" VOYAGER LASERDISC -- DETAILS
-- Voyager-Criterion issued a remastered laserdisc of
DR. STRANGELOVE
in 1992. This version was struck from Kubrick's
personal print of the
film (one generation removed from the original
negative). The disc
jacket reads: "The film was shot using in-camera
mattes with
alternating aspect ratios, between 1.66:1 and
1.33:1. A new digital
film-to-tape transfer was created using a 35mm
duplicate negative and
35mm 3 track magnetic master."
The different mattes for the film's different
aspect ratios are
probably best noticeable at the top of the frame,
in the shots where
Major Kong puts on his Stetson hat. Also, as Kong
rides the bomb, the
bomb can be seen jumping "over" the background
matte plate.
The Criterion disc also includes a wealth of
materials outlining
the civil-defense plans of the early 1960s,
including still frames of
various pamphlets, the famous short "Duck and
Cover," and an early
"video" of George McCulvey's "My Teenage Fallout
Queen." There is
also a British Film Board-approved trailer
advertising Strangelove,
which -- unique for its day -- includes photos of
Kubrick himself.
Best of all is an account of the film's laser
remastering, as well as
a frame-by-frame representation of an early
STRANGELOVE script. The
cover of the Criterion disk was also designed by
Kubrick.
An early draft of the script -- written by Kubrick,
before Southern
was brought in -- can be read frame-by-frame on the
Voyager-Criterion
laserdisc. In this early draft, the film is
presented as a recovered
record found by aliens on a dead planet called
Earth. (The opening
credits describe a "Micro-Galaxy-Meteor" logo with
a squalling alien
head. Amusing, in light of the stylized MGM logo
used in 2001.) This
script is clearly less than the final product; a
great deal of the
final film's better lines clearly came from
Southern's later
contributions, including General Ripper's "bodily
fluids" obsessions.
Although there is a character named Turgidson, a
character named
"Buck" Schmuck gets most of what eventually wound
up as Turgidson
dialogue. (Interesting note: in this early script,
one General is
named "Toejam." So is a Marine in FULL METAL
JACKET.)
--(B.S.)"
and, remember, kong riding the bomb is a direct steal
from ole whats-his-name's 'catcher'.
kim
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Received on Fri Aug 8 18:48:22 2003
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