To Live and Die in L.A.

Cafe Society
1

Sofa King’s response in this thread prompts me to ask a question that I’ve been wondering about for some time now:

Why hasn’t To Live and Die in L.A. been released on DVD?

I saw it in theaters back when it came out in 1985 and I remember it as a film with some fairly serious flaws, but, on the other hand, it also had:[ul][li]A fine cast (Willem Dafoe, William L. Petersen, John Turturro and Robert Downey Sr. among others)[/li][li]An incredible car chase[/li][li]The quintessential 80s soundtrack[/li][li]Jane Leeves (“Daphne Moon” on Frasier) as lingerie-clad lesbian bimbo[/li][/ul] So even if the dialog sucks harder than I remember, it’s still worth the price of a DVD rental, at least.

So what’s the problem? A dispute between William Friedken and the studio? (I can’t imagine there’s any problem getting the rights to the music. If there’s one person in the music biz who could use some residuals, it’s got to be Wang Chung…)

2

That soundtrack is always in my vehicle when I drive to L.A.

3

Mainly b/c the home video rights were owned by Vestron, which went bankrupt in the early 90’s. MGM then eventually bought the rights, and they’ll probably release it soon. The whole story can be found here.