ADDITION: Milestone Blu-ray - October 14': The new restoration and 1080P transfer take huge strides beyond the way out-of-print 2005 Second Run DVD. Frankly, it is exactly what this masterpiece needed. Ingmar Bergman called it “the most extraordinary film I’ve seen in my life.” It only seems appropriate to have it in the best resolution for home theatre presentation and restored to its best quality. As an extra on the Blu-ray is a comparison between the Museum of Modern Art restoration and Milestone's 2K raw scan done at Modern Videofilm from the WCFTR 16mm Fine Grain. There are a few speckles and light scratches remaining. You can see the disparity between the SD and HD in the below matched screen captures. "With the financial support of hundreds of Kickstarter backers, Milestone worked with the Academy Film Archive and Modern Videofilm to create sparkling new 35mm prints" (of which this transfer is derived.)

NOTE: The Milestone version is 4-5 minutes longer than Second Run's DVD and Mystic Fire's VHS. The weird history of the film on video is that you always video master the visual first and so the engineers mastered only the visual film. Both versions cut out some of the "black leader scenes" especially at the beginning of two of the reels.

Audio is lossless via a linear PCM track. It improves upon the DVD but the quality is still more a function of the production limitations. It does sound clearer with more of the vérité atmosphere remaining. Milestone have, thankfully, added optional English subtitles.

There are a lot of supplements including some color footage of Jason Holiday in front of Max's Kansas City in NY cirac 1971 (photographed by Anton Perich) - alot with Shirley Clarke discussing the film, a trailer - almost 1.5 hours of audio outtakes (both 'Jason Unleashed' and a Pacifica Radio Interview with Shirley Clarke). I was appreciative of Butterfly (1967) - created by Shirley Clarke and Wendy Clarke for a screening at the New York University LOEB Student centre as part of an Anti-War program of short films. It was only screened that one time. Wonderful to have all this extra material to view.

This package has so much to offer - although, obviously, not everyone's cup-of-tea. I am thrilled to see it looking so good and to have it be a part of my library. Quite a time for another generation of audiences to meet and be fascinated by Jason Holliday. Absolutely recommended!

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ON THE DVD: Wow, you gotta hand it to Second Run DVD - how in the world did they dig up this little marvella? Not knowing what to expect I felt like I was kicked in the stomach by a horse. Second Run should additionally be complimented as this must purely be a labor of love - I can't see anyone retiring on the strength of these DVD sales. After further research I truly hope Second Run can come up with more Shirley Clarke stuff.

Frankly the image looks awful, but I suspect THIS is exactly how it does look from the best possible print (I'm still more impressed that it actually exists rather than how it look). My only real complaint is that removable subtitles would have been nice as the audio is similarly as weak as the image, but again I'm sure it would not be cost-effective. I am thrilled to have this in my collection. Second Run just keeps pumping out these rare and previously unseen delights.

Gary W. Tooze