Why is this not on DVD?
It never ceased to amaze me during my years in Home Video, how studios would jump on any trend and capitalize on the minutest connection in order to market product. (Some years ago, I remarked to a friend of mine from Paramount about this. I said there was a recent example about that in a movie called Soultaker starring Joe Estevez from the “amazing Martin Sheen Family!” “That’s one of ours!” She exclaimed. ………………………………….. OK you had to be there to appreciate it, but I felt compelled to re-live that)
Anyway I was thinking about my growing dissatisfaction (thank you spell check) with President Obama when I happened upon a viewing of Advise and Consent on Turner Classic Movies the other day. I started thinking about other political dramas I have enjoyed (It’s not all car chases, breasts, and bullets in my home library you know.) when I thought about The Man, a 1972 drama starring James Earl Jones as America’s first Black President, preceding Bill Clinton by 20 years.
I love the poster. You could put Obama’s pic on the right and replace the pictures of actors on the right with (in order) Monica Crowley, Joe Biden, Sasha and/or Malia, and Hilary Clinton and no one would believe they didn’t say that. Well maybe not Hilary, if what Bill has said is true, she’s probably screaming at Chelsea “I want a grandchild! Do I have to come over and show you how to do it?! Or do I have to get one of your father’s whores to do it?” (Sorry I was watching Fox news the other day.)
The President and Speaker of the House die in an accident in West Germany and the Vice President turns down the chance to take over citing that he is too old and would not last long in the job. The next in line is the President pro tempore of the Senate, Douglas Dillman (James Earl Jones). The Secretary of State (William Windom) much to the dismay of his bitch wife doesn’t fight for it as he knows he has no way around the rules and figures Dillman will screw up anyway. You fans of the 70’s will see a lot of familiar faces in this -Martin Balsam, Burgess Meredith (the Penguin in the TV version of Batman) chewing up the scenery as the bigoted southern senator if my memory serves correct, Robert DoQui (The Sergeant in RoboCop), and Georg Stanford Brown (The Rookies). Lew Ayres who played the Vice President in the aforementioned Advise and Consent, plays the elderly VP here. The Director, Joseph Sargent, also directed one of my all time favorites The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3.
Now when you look up the credits, it says the movie was distributed by Paramount pictures and produced by ABC Circle Films and Lorimar Studios. Which outlines the difficulties as I speak.
ABC Circle Films is now part of Disney, Lorimar is owned by Warner Brothers (who won’t put Freebie and the Bean on regular DVD but on their bootleg “Warner Brothers Archive” series but yet put out CRAP like COPOUT with Bruce “How much? I’ll do it” Willis and Tracy “Somebody’s gonna get pregnant” Morgan. Am I bitter about that? Just a little.), and add Paramount to the mix and you have a pissing match over the rights. Unfortunately the way Hollywood works is conducive to such a thing so I’m not totally surprised its not available. I would have thought someone would have found a way to get this out by now. What does surprise me is that I can’t find a good bootleg of this. Every bootleg selling clown on 125th st has The Spook who sat by the Door (Don’t get me started about THAT not being available on DVD), but not this, *sigh*.
Rodneyrants 