 am
Did Tom of Finland draw the poster?
It wouldn't be totally out of keeping with the film if he had: it's an intriguingly homoerotic, somewhat sadomasochistic film. I thought it was a worthwhile watch, but it's no undiscovered classic.
I disagree in part. While I wouldn't nessarily describe it as a "classic" film like Rebel Without A Cause, Tea And Sympathy or The Wild One, I would include it with other important (but not perfect) pre-Stonewall (ie. before a gay identity) films that depicted "homoeroticism" or subtext like The Sniper or Murder By Contract that hinted at what might have been had the Hays code not have such control over film content.

I don't think there's any debate that The Strange One is the better film. It's inexplicable that they released Something Wild (instead?), then again Criterion chose Jubilee and Fat Girl from those directors' cannons.

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swo17
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Re: 169 The Strange One

#5 Post by swo17 » Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:48 am

knives wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:42 am
I remember some one here asking if The Strange One was any different from this and thus worth seeing. While I can't answer the former question I can definitely answer the later in a strong negative. If half baked Tennessee Williams filtered through the most annoying screaming is your thing maybe you'll enjoy this, but for ridiculous Florida exploitation HGL is a more competent filmmaker.

What's most annoying is that it's easy to see this being turned into a fascinating Jean Genet-Cocteau inspired piece of homo-erotic militant self destruction. It comes close enough to be being good, but can't override a terribly obnoxious opening act. I am glad to see where Cartman got his Ah-thor-ah-tay from though.
I coincidentally just watched The Strange One too and am going to hard disagree. There's something off about it for sure (kind of hilarious how the mild broom whipping scene is shot like the guy was instead being stabbed in the eye or something, constantly cutting away, afraid to film the blows) but if you can get on its wavelength I think it's riveting, and Gazzara is just magnetic as a sadist psychopath. I've always loved his work as an older man and appreciated something like Anatomy of a Murder for presenting an earlier glimpse of him, but here he is in his very first film role, fully formed and in the lead! Also, Arthur Storch is a dead ringer for Kyle MacLachlan (check out the two main images of him on his IMDb page) despite the glaring overbite.

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knives
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Re: 169 The Strange One

#6 Post by knives » Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:53 am

I think I would be able to agree with you if the film started with that close-up of drunk student and skipped over the prologue which just put me so off I can't like it. I mean, that's a whole fifth of the film that was just truly obnoxious nails on a chalkboard to me. Once we get to the gay devil stuff and the writer I thought it became a lot more successful if kitschy in a way that Lynch better handles. That opening just reminded me too much of the screaming college theater performances I've seen.

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Re: 169 The Strange One

#7 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 15, 2020 3:53 am


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Re: 169 The Strange One

#8 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 29, 2020 4:38 pm


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Re: 169 The Strange One

#9 Post by MichaelB » Mon May 04, 2020 4:56 am


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therewillbeblus
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Re: 169 The Strange One

#10 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue May 19, 2020 3:06 pm

knives wrote:
Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:53 am
I think I would be able to agree with you if the film started with that close-up of drunk student and skipped over the prologue which just put me so off I can't like it. I mean, that's a whole fifth of the film that was just truly obnoxious nails on a chalkboard to me. Once we get to the gay devil stuff and the writer I thought it became a lot more successful if kitschy in a way that Lynch better handles. That opening just reminded me too much of the screaming college theater performances I've seen.
Conversely, I thought the opening set the tone perfectly with the bullying scenes feeling appropriately unpredictable in their unprecedented implementation. We see silent stone-faces moving eerily into a planful ceremony, all human beings of similar shapes and sizes, and the subsequent interpersonal actions define the roles of dominance and submission as our introduction to the characters via uncomfortable dynamics. I can see how this might not work for some because we don't enter with any stakes to cope with the behavior we witness, but for me that was a strength. The first act felt piercingly accurate to the horrors of impromptu hazing, where we are surrogates for the experience of being preyed upon aggressively without the agency to stop it. I was especially intrigued by the lack of outlets provided even through humiliation, which got at the core of the bullying existing for the sake of maintaining that power, achieving pleasure through the process rather than any catharsis from outcomes.

The rest of the movie didn't play as well for me, for once we established the ingrained dynamics the resulting drama was more obnoxiously theatrical (I am aware it's a filmed play). I don't really know exactly what you're talking about knives with your Lynch comparison, but the idea of a suppressed homoerotic devil expelling his confusion through fury under oppressive social norms is an interesting one. What stops me from caring too much is the detail of his silver spoon upbringing, which could add an additional layer of ideological normative oppression through classism, but there isn't enough subtext to give the film this rope. Instead I felt like the more interesting reading of 'hurt people hurt people' was cast aside to the hokey concept of 'kids raised rich developing a sense of invincibility' stretched to include antisocial menace.

Gazzara is excellent, and his ability to mute himself calm and quietly become violent with an alien glance, assumed threat in tongue, or literal action, aided what impressed me so much about that erratic first act. Unfortunately his presence couldn't carry the film, and what started out as an impressively-conceived introduction to a tense milieu dissipated into a run-of-the-mill fantasy of expelling the 'bad eggs' of the world, which itself is a concept I disagree with on principle, down to how Gazarra is defined and simplified by the writer. What is even more problematic is the diffusion of responsibility for the eggers/bystanders who participated weakly under his leadership, and the ending made me come away borderline hating this, oddly in the opposite end of the spectrum as knives.

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