Fade-In Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Fade-In Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 12, 2025

Jud Taylor's "Fade-In" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critic and filmmaker Daniel Kremer, and new audio commentary by critics and authors Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Don't cry, cowboy. All good things must come to an end.

It is unclear how Burt Reynolds would have ranked Fade-In if it had been given a chance to impress those who flocked to see his films in theaters across the country. We only know that Reynolds thought highly of it because it was unlike the rest of the films he had made, and that for years after Paramount shelved it, he tried to acquire it and give it a new life.

However, the film Reynolds made with Barbara Loden under the direction of Jud Taylor is not the film that Paramount refused to screen theatrically, and it is not the film that eventually was sold to CBS. The original version of Fade-In that Taylor shot was heavily edited and cut, which is the main development that prompted him to remove his name from its credits, and the version that ended on TV was reedited and recut, too. Also, Reynolds fans and film collectors who managed to see Fade-In on VHS and DVD releases that emerged from the bootleg markets many years later were treated with amateur reconstruction jobs. So, Fade-In has a rather wild history, and those who may have seen the film over the years almost certainly know different versions of it.

This release presents a gorgeous new version of Fade-In sourced from a recent 4K master created at Paramount. Which version of Fade-In is this? I do not know. Before receiving the release in the mail, I had had only one other experience with Fade-In made possible by a bootleg DVD many years ago, and from the little I recall from it, I cannot tell if the new version is a copy of the old version. I can only confirm that Fade-In looks incredible now, nothing like the bits of it I seem to remember.

The story Fade-In tells is multi-layered and still unique. A large film crew from Los Angeles arrives in the sleepy town of Moab, Utah, and local residents immediately line up to get cast as extras. The handsome cowboy Rob (Reynolds) and a couple of his buddies are hired as drivers. Shortly after, Rob meets Jean (Loden), a beautiful film editor, and in the days ahead, while driving her to and back from the outdoor areas where a famous Hollywood director shoots his newest western, the two fall madly in love. However, as the shooting process nears completion, their romantic relationship begins to disintegrate, too.

The western that the Hollywood director shoots in Moab is a real one, titled Blue. It was directed by Silvio Narizzano and featured several big stars, like Terence Stamp, Karl Malden, Joanna Pettet, and Ricardo Montalban. Blue also had a rough history, but for completely different reasons, the biggest of which was the decision to cast Stamp as its star and several specific problems with his ‘foreign’ personality. So, Fade-In uses footage from the shooting of Blue, and while Rob and Jean’s romance flourishes, in a few places borrows bits of the real footage that Narizzano had done. It is a very unique concept for an American romantic film set in rural Utah.

The gorgeous new version of Fade-In has a couple of spots with rough transitions, virtually all of which are towards the middle of it, but it is still a pretty striking film, often recreating the moods and poetic beauty of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger. Also, Reynolds and Loden are so different, yet their romance is so authentic, it is very easy to understand why the former tried hard to rescue Fade-In and let people see it theatrically. Reynolds looks great in a way that he does not in any of the films he had made before it.

So, what is left to be said about Fade-In? It is a shame that years ago none of the people at Paramount whose opinion mattered could grasp that Taylor had shot a film with distinct European aesthetics that had to be judged and promoted differently to succeed. In it, William Fraker’s lensing is as good and possibly even better than that the likes of Luciano Tovoli (The Passenger), Vittorio Storaro (The Sheltering Sky), and Ennio Guarnieri (A Brief Vacation) are remembered for. There is even an astonishingly good soundtrack created by Ken Lauber that is perfectly matched with it, making the significance of the previously mentioned aesthetics unmissable.

The popular alias Alan Smithee was used for the first time in Fade-In after Taylor removed his name from its official credits.

Fade-In Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Fade-In arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

My one and only viewing of Fade-In occurred a long time ago via a not-so-legitimate DVD release, which presented it with a different title. I am unsure if the DVD release had the exact same version of the film that is featured on this new Blu-ray release. However, I must say this is an irrelevant detail now because what is featured on the Blu-ray release is an astonishingly beautiful film I had not seen before. This is not an exaggeration. I knew its story and how it is structured -- it overlaps the real production of another, real western titled Blue -- but for the first time I could see and grasp what director Jud Taylor and cinematographer William Fraker had attempted to do with the film. So, the Blu-ray release is sourced from a new 4K master prepared at Paramount. While a few nicks and blemishes can be spotted, this 4K master gives the entire film a wonderful, still very healthy, organic appearance of the kind that an interpositive would produce. I do not know if this master was struck from an interpositive, or whether it is some sort of reconstruction job. However, the visuals have a certain softness and dynamic range that are typically associated with (re)masters struck from an older interpositive. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. Color balance is stable. I think that it is fine, too. In some areas with daylight footage, I would have preferred to see more blue and blue nuances -- since the entire film is set during a warm summer period in rural Utah -- but I did not notice any troubling anomalies. On the contrary, there are more areas where the overall color temperature of the visuals feels right. Image stability is good. All in all, it is great to finally see a proper presentation of this once quite elusive film. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Fade-In Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

In all areas where the music becomes prominent, the audio is very good. All exchanges are clear and easy to follow, too. However, some unevenness is present, and I am unsure if all of it is replicated, or some may be somehow related to aging. The unevenness is never even remotely distracting. I mention it because it is something that everyone that views the film will notice. There are no audio dropouts, distortions, hiss, or other similar anomalies.

Fade-In Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critic and filmmaker Daniel Kremer, who shares plenty of information about the sad history of Fade-In, Burt Reynolds' desire to acquire the film, Jud Taylor's work on it and decision to remove his name from the official credits, etc. Kremer also shares a lot of unique information about Silvio Narizzano, whose western, Blue, is being shot in Fade-in and is the event that brings together Reynolds and Barbara Loden's characters.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics and authors Bryan Reesman and Max Evry. Once again, there is a lot of interesting information about Fade-In and its handling by Paramount, the type of film it could have been, how documentary/raw footage is used in it, and how it enhances its European quality, the careers of its stars, etc.

Fade-In Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Top brass at Paramount did not get the type of film Jud Taylor and the great cinematographer William Fraker attempted to deliver with Fade-In. It was a unique mosaic of poetic visuals and moods, quite similar to the ones that defined the work of Michelangelo Antonioni and Valerio Zurlini. This was almost certainly the key reason Fade-In was edited, cut, and then denied a theatrical release, which is most unfortunate. While it is unclear what version of it is on this Blu-ray release, Fade-In is still worth seeing because parts of it are brilliant. Kudos to Paramount for remastering it in 4K and Kino Lorber for bringing it to Blu-ray. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.