Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Black Rainbow Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 7, 2020

There’s a rather interesting if arguably flawed 1974 film from Frank Perry titled Man on a Swing which gave Joel Grey a chance to strut his stuff in the wake of his Academy Award winning turn in Cabaret. Grey played a supposed psychic who has “inside” information on a murder, though how he came by that knowledge is a bit of a mystery, with a policeman (played by Cliff Robertson) trying to figure out if the Grey character is really in touch with the “other side”, or who is in fact a charlatan who may be a murderer. Man on a Swing came and went quickly in theaters, and even its Blu-ray release a few years ago didn’t seem to stir up a whale of a lot of interest, but the film may make for an appropriate double feature with Black Rainbow, a film which posits Rosanna Arquette as an Aimee Semple McPherson type who travels the South and who instead of outright evangelizing, gives her audiences a peek into the afterlife by supposedly channeling dead relatives of them for a little conversation of sorts. Grey’s approach in Man on a Swing was to create a character out of tics, and his mannerisms, while unavoidably fascinating, may ultimately be off putting. Arquette on the other hand in her portrayal of Martha Travis is positively subdued a lot of the time, which may actually help to establish the ambiguity as to whether Martha is in touch with the “other side”, or is in fact a charlatan, though in this case there’s no issue as to whether she may or may not be a killer, since Black Rainbow isn’t especially discursive about who is wreaking havoc in a backwater industrial town.

Black Rainbow has a rather starry cast for a film that few have probably heard of. Aside from Arquette, whom the commentaries included on this Blu-ray as supplements mention was something of an "It Girl" when this film came out in 1989 (she mentions in some supplements that none other than Martin Scorsese urged her to take this role), Jason Robards is on hand as her scheming, alcoholic father Walter (there's absolutely no question as to whether he's a charlatan or not), and Tom Hulce plays a crusading journalist named Gary Wallace who becomes intrigued by Martha and who, courtesy of the film's bifurcated time periods (more about that in a moment), continues to wonder about her long after she's ostensibly left his life. The film in fact begins with a short sequence detailing Wallace finding an elderly and evidently somewhat addled Martha in a dilapidated house, where Wallace insists he needs to know how Martha's father died. While commentators Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan mention that they personally found the quick cut to a flashback confusing, I guess I had a rare moment of acuity, because it was obvious to me that when the film's time frame changed to decades in the past, suddenly Martha no longer had gray hair and looked considerably younger generally as well. In any case, the bulk of the film actually plays out as an extended flashback of sorts.

Ellinger and Deighan also go into the film's emphasis on time, especially with regard to some allusions to wrist watches and Martha's own such device which keeps skipping ahead at a quick pace, to put Martha's "special abilities" into context. But in a way, you really don't even need to analyze the "time" element, such as it is, because the bottom line here is that the film rather unabashedly displays Martha absolutely engaging in what might be termed prophecy, as in correctly predicting the future. And isn't that very act a form of "time traveling", when you get right down to it? It may be "spiritual" or "imaginative", but the mere act of correctly predicting something that hasn't happened yet would seem to indicate some ability to sidestep our normal, rational apprehension of time.

In that regard, the film initially hinges on a rather interesting sequence that sees Martha talking to a woman at one of her shows, and speaking about the woman's dead husband, which understandably causes great concern for the woman, since she claims her husband is still alive. Suffice it to say that situation soon changes, and it's not the last time that Martha's predictive capabilities come into play. That said, as Mike Hodges repeatedly gets into in some of the supplements included with this release, he wanted to address all sorts of issues aside and apart from a maybe, maybe not charlatan who suddenly finds herself with "real" powers. Among the other issues Hodges stuffs into this tale are ecological disasters (including a nuclear plant accident), corporate malfeasance, workers' rights, whistle blowers, family dysfunctions, and the general ethos of the American "Bible Belt" south. It may simply amount to too much.

As a result, the sum of Black Rainbow's parts may indeed be perceived as overkill, but the parts when taken individually are really rather fascinating a lot of the time. Arquette, Robards and Hulce all offer really interesting characterizations, and the film toes a rather nice line between "belief" and "skepticism". This film evidently fell by the wayside during one of Miramax's more troubled periods, but it may be ripe for rediscovery now. It may be a (sorry) hodge(s)podge, but it certainly combines a number of rather disparate elements in an unusual way.

Black Rainbow Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Rainbow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following verbiage on the restoration:

Black Rainbow has been restored by Arrow Films and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 5.1 and stereo sound.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution at Goldcrest Films. Colour grading and restoration was completed in 2K resolution at Silver Salt Restoration, London. The audio mixes were supplied by Goldcrest Films.

This restoration has been approved by director Mike Hodges. All original materials have been made available by Goldcrest Films.

This is another great looking transfer of a cult item from Arrow, one that offers generally excellent detail and fine detail levels, along with an often nicely saturated palette. Some tricky potential problem spots like the screened door through which Wallace attempts to interrogate Martha early in the film resolve beautifully (see screenshots 4 and 9). Bright colors, like Martha's blood red lipstick or even the silken choir robes that some supporting characters in some of the church scenes wear all resonate with depth. There's a just slightly purplish or bluish undertone to some scenes, but nothing I found overly problematic. There are occasional moments where the grain field spikes and detail levels falter (see screenshots 18 and 19).

Black Rainbow Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Rainbow features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks. Both offer excellent fidelity, but the surround track definitely opens up elements like the use of gospel (and occasionally a bit more anachronistic rock) music, as well as some of hall ambience of some of the venues that Martha "plays". Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly in this problem free presentation.

Black Rainbow Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan


• Audio Commentary by Mike Hodges


• Message in a Bottle: The Making of Black Rainbow (1080i; 19:19) offers some good interviews with various cast and crew.


• Archival Interviews were made by Goldcrest at the time of production:

  Jason Robards (1080p; 2:23)

  
  

  Rosanna Arquette (1080p; 2:17)

  
  

  Tom Hulce (1080p; 2:22)

• Archival Featurettes

  8 Minutes (1080p; 8:22) is basically an EPK with interviews and scenes from the film.

  
  

  Disasters (1080p; 2:12) focuses on the film's ecological aspect.

  
  

  Seeing the Future (1080p; 2:19) examines the desire to know the future and Martha 's clairvoyant capabilities.

  
  

  Behind the Rainbow (1080p; 20:32) is another more generalist overview and includes more interesting interviews.

• Trailer (1080p; 1:41)

As usual, Arrow has also provided a very nicely appointed insert booklet, with writing (including a letter from Stanley Kubrick to Hodges about the film), stills and technical data.

Black Rainbow Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Commentators Ellinger and Deighan go into what they perceive as the film's combo platter of supernatural and thriller aspects as being perhaps unmarketable, but I think it's Hodges' attempts to stuff so many disparate elements into this story which may have ultimately ended up hobbling its original attempts to find an audience. Still, it's often quite provocative, and it offers Arquette, Robards and Hulce good opportunities. For a film that also seems to take place "out of time", the production design is also interesting and well realized. Technical merits are first rate and Arrow has assembled another really appealing assortment of supplements. Recommended.