The Thin Red Line to Receive the Criterion Treatment
Malick fans rejoice: The Criterion Collection, known for its special feature-laden, artfully packaged editions of “important classic and contemporary films,” is releasing The Thin Red Line on DVD and Blu-ray on September 28th of this year. This will be the second of Malick’s films to receive the treatment–the first being 1978’s Days of Heaven–and it’s an act sure to please the vocal minority that has long championed this film, which to date has seen only the most basic release on DVD. Not included, I’m sad to say, is the supposed five-hour-long version of the film with cut scenes featuring the likes of Martin Sheen, Mickey Rourke, Viggo Mortensen, Bill Pullman, and narration by Billy Bob Thornton. Full list of disc features after the jump.
This is far from a lazy cash-in from Justin Broadrick, even if it does tie in neatly with his decision to re-ignite Godflesh after eight years. Streetcleaner never got the production it really deserved. Whilst not necessarily the finest Godflesh release (in my opinion, anyway), it’s arguably the one with the most primitive negative energy seething within it–a quality which, due to the way the album was produced at the time, could be sensed but never really felt.
German for Shark passed as a big beautiful blur on first listen. Discounting the selection of remixes at the end, it’s actually quite a brief release, with big blocks of sound surging forth and fading into one another without too much pause for breath between each piece. The result is a gorgeous dreamlike montage, with vibrant snatches of ideas forming and melting quickly into something completely different just minutes later.
the Crossing 