{"id":5059,"date":"2012-06-13T19:56:11","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T23:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2012-06-13T19:56:11","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T23:56:11","slug":"getting-a-ministry-fix-home-video-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5059","title":{"rendered":"Getting a Ministry Fix + Home Video News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s been probably 20 years since I last heard anything by industrial metal band Ministry, and while I might recognize certain songs, I\u2019ve an even lesser impression of the band\u2019s musical catalogue \u2013 meaning besides a few lengthy 12\u201d singles from high school years, I know little else of the group who pioneered an edgy, industrial sound which proved highly influential.<\/p>\n

Douglas Freel\u2019s 2011 documentary Fix <\/a><\/strong>\/ aka Fix: The Ministry Movie<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (Gigantic Pictures \/ CAV) doesn\u2019t aim to explain the band nor provide more theoretical examples of how it changed rock (that\u2019s left up to the interviewees), but it sure give a vivid look into the controlled chaos of a band with a serious following tours Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

The central figure is founder & singer Al Jourgensen, and it takes a while to see beyond the backstage antics and appreciate the skill of Ministry as a band still doing its thing. Because Fix<\/strong> isn\u2019t a concert film, the stage performances are restricted in length, and most footage (reportedly shot during the 1996 Sphinctor Tour) is intercut with various interview clips from a substantive group of colleagues from bands Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Motorhead, and Skinny Puppy, to name a few.<\/p>\n

One gets the sense this doc was a true labour of love for director Freel, shaping the work over time and wrangling with various rights issues to ensure the film would get wide distribution. It\u2019s a commendable work that possibly shows the rawest behind-the-scenes moments within a rock doc and remains coherent and informative.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Related bits of home video news:<\/p>\n

DVD Savant reports KINO Lorber, who recently acquired a spate of Jean Rollin films from Redemption, also has a few Mario Bava flicks in the works for similar DVD and Blu-ray runs in September, including Black Sunday<\/a><\/strong> (1960) and Hatchet for a Honeymoon<\/strong> (1970). Don\u2019t junk your Anchor Bay Bava boxes yet, as you never know if there will be differences in extras and transfer issues.<\/p>\n

And about a week prior to the release of Ridley Scott\u2019s unnecessary Alien<\/strong> prequel Prometheus<\/strong>, the Digital Bits noted pre-orders on the film\u2019s Blu-ray edition were possible at Amazon.com. Scott\u2019s film has been received with more than mixed reviews. Besides being perceived as a convoluted retread of the first film, some peeved veteran fans also detest Prometheus<\/strong> because of the film\u2019s discontinuous look: the world preceding Alien<\/strong> is weirdly nicer, cleaner, and far more advanced than the clunky functional tech that remained consistent in the first film and all sequels. Did Humanity suffer a technological aneurism?<\/p>\n

In a Q&A with Collider, Scott\u2019s \u2018hinted<\/a>\u2019 that the home video release \u201cmight\u201d include 20-30 mins. of deleted footage. This is actually quite typical of the director, delivering one version to cinemas, and a longer edit for home video.<\/p>\n

Scott may be a pioneer in the realm of expanded home video versions, using the two-version \/ two-release strategy to guarantee his version is given a guaranteed commercial release, but on which edit should filmgoers spend their money? Why can\u2019t he decide on a final cut before a film hits theatres? And does he regard a movie as a work in need of revisiting to correct hasty decisions when under the duress of a looming release date & other factors?<\/p>\n

The problem with mucking around with a film \u2013 good or bad \u2013 goes beyond the obvious double-dipping (unless the home video version offers a seamless branching \/ double version package). Kingdom of Heaven<\/strong> in its long-form version is superior to the shorter edit, but Alien<\/strong> was ruined when a generally perfect movie was tweaked with scenes shorn for good reason.<\/p>\n

The sense is Scott perhaps felt some edits were badly calculated, but there\u2019s also the issue where a weak script won\u2019t be fixed by adding material to improve its flow. A classic example is The Lawnmower Man<\/strong> \u2013 a generally dull film which was still pretty dull when expanded on video, but made more sense and felt less dramatically jerky.<\/p>\n

Scott has clout \u2013 Gladiator<\/strong>, the first film to which he imposed the expanded release nonsense, earned huge monies in cinemas and video \u2013 so it seems tough to believe the shorter version of Prometheus<\/strong> exists because of studio pressure. The final say, like the recutting of Legend<\/a><\/strong>, was his, and the inability to settle on a final version likely rests with Scott.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Twilight Time\u2019s published a tally of their Sept. \/ Oct. Blu-ray titles, which include The Sound and the Fury <\/strong>(1959), Steel Magnolias<\/strong> (1989), Enemy Mine<\/strong> (1985), and Night of the Living Dead<\/strong> (1990) \u2013 Tom Savani\u2019s underrated remake of George Romero\u2019s 1968 classic<\/a>. Hopefully TT will retain the extras from the long OOP DVD, including director\u2019s audio commentary and making-of featurette.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Doug Freel’s memorable documentary on prioneering industrial metal \/ rock band Ministry Fix (Gigantic \/ CAV), plus home video news on Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, fall Twilight Time Blu’s, and Kino brings more Mario Bava to Blu-ray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1364,1365,1366,1362,1361],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1jB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5060,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059\/revisions\/5060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}