{"id":29058,"date":"2024-07-24T22:34:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T05:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29058"},"modified":"2024-07-24T22:34:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T05:34:55","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-red-line-7000-1965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29058","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: RED LINE 7000 (1965)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This feature is being released as a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d\nBlu-ray by Arrow Video on July 30th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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History is full of incredible filmmakers who have created\ncinematic classics that will be remembered forever. Yet, not every title in\ntheir catalogs are masterpieces. Howard Hawks was a singular talent responsible\nfor Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, Red River,\nGentlemen Prefer Blondes, Rio Bravo, El Dorado<\/em> and many others. One of\nthose others is Red Line 7000<\/em>, a melodrama from Paramount Pictures about\nthe troubled personal lives of stock car racers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie was a critical and box office flop when it first\ncame out. As the years have passed, reaction to it seems to fall into two\ncamps. The majority are those who believe it to be something of a mess, while a\nsmaller group have declared the film an underappreciated jewel that is among\nthe filmmaker\u2019s strongest works. I\u2019m not sure about the latter, but one thing\nthat no one can say about this movie is that it is boring. I had a great time\nwatching it, and even if it is as silly as it is compelling, the disc is still\nworth picking up for any film connoisseur curious about the more obscure works\nof a great director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrow Video have now picked up the title for distribution\nand are releasing a fantastic new \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray that nicely\npresents the film in high definition, along with plenty of material that can\nhelp people come to their own conclusions about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an ensemble piece that follows a few storylines\ninvolving racers on a particular team. The first racer is Mike Marsh (James\nCaan, in his first starring role), an intense competitor who has issues dating\nwomen who are not, in his view, ummm, pure. His best friend is Jim Loomis\n(Anthony Rogers), another team member who immediately dies in a horrible crash.\nIt is revealed that Loomis\u2019 lounge singer girlfriend Holly McGregor (Gail Hire)\nalso dated a racer that perished on the track and is now certain that she\ncarries a death curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile, arrogant up-and-coming Ned Arp (John Robert Crawford) begins a relationship with Julie Kazarian (Laura Devon). Focused only on his career, he treats her incredibly poorly, which only seems to make her dote on him even more. There is also Dan McCall (Skip Ward), who has returned from a lengthy stay in France with his partner Gabrielle Queneau (Marianna Hill). Despite still being a couple, they are no longer in love and are open-minded about engaging in relationships with others. All of the characters cross paths and interact. Both romance and a sense of conflict builds between the selfish drivers over their romantic interests. There are fiery confrontations in private and on the road that leave their marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie contains plenty of impressive, authentic driving\nfootage (which was captured by a camera team led by an ex-racer who\nphotographed real stock car competitions for nearly a year), mixed with pure\nmelodrama shot on elaborately designed but obvious-looking soundstages. The\ncharacters act out in none-too-subtle ways and the performances are all over\nthe map. Some, including those with the charismatic Caan, are solid. In fact,\nhe has a few intriguing scenes with Hill as his strange psychosis builds and leads\nhim into trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, others aren\u2019t as convincing and Hire in particular\ndoesn\u2019t fare well. She\u2019s forced to hit some hysterical notes early on while\nalso adopting a sultry voice that later vanishes (the reason for the odd\ndelivery is stated in the bonus features). Then, in a particularly bizarre and\nout-of-place scene, the character performs a racing-related number at a club\nfrequented by the entire cast. It\u2019s a horrid song that is like something you\u2019d\nsee out of a B-grade teen horror flick and not a major studio picture. Again,\nthis isn\u2019t the performer\u2019s fault, but she clearly is struggling in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The movie\u2019s look and tone are completely unbalanced and\njarring, but to some degree that\u2019s what helps to keep it interesting. You truly\ndon\u2019t know what\u2019s coming next and there are plenty of surreal surprises and\neccentric moments as the story develops. For me, this is not a quality film,\nbut I still enjoyed it a great deal. It is a fascinatingly odd effort that does\nkeep one\u2019s attention and, at the very least, works