Product: The Dead Zone [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 5.0
Cronenberg's top notch film of King's novel gets even better with deluxe DVD, extras
First the important stuff out of the way. If you've seen this movie you know what it's about and already have probably owned it on DVD. So what's different here? Well the transfer is a marked improvement with a sharp looking anamorphic higher definition transfer of the film. It'll look extremely good on 16x9 widescreen TV's and even on more conventional (although not quite with as much a difference)TV's. The previous edition of the film was practically bare bones. This edition lacks a commentary from David Cronenberg (which is a pity as he's always entertaining in his commentary tracks) but comes with four terrific featurettes. The first "Memories from The Dead Zone" features new interviews with Cronenberg, King expert Douglas Winter, film editor Ronald Sanders and actress Brooke Adams. discussing how they got involved in the film and when they realized what a terrific film they were truly making. "The Look of The Dead Zone" focuses on the cinematographer by Mark Irwin and features an interview with him. "Visions and Horror From The Dead Zone" again has many participants from the original production and "The Politics of The Dead Zone" also features a vintage interview with Sheen discussing the film. Unfortunately Christopher Walken is curiously MIA but everyone else does make up for the actor's absence with insightful comments on the film and why it continues to resonate. I don't think the TV series would have taken off as well as it did if Cronenberg and Boam hadn't made such a terrific movie in the first place.The film looks good and while there are some mild digital artifacts that occasionally mar the picture the film hasn't ever looked this good on home video. Definitely worth the upgrade for that by itself.What follows are two paragraphs about the making of the film and the plot but if you've seen it you probably know this stuff and can skip the rest.After doing "Videodrome" David Cronenberg was looking for a film where he didn't have to write the project. He was exhausted from the involvement of that cult classic. When he met the late Debra Hill (via their mutual friend and Hill's long time collaborator John Carpenter) the late Jeffrey Boam ("Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade", co-creator/writer/producer of "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.") had penned a terrific script that perfectly captured the feeling of King's book (Cronenberg comments in one of the extras that the best way to "remain faithful to the book is to betray it...because you're dealing with two completely different mediums" and one can see his point).The late Michael Kamen's wonderful score sounds terrific here (I would have loved an isolated score to appreciate the music that much more but perhaps in the next incarnation of the film). The cold, icy look of the film is nicely realized in this sharp looking transfer. The film does show its age but looks quite good overall.Highly recommended.**Spoilers ahead**Johnny Smith (Walken) seems to have it all--he loves teaching the kids at his school and is engaged to be married to another teacher (Adams). The future dims for Smith when he's in a horrible car accident and a subsequent coma for 5 years. The world has moved on but Johnny hasn't. When he awakens from his coma he finds he has the ability of "second sight", i.e., he can see the possible future and past just by touching people or items they've handled. The police pull him into an investigation of a serial killer and he gains a bit of fame from it but that second sight shows him a potential disaster-- Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen in a terrific polar opposite performance to his later one as the President in "The West Wing"). Stillson isn't just dangerous but evil. Smith sees that Stillson will initiate a nuclear holocaust. Johnny knows he's the only one that can stop him.