Reading this about Bud Cort in THE LIFE AQUATIC
caused me to wonder…
how do we get a HAROLD AND MAUDE DVD w/Bud Cort commentary made?
and how about A CLOCKWORK ORANGE w/ Malcolm McDowell & whoever else is alive?
Which extended edition DVDs do you want?
I’m a big big fan of Harold and Maude and would love to have a DVD with some decent extras. The version that came out a couple years ago has two theatrical trailers and that’s it. No commentaries, no deleted scenes. The trailers contain a couple bits of scenes that didn’t make it into the film, but perhaps the the footage doesn’t exist any more.
Unfortunately, the director Hal Ashby and writer Colin Higgins are dead. Their commentaries would be great. But Bud Cort and many of the other cast are still around.
Newly released films generally get lots of extras, and big time classics often come out in special commemerative packages with lots of stuff. But with lower profile older films we’re generally just lucky they get released on DVD at all. The studios don’t have much interest in spending the effort on restoring prints or recording new material.
On top of that, since Harold and Maude is already available, there’s that much less incentive to put the effort into a new package. I’d love to have it, but I just can’t see it happening any time soon.
Eric
What Mr. Halper said. The reason so many recent films have tons of sweet extras is 'cause the filmmakers had them in mind even before release, and therefore had the incentive to film that alternate ending, make that mini on set documentary, etc. (for example, the DVD for Godsend aka Adam has something like 6 alternate endings, each one worst than the next. And Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle’s extras are as funny as the movie itself).