Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession dvd movie.|
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List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $12.99 You Save: $1.99 Features • Color • DVD-Video • Widescreen • NTSC In Theaters : 2004 DVD Release : 11 October, 2005 |
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Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession description Director Xan (daughter of actor John) Cassavetes' Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession harkens back to a time when a single pay cable TV outlet could offer more quality and variety than all the HBOs and Showtimes of the world combined. Beginning in 1974, Los Angeles' Z Channel, driven by chief programmer Jerry Harvey, presented an astonishingly eclectic array of fare to its subscribers, from mega-hits like Star Wars to obscure classics by directors like Kurosawa, Fellini, Antonioni, Peckinpah, and others. In championing movies like Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, and Oliver Stone's Salvador, especially the uncut versions, Harvey earned the respect of countless filmmakers, a good many of whom (like Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, Alexander Payne, and Robert Altman) are on hand to sing his praises. There are also lots of clips, as well as recollections about the making of those films; in fact, Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession is more about movies than it is about Harvey and his channel. That's good, because despite his lurid denouement (he killed his wife, then himself, in 1988), Harvey was not an especially interesting man, but rather a single-minded film freak, a guy who used movie dialogue for his own wedding vows. Cassavetes' film is likely to appeal mostly to those who share his passion, if not his mental problems; if nothing else, it will certainly pique your interest in some of the wonderful movies celebrated here. --Sam Graham |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | I wouldn't mine working for the Z Channel |
| Any true movie lover will squeal in delight while watching Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, a documentary about an obscure television station and the unfortunate end that came to it. The Velvet Underground of movie channels, very few people in the world actually watched Channel Z, but the few that did went on to change the medium itself. Watching the movie will likely bring out three emotions in you: a remembrance of why you love film so much; a disbelief that such a daring channel actually existed; and a sadness that the time is gone forever where a cable channel could run a festival of uncut Antonioni films and actually get away with it. Director Xan Cassavetes, daughter of actor-director John and actress Gena Rowlands, grew up watching the HBO precursor in her Los Angeles home, as did so many who have gone on to become influential Hollywood figures. Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Payne and Jim Jarmusch are just a few of the directors that Cassavetes simply points a camera at and lets them geek out, so to speak. Others, like James Woods, Robert Altman and Paul Verhoeven, line up to admit that the channel largely handed them their careers once it took them under its wing and started showing their work in heavy rotation.
Who started this? Station's Director Jerry Harvey. He was an eccentric film-obsessed savant who readily referred to himself as insane. A compulsive worker, Harvey made Z Channel (launched in 1974) his own never-ending film festival, and his efforts eventually left the man an exhausted, bitter alcoholic with an ominous pattern of spousal abuse. In 1988, Jerry Harvey shot his wife to death and, after an hour of sitting there and thinking about his actions, turned the gun on himself. Z Channel walks a tightrope in not glorifying Harvey, but by simply giving us the details and letting us get as confused by his personality as those around him were. He was a complicated man, one who could be your best friend one minute and spewing vitriol in your direction the next. Through interviews with friends, ex-lovers and associates, Cassavetes paints the picture of a man who fanatically took charge of one tiny part of the world because it was the only thing during his lifetime that he seemed able to control. The documentary doesn't allow itself to get dragged down, however, by the grim end that befell a channel that once had HBO quivering in its boots. It prefers to show us long, extended clips from many of the daring films that Z Channel trumpeted. Things like Penelope Spheeris' "Decline of Western Civilization Part 1," or "Zulawski's The Important Thing is to Love," or "Stuart Cooper's Overlord." These are worthwhile films that few have even had the opportunity to see, and for a brief period of time Z Channel was shooting them into your living room every night alongside such hardcore fare as the five hour cut of Bertolucci's "1900" and similar extended versions of Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" and Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America." Z Channel invented the 'Director's Cut,' it could be argued, just as possibly as it invented the cable movie channel and the independent film explosion of the mid-1990's. This is a channel worth remembering, and a documentary that does a fine job of preserving the vague memories that survive. This is partly due to the way Cassavetes intersperses enlightening interviews with footage from the films that must have been a nightmare to secure all the rights for. The movie is also considerably enhanced by a creepy radio interview that Harvey once gave, sullenly discussing his life's work while it sounds like he already has his finger on the trigger. When the time comes to deal with Harvey's horrific final actions, Cassavetes and her interview subjects handle the situation appropriately - with shock, anger and sadness, but never an attempt to turn the man into something more than he was. The only thing holding Z Channel back from being a better film is its lack of budget, which would explain the History Channel-technique of reusing the same shot every few minutes and hoping the audience doesn't notice. Weak re-creations of leaves blowing in a field or grainy footage of Jerry's old house will stick in your mind after the film, but only because you saw each about five times during the movie. Also, it would have been nice to see some interviews with a few of the HBO people who eventually brought the channel down, and Cassavetes misses a powerful opportunity when she drops in the mysterious vanishing of Harvey's sister but never tells us what became of her. In the end, Z Channel is a movie that Z Channel would have shown. I can't think of any higher compliment to give it than that. |
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