6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.4 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
When a hypochondriac in a dead-end job learns that he is dying, he accepts an offer to throw himself in a volcano in exchange for a fleeting taste of the good life.
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Abe VigodaRomance | 100% |
Comedy | 11% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Joe Versus the Volcano was the first film directed by John Patrick Shanley—and he didn't make
another for eighteen years. A rising star among New York playwrights, Shanley was snapped
up by Hollywood in the Eighties, where he promptly experienced both highs and lows. His first
two screenplays to be filmed were released in 1987. One, Five Corners, quickly disappeared. The
other, Moonstruck, became a box office hit and
a cinema classic, winning three Oscars, including
one for Shanley's script.
Moonstruck was followed two years later by The January Man, a commercial and artistic disaster
that reaffirmed for Shanley the dangers of surrendering his idiosyncratic creations to a director
who did not share (or understand) the author's vision. With Joe Versus the Volcano, Shanley
assumed total control of a project for the first time, with an extra measure of protection provided
by executive producer Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Entertainment produced the film.
Released in March 1990, Joe didn't lose money, but the audience response was tepid, and the
box office was modest, especially for an Amblin release. The film was marketed as a romantic
comedy on the strength of stars Tom Hanks, who was still known primarily for comedic roles
like Big, and Meg Ryan, who had been propelled to the pinnacle
of rom-com heroines by When
Harry Met Sally . . .. But audiences who showed up for Joe expecting two hours of frothy
diversion found instead a shaggy dog story that mixed erudite references with outright silliness
and frequently left viewers uncertain whether the filmmaker was trying to elicit laughter or
disdain. One critic compared Joe to Howard the
Duck, which was Eighties shorthand for an
epically ill-conceived studio flop.
Joe is one of those films that improves with age, and its fanbase has steadily grown over the
years. The fans' patience has been rewarded with a superb new Blu-ray presentation from the
Warner Archive Collection that renders Shanley's singular fantasy in all its cockeyed glory.
Joe Versus the Volcano was photographed by Stephen Goldblatt, the versatile cinematographer
whose stylish work encompasses sci-fi (Outland),
action (Lethal Weapon 1 and 2
), drama
(Closer) and comedy (The Intern). Even though home video was well-established by 1990 and
pan 'n' scan ruled the day, Goldblatt and his director used the entire widescreen frame for Joe.
They also employed deliberately artificial and theatrical lighting in a variety of scenes, such as
the moment when Joe and DeDe exit a restaurant and step out into a city that looks like a backlot
set for a musical, complete with a random sailor lounging against a street lamp (screenshot 19).
The cinematography routinely adds diffusion in various forms, including smoke, fog and rain,
all of which soften the image. Additional softening occurs in the many sequences with special
effects, which were achieved through optical superimposition. The degree of softening can be
observed in the opening sequence inspired by Metropolis,
which has the film's credits optically
superimposed, imparting a softer, grainier texture (see screenshots 6 and 10). Such scenes may
prompt criticism of the Blu-ray, but it would be misplaced, as these qualities are true to the
source.
For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new
scan, which was performed at 2K by Warner's Motion Picturing Imaging Facility using a recently
struck interpositive. An original answer print made on Eastman LPP low fade stock served as a
reference for color correction, followed by cleanup to remove dirt, print damage and similar
flaws. The resulting Blu-ray image is beautifully filmic, reproducing Joe's varying tableaux with
as much sharpness and detail as the source will allow. The film's wildly diverse palette has been
expertly fine-tuned, from the sickly greys, yellows and browns of American Panascope, to the
Christmas tree lighting of the windows in Joe's apartment building (screenshot 20), to the rich
reds and earth tones that crowd the frame as soon as Joe quits his job, to the ever-shifting palette
of the Tweedledee's sea voyage. The island of Waponi Woo is a riot of bright hues, both natural
(forest green), artificial (orange-soda orange) and in-between (the many shades of Waponi face
paint). Blacks are deep and solid, as demonstrated by the tux that Joe dons for his rendezvous
with volcanic destiny.
There are a few instances of banding, but they are fleeting and not overly distracting. As noted
above, grain is more pronounced in some parts of the film than others, but it is consistently well-managed and naturally resolved. WAC has mastered
Joe at its usual high bitrate, here 34.99 Mbps, with a capable encode free of artifacts.
Joe was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo, but the soundtrack was remixed to 5.1 from the original audio stems for DVD. That mix appears on the Blu-ray, but now supplied in lossless DTS-HD MA. The remix is conservative, maintaining the original frontward focus while lending additional clarity to the literate dialogue, which remains firmly anchored to the center. The surrounds provide ambiance and expansion for sequences like the Tweedledee's encounter with a storm at sea. Dynamic range is more than adequate for the demands of Joe's sound mix, which doesn't reach for shattering highs or bone-shaking lows. The original score by Georges Delerue (Platoon) provides a light-hearted counterpoint to events that might otherwise play as tragic, and the soundtrack benefits from an eclectic selection of popular songs, often rendered in oddball variations (e.g., Lerner and Lowe's "On the Street Where You Live", performed by a mariachi band) and/or used to ironic effect (e.g., Merle Haggard's "Sixteen Tons" transformed into a marching dirge in the film's opening).
The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2002 DVD of Joe Versus the Volcano. The
trailer has been remastered in 1080p.
In the years after Joe's release, Shanley wrote the occasional screenplay-for-hire (e.g., adapting
Michael Crichton's Congo for Frank Marshall, another of
Joe's executive producers), but his
focus returned to the stage, for which he authored numerous plays, directing them himself
whenever possible. When he ventured into cinema again, it was to helm the adaptation of his
multi-award-winning play, Doubt, which was nominated for five
Oscars, including Shanley's
script. On the surface, Doubt couldn't be further from Joe, with its fiercely realistic setting in a
Catholic school in the Bronx of the early Sixties and its earnest plot involving allegations of
sexual abuse by a priest. Take a step back, however, and you begin to spot connections between
the desperate curiosity that sends Joe Banks careering on a search for life's meaning and the
zealous quest for truth by an aging nun that ends up shattering all her certainties. In both comedy
and drama, Shanley loves to catch people at moments when they discover that they don't know
what they're doing or even why they're doing it. WAC's Blu-ray of Joe Versus the Volcano
brings one of Shanley's most memorable efforts to Blu-ray with all its wacky charms intact.
Highly recommended.
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