What a year for disc collectors. 'Willow' in widescreen. Then '1941'. 'Amearican Grafitti' is finally getting the widescreen treatment. And now, one of the few films left that could be found on virtually every collector's "wish list", 'Heavy Metal', has debuted on laser. The single most requested title from the Columbia Pictures library, 'Heavy Metal' has languished for years in copyright hell. It finally took the deep pockets of the Sony Corporation (and a great deal of legal persistance, no doubt) to wade through the tangle of rights issues to bring this now near mythical film to home video. Fortunately, Columbia didn't stop spending money when the rights issues were cleared and continued to spend on the technical issues facing a video release of this film. Namely, all existing prints of 'Heavy Metal' were literally in tatters. Columbia had brand new elements struck from archival negatives as well as a major overhaul on the soundtrack elements. Their efforts are obvious.
The THX certified transfer is probably as good as this film has ever looked. I have always found the two dimensional nature of animation well suited to video and this is a perfect example. Colors are strong and vivid and about perfectly saturated. The image is crystal clear with excellent detail and sharpness. Video artifacts are virtually nonexistent. The 1.85:1 ratio of this matted transfer looks accurate. I did not notice anything obviously cropped on the top or bottom so I suspect the original elements are hard matted at either 1.66 or 1.85.
The rock music laden soundtrack of 'Heavy Metal', while much improved over any previous incarnation, does not fare quite as well as the video, probably oweing to the age of the film and the technical limits of the period. Dynamics and range seem slightly compressed and the high frequencies sound a bit brittle. On the other hand, I would have to say they made the best of what they had to work with. There are some fun directional effects and the surround channel is put to good use. The musical passages do have a nice spacious feel but, unfortunately, listening at the levels ex-burnouts like me will (even with THX's re-equalization), that upper end edginess becomes somewhat annoying. Oh well, you can't have everything.
The film runs 90 minutes and contains 24 chapters. The side break is only so-so. Following the film is the 3 minute 'Neverwhere Land' segment cut from the film after its completion. Intended as a bridge between 'Captain Sternn' and 'B-17', this sequence is rather more serious in tone than most of the rest of the film and I found it quite interesting. After seeing it, I must say I am more than a little disappointed that this segment was not restored to the body of the film. How much trouble could it have been. As I said, you can't have everything (but you can want it). List price is $39.95.
A final thought. 'Heavy Metal' is not a "great" movie. The quality of the animation varies from crude to good and the story is, at best, tenuous and at worst, incoherent. What 'Heavy Metal' is is unique. Or at least rare. In a movie industry that thrives on imitation, this film is an attempt at something different, something, dare I say it, creative. Perhaps the filmmakers didn't hit a home run with 'Heavy Metal'. But they did give us some cool pictures with some decent rock music (not to mention some of the best looking tits this side of Ralph Bakshi). No serious (or half-serious) collection should be without a copy.
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