In that spirit I present to you two films that you cannot legally own on DVD in the United States. And as you will see, they are two pieces of forbidden cinematic fruit that are nonetheless still fairly easy to get. And if somehow you obtain them, you'll know what I meant by distorted perceptions of reality.
Forbidden DVD #1. Brewster McCloud (1970)
This is a Robert Altman joint, released the same year as MASH. It is the story of an odd young man (Bud Cort) who lives in the Houston Astrodome and is obsessed with building a pair of working wings so he can fly. He has a guardian angel (Sally Kellerman) who protects him from the relentless pursuit of The Man. Like MASH, the bulk of the film consists of little intertwining vignettes, anti-establishment thinking, and overlapping dialog.
Altman is not one of my favorite directors. That everyone-talk-at-once gimmick gets old fast. He was hailed an iconoclastic auteur, whose personal style of filmmaking was often at odds with the Hollywood establishment. Personally, I think he tended to sabotage his own films. It wasn't hard to sense a pattern: A successful film (MASH, Nashville) followed by a string of duds (Popeye, OC and Stiggs).
Brewster McCloud was one of those duds. But it shouldn't have been. Unlike a lot of Altman's lugubrious later works, this one is remarkably lively, full of marvelous performances, slick filmmaking, and imaginative plot twists. Check out the opening on YouTube and you'll see what you're missing.
You can still get this film on VHS tape, but what would you do with one of those things?
Forbidden DVD #2: Pop Gear (1965)
I caught this film on AMC late one night, back before they carried ads. It's a sort of big-screen Scopitone of Merseybeat bands, hosted by Sir Jimmy Savile. He was the host of BBC's "Top of the Pops," and with his huge mop of blond hair, blackwatch plaid jacket and buggy eyes he comes off like a mod Doctor Emmet Brown.
Pop Gear is mostly a series of staged performances. And by that I mean really staged: the performers typically stand on a hastily constructed bunch of set-pieces on a cyclorama stage, lip-synching their songs and playing unplugged guitars. Occasionally they would do something, like slowly amble to secondary marks or circle en masse around the set.
The bands and songs ranged from the immortal (two Beatles songs, live performances set as bookends to the film; The Animals, Herman's Hermits and the Spencer Davis Group) to the best forgotten ("Humpty Dumpty" by Tommy Quickly and the Remo Four; The Four Pennies; The Rockin' Berries).
Pop Gear is marvelous in all it's fab details, a Pathécolour and Panavision close-up look at the British Invasion. Check out the Cuban heels; crooner Matt Monro serenading an extra next to what looks like an outhouse; Honey Lantree of The Honeycombs, cool beyond words, driving "Have I The Right" with killer drumming. Standing next to her, playing (unplugged) rhythm on a hideous Burns guitar, Martin Murray is a dead ringer for professor Julius Kelp from The Nutty Professor. I'm now convinced Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon must have been the model for Austin Powers. There's even two bits of fun choreography!
This film was photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth, perhaps the finest cinematographer England has ever produced. He shot 2001, A Night to Remember, Cabaret and Superman. The great lighting and fluid camera moves elevate this film from a cheesy variety-show musical segment to something of a lost gem.
Okay, you can't get this on DVD (I'm sure it's a music clearance issue), but you CAN see an edited version of Pop Gear in its entirety on YouTube. This link will take you to part one: it's all designed to run end-to-end in eight parts (thank you, nyrainbow2!).
the resolution is nowhere near as good as DVD, but it is the correct 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
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