Criterion Mcml Reviews On Afg And Popmatters

War made him a soldier…

We’ve mentioned The Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence on these pages a couple of times (06.16.2010 NEWS: CRITERION MERRY CHRISTMAS BLU-RAY DUE IN SEPTEMBER & 09.28.2010 NEWS: CRITERION MERRY CHRISTMAS BLU-RAY OUT IN THE USA TODAY) and you may well have seen the Alt Film Guide MCML review that dropped via Google alerts yesterday.

The AFG review reminded me that there was a well-considered appraisal of the release written by Terrence Butcher over on PopMatters at the end of last month, (I meant to post it at the time) which is still worth a read. Here’s an excerpt…

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“As Jack Celliers, Bowie is reasonably effective in a modest, though crucial role, as a canny prisoner who sizes up his situation, then manipulates it to his advantage. He?s always been a modestly capable actor, who, in the ?80s, was able to leverage his ascending pop stardom to score a few significant parts, but his thespian career never caught fire, and I wonder if his slightly off-kilter looks may have hampered his efforts. Eyes of disparate color and curvaceous English dentifrice are not the makings of a matinee idol.

Of course, it may just be that he?s never sought the Hollywood limelight, preferring to concentrate on his often adventurous music. He famously rejected an offer to play Max Zorin, the murderous tycoon in A View To A Kill, and parts became smaller and smaller after that. I suspect that roles in challenging indie fare are more to his taste. Perhaps it?s no coincidence that Paul Mayersberg, who wrote The Man Who Fell To Earth, also penned Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.”

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And if you’ve not viewed the bonus disc yet, this review will probably make you want to.