Twilight Time Goes to War, Part 3: Salvador, plus The Honorary Consul
Twilight Time’s Blu-ray release of Oliver Stone’s Oscar-Nominated docu / agit-prop drama Salvador (1986) also marks the first time I finally watched this classic film in the director’s C.V.
As with many people, there’s always a film you should’ve seen when it was surrounded by critical praise but oddly never got around to watching, and it was well worth the wait (or rather, what the heck was I waiting for?).
James Woods is amazing, the dialogue is profane, dramatic, and wryly funny, and there are gripping moments where Woods’ incarnation of real-life photo journalist Richard Boyle stops the film purely to vent outrage against the U.S. Government’s policy of supporting an anti-Communist right-wing regime in a brutal civil war.
Co-starring is Mexican actress Elpedia Carrillo, whom genre fans may better remember as the lone woman in Predator (1987).
Carrillo had a hot streak during the early / mid-eighties, appearing in several prominent films with big stars, and in addition to a tiny role in Under Fire (1983), she was the love interest in The Honorary Consul / aka Beyond the Limit (1983), an adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel about a botched kidnapping in Northern Argentina.
Directed by John Mackenzie (The Fourth Protocol) and edited by expert action cutter Stuart Baird, Consul was released on a widescreen DVD in Britain, but remains unavailable in North America, so I’ve reviewed the film from, er, its original Betamax release.
This tape is 30 years old, and still plays. Amazing. (Beyond the Limit / The Honorary Consul Betamax tape.)
Here’s some snapshots of the original case and tape (“Bee Kind Rewind”), and the original sleek poster art that’s typical of an 80s erotic thriller like Body Heat (1981) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) rather than a tense political suspense-drama.
At least the original poster art is superior to this U.S. tape release which featured, what else, Big Actor Heads:
Two giant actor noggins face off in a moment that only exists on bad home video cover art. (Beyond the Limit / The Honorary Consul Betamax tape.)
(Beyond the Limit / The Honorary Consul Betamax tape.)
Think about it: why would the doctor pin a picture of the man whose wife he’s screwing on his office wall? Beside the bed where they indulge in afternoon delights? With the husband always looking at them? Striking art, but functionally daft.
Spanish poster for Body Heat (1981).
Are you feeling the heat from this 1981 poster for The Postman Always Rings Twice?
I’m currently editing my video store doc BSV 1172 to meet an early December deadline, but I’ve a set of soundtrack reviews coming shortly, followed by a cluster of horror films, and another couplet of Nikkatsu Naughties.
Cheers,
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG
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