{"id":15551,"date":"2017-03-14T15:12:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T19:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=15551"},"modified":"2017-03-14T19:22:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T23:22:10","slug":"james-herberts-the-survivor-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=15551","title":{"rendered":"James Herbert&#8217;s The Survivor (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15556\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_poster1_Turkish_b-681x1024.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_poster1_Turkish_b-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_poster1_Turkish_b-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_poster1_Turkish_b.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There was a bit of a delay in posting a review of Severin Film\u2019s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=15550\">The Survivor<\/a><\/strong> (1981) because I had to confirm an authoring boo-boo in the Blu-ray\u2019s Special Features menu, in which a short 1980 Q&amp;A with actor Robert Powell and actor \/ director David Hemmings is present but inaccessible on the BR, but works fine on Severin\u2019s DVD. (The tail end of the review describes the Q&amp;A\u2019s contents.)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s still a stellar BR edition, sporting a fine transfer showcasing John Seale\u2019s extraordinary cinematography (man, I which I had a projection setup) for what was then one of Australia\u2019s biggest budgeted films. Hemmings directed <strong>Survivor<\/strong>, a film version of James Herbert\u2019s novel, and the supernatural thriller also boasts the largest set of explosions ever committed to film in Australia at that time \u2013 which are still quite spectacular.<\/p>\n<p>The opening hook is a great one: after a passenger plane crashes onto an open field, it suddenly explodes, killing everyone except the pilot, who\u2019s found wandering from the incendiary wreckage relatively unscathed, yet suffering from temporary amnesia.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15554\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15554\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-15554\" src=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_pic-1024x428.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_pic-1024x428.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_pic-300x126.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_pic-768x321.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_pic-960x400.jpg 960w, https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_pic.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15554\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shot-to-shot, John Seale&#8217;s cinematography is gorgeous.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>That alone makes it worth a peek for genre fans, and here\u2019s hoping a somewhat related thriller, <strong>Sole Survivor<\/strong> (1983), gets its due on Blu \u2013 a pre-<strong>Final Destination<\/strong> shocker in which a plane crash survivor senses Death might be trying to reclaim her.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Survivor<\/strong>\u2019s claim to fame as one of Australia\u2019s costliest productions was eventually superseded by <strong>The Lighthorsemen<\/strong> (1987), a movie about the military unit in Palestine involved in the 1917 Battle of Beersheba. I mention Simon Wincer\u2019s film because 30 years after I caught the longer 131 min.\u00a0version, in \u2018scope at the long-dead York Cinemas, and where invited family members of survivors in Canada were present, the movie has yet to receive its proper release on Blu.<\/p>\n<p>Image\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lddb.com\/laserdisc\/10276\/LVD9540\/Lighthorsemen-The:-Special-Edition\" target=\"_blank\">1996\u00a0laserdisc<\/a> featured the long version with Wincer\u2019s commentary, after which the film\u00a0as a whole vanished from North America. The 2011 Australian Blu-ray featured the shorter 116 min.\u00a0cut matted to 1.78:1, and although the 2013 BR from Umbrella Entertainment presents the film in its proper 2.35:1 ratio, it&#8217;s still the 116 min. cut, albeit with\u00a0Wincer\u2019s commentary, presumably edited down to fit the shorter running time.<\/p>\n<p>This of course fuels confusion as to its proper ratio, proper length, and why such an elegant production \u2013 melodramatic and romantic, for sure, but gritty in the combat scenes \u2013 still doesn\u2019t exist in its definitive form.<\/p>\n<p>Mario Millo\u2019s brilliant, massive orchestral score also enjoyed a condensed LP and later full CD release, but it too vanished and deserves an isolated score track in uncompressed DTS on that definitive Blu-ray edition that maybe one day will emerge. It can\u2019t hurt to bitch a little, right?<\/p>\n<p><em>Coming next:<\/em> reviews of Nikkatsu Naughty <strong>Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon<\/strong> (1982) + <strong>Vintage Erotica: Anno 1970<\/strong> from Cult Epics, and Anna Biller\u2019s wonderfully good <strong>The Love Witch<\/strong> (2016).<\/p>\n<p><em>And shortly thereafter:<\/em> a review of David Mitchell and Jamie Lockhart\u2019s doc <strong>The Trail of Dracula<\/strong> (2013) from Intervision, plus Ted Newsome\u2019s Hammer doc <strong>Flesh &amp; Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror \u2013 Expanded Edition<\/strong> + a lengthy podcast interview with Newsom.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor<br \/>\n<strong>KQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review of David Hemmings and Anthony Ginnane&#8217;s 1981 film version of James Herbert&#8217;s plane crash thriller The Survivor, new on Blu from Severin Films, plus some bitching about the lack of a definitive Blu-ray edition of The Lighthorsemen (1987).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[4257,4256,4989,2562,2563,4987,4994,4993,4991,2633,4990,1643,4988],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Survivor_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-42P","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15551"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15566,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15551\/revisions\/15566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}