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Originally Posted by Calum  And you just don't get it. Richard and James are two people I consider friends. God knows, I've done enough free work for them both to know this. But I have also been dismayed, since leaving the 88 fold, that bare bones editions have become the way forward for them. As Dave rightly mentions in that article, this is our last chance to capture all of this activity from the past. And for the guy poking fun at David Warbeck - well slow hand clap to you mate because Mr. Warbeck is dead now. And people like myself and John Martin and Mike Felsher take it very seriously to get these people on tape and on camera because otherwise there won't be any document of their lives and careers - however 'boring' you might find it.
Yet you are shelling out for what might be bare bones movies
I'm reading a great book just now called Rhodesians Never Die (I'm on a bit of an African history bender). If that book had been written in 50 years time, no one would be around who lived in Rhodesia and remembered the ins and outs of the Bush War. |
When I met David Warbeck I found him to be the consummate gentleman with impeccable manners who was more than happy to share his time with rabid film lovers like myself, my perhaps poor joke was in no way detrimental to the man himself who I respected in the utmost. The point I was trying to put across was that story - see last rant - seems to be the one story I have heard time and time again, not only from Mr Warbeck but many others, including on this very forum and always told in such a way that Fulci (Another gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting.) had shared this with them personally - Warbeck aside of course as he was there. If anyone believes I was having a dig at him, I unreservedly refute that and apologize for my poor writing skills and sense of humour. But by the time I have heard the same story 10 times over my cynical side takes over.
Extras for a film are personal choices and some are outstanding as on Deep River Savages and some are barely worth the videotape they are recorded on making it appear that they are there just as filler to make the edition that much better than say, its USA incarnation, never mind the quality of the film itself. If a Blu Ray is filled up with the same old stuff that has appeared on every DVD release in the past then its question of validity to be recycled once more is surely an issue. Some people, obviously like yourself Callum, love the history and background but the majority of fans just want to see the feature in its best possible presentation as when these films first attracted us there were no extras at all, it was the film that captivated us and it is that nostalgia which drives us to buy copy after copy. I am not a film historian, I am just a mangy old horror film fan and for that I do not apologize. For me, and perhaps for me alone, I don't know, extras are not a deal breaker but a pristine uncut presentation is. Hey, it would be a boring old world if we all liked exactly the same thing.
On an aside, as for Rhodesians Never Die, I lived there from 1969 to 1984, right through the most vicious bush war Africa has ever seen, lost many friends and my home in Zaka - to the East of Fort Victoria now called Masvingo- was attacked on numerous occasions including my father driving over three landmines in a specialy built vehicle called a Leopard. I was in Bulawayo during the Battle of Bulawayo when Mugabe's North Korean 5th Brigade slaughtered thousands and chased Nkomo- the man who should have won the presidency- out of the country.