on a campy level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film was shot on a couple of different stocks (the\ndriving footage definitely looks different from the driving projection shots\nand the dramatic material) so the footage itself can only look so good, but the\nimage quality overall is certainly a vast improvement on previous editions and\nis pleasing to the eye. It\u2019s a very good transfer and the roadside motel set\nand other backdrops look very impressive on this disc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Extras on this disc are fascinating and really help one\nunderstand exactly where everyone was coming from. The commentary track from\ncritic Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo (the daughter of the screenwriter) is\nincredibly illuminating. Kirgo was on the set frequently and is a wonderful\nreference. She describes how her father and Hawks met, as well as how the\nfilmmaker eventually asked the writer to write the project he had been\ndeveloping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirgo notes that there are aspects of the film she really\nlikes, but that it is flawed (despite the claims of a handful of critics who do\nadore the picture). She goes on to suggest that ensemble pieces like this often\nhave trouble when not all of the sections work. The speaker also remarks that\nHawks was a director known for keeping up to date with popular trends and\ndiscovering new talent, but that he may have gotten in over his head with this\npicture. Apparently, by this point in his career he wasn\u2019t as personally\ninvested in helping inexperienced cast members on set, leaving Hire and few\nothers lost as to how to perform. One of Hawks\u2019 amazing discoveries was Lauren\nBacall, and it was likely suggested that Hire initially try to sound like her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kirgo really laments how rough it must have been for Hire,\nbut is happy that she ultimately found happiness elsewhere and became a\nsuccessful artist. She also admits that Hawks’ next picture, El Dorado<\/em>,\nwas vastly superior. She suggests that westerns were a genre better suited to\nthe director and that, had some of the new faces from that picture been cast in\nthis one, the results on Red Line 7000<\/em> may have been more\nfavorable.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just about everything good and bad about the production that\nKirgo describes sounds frank and enlightening, making this one of the better\ncommentary tracks in recent memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s also a piece with assistant director Bruce Kessler,\nwho was the ex-racer responsible for filming the impressive driving footage. He\ntalks about his previous profession and how it led to him being hired for this\npicture. He goes over the challenges he faced and how he helped create some of\nthe striking crashes in the picture. Kessler does note that he saw Hawks leave\nset during the shoot one day, which may add more to the theory that he wasn\u2019t\npresent to help struggling cast members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also included is a nifty visual essay on the picture that\ngoes over the movie\u2019s peculiarities and how others have responded, and now even\nadmire these unique touches. There is also a visual essay from a film scholar\nthat goes into each of the female characters and describes the film, in some\nrespects, as forward-thinking in making them essential to the narrative. You\u2019ll\nalso get an image gallery of posters, lobby cards and stills for the movie.\nFurthermore, the disc comes in a reversible sleeve featuring new and original\nartwork for the picture. This material is also included on a double-sided\nfoldout poster that comes in the package. And there is also an illustrated\nbooklet with writing on the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is Red Line 7000<\/em> a cinematic car crash or an\nunderappreciated masterwork in an incredible filmmaker\u2019s long catalog? Well, if\nyou pick up this impressive \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray, you can decide for\nyourself and join in the conversation. No matter what side you fall on, the\nfinal product is certainly something to behold and a lot of fun to watch. If\nyou\u2019re curious, this Blu-ray is definitely worth picking up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature is being released as a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d Blu-ray by Arrow Video on July 30th. History is full of incredible filmmakers who have created cinematic classics that will be remembered forever. Yet, not every title in their catalogs are masterpieces. Howard Hawks was a singular talent responsible for Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,1836,2949,5910,6251,6305,9442,10213,13672,15707,16577,16785,16786,16787,17310,19126],"class_list":["post-29058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-95","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-reviews","tag-disc-review","tag-drama","tag-driving","tag-howard-hawks","tag-james-caan","tag-melodrama","tag-paramount-pictures","tag-racing","tag-red-line-7000","tag-red-line-7000-blu-ray-review","tag-red-line-7000-review","tag-romance","tag-stock-car"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}