Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Waiting for Guffman Blu-ray Movie Review

Still Waiting After All These Years

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 10, 2017

The Warner Archive Collection has added Waiting for Guffman to the studio's anthology of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries on Blu-ray, which already contains Best in Show and A Mighty Wind (the former issued by Warner's main video division). Guffman, released in 1996, was Guest's first experiment with the format, in which he and co-writer Eugene Levy develop a detailed story outline but leave the cast to improvise their dialogue. Guest then spends months in the editing room shaping the movie. Because Guffman was his inaugural effort with this approach, the editing process was unusually prolonged; in the disc commentary, Guest says it took eighteen months.

Guffman is unique in this canon—which also includes For Your Consideration (2006) and Mascots (2016)—because it revolves around a central character, Corky St. Clair, who is played by Guest himself. In his later efforts, Guest decentralized the narrative, spreading it evenly among the array of eccentrics with which he typically populates these films. According to Guest, he explored a similar approach in Guffman, removing most of his scenes in editing because he got tired of himself. One of the film's producers persuaded him to put Corky back at the center of the story, and we're better off for it. While an alternate version with minimal participation by Corky might be entertaining in its own right, it wouldn't be the same Guffman that has accumulated a devoted following over the years. The would-be theater impresario with a bad toupee is one of Guest's most memorable creations and Corky is the reason why Guffman remains a fan favorite among Guest's films.

Until Mascots, which was shot digitally, Guest photographed his improv creations in Super16, both to contain costs and to reinforce the documentary aesthetic. WAC has already demonstrated with A Mighty Wind that a good 16mm source can yield a superb Blu-ray image, and it has done so again with Waiting for Guffman.

Guffman is set in the fictional town of Blaine, Missouri, which is planning a celebration for the 150th anniversary of the town's founding. The occasion represents an opportunity for drama enthusiast Corky St. Clair (Guest) to show off his New York-acquired theater skills by mounting a musical history of the town entitled Red, White and Blaine. To do things properly, Corky needs $100,000, but the city council's entire annual budget is only $15,000. The meeting at which the council rejects Corky's request is a classic deadpan Christopher Guest sequence, as each side regards the other with utter incomprehension.

Despite the questionable quality of the credits that Corky amassed "Off-Off-Off-Broadway"—so far "off", in fact, that his productions may as well have been mounted in the East River—he's the closest thing that Blaine has to a theatrical professional, and he proceeds to assemble a cast of local amateurs, some more enthusiastic than others. Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara) are married travel agents with thespian aspirations. Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey) works at Dairy Queen but hopes for something better in life, though she's too dim to know exactly what. Dr. Alan Pearl (Eugene Levy) is the local dentist, who genuinely believes he's funny, even when his jokes land with a thud, which they always do. As the show's narrator, Corky recruits Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette), a retiree wearing a hat that says "Old Fart", who can't understand why Corky would want him for a musical but who turns out to be the strongest member of the case. For the young romantic lead, Corky pursues Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar), a clueless but hunky car mechanic, whose father (Brian Doyle-Murray) is suspicious of Corky's motives—and understandably so, given Corky's stereotypically effeminate manner and the fact that, despite his prominently displayed wedding ring, the wife for whom he routinely buys women's clothing has never been seen by anyone in Blaine.

High school teacher Lloyd Miller (Bob Balaban), who is the show's musical director, grows increasingly distraught over Corky's unorthodox methods of rehearsal, but Corky fortifies his credentials as a theater insider by informing everyone that he's persuaded a New York producer, Mort Guffman, to attend the performance—and maybe Guffman will take the show to Broadway! When the big evening finally arrives, after much chaos, conflict and upheaval, including a last-minute cast replacement, the entire company watches anxiously from behind the curtain as the chair reserved for Guffman remains empty. Unlike the famous Samuel Beckett play to which the film's title alludes, someone does eventually arrive to fill the vacant seat, but as with much of the rest of the evening, the result isn't what anyone expected.

Guest specializes in characters so wrapped up in personal obsessions, and so lacking in self-awareness, that they can't see how ridiculous they've become. There's a streak of cruelty running through his work, as characters routinely reveal too much for their own good on camera, but in his later efforts, he's careful to include a counterbalancing element of warmth, such as the rueful romance of estranged couple Mitch and Micky in A Mighty Wind or the bevy of adorable canines in Best in Show. Guffman has no such leavening, and depending on one's tastes, that's either a benefit or a drawback. I fall into the latter category, but many fans prefer Guffman's undiluted savagery, and it's undeniably a riot, especially when the film reaches the performance of Red, White and Blaine (with songs by Guest and his Spinal Tap costars, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer). It's a close contest as to which is more absurd, the Blaineians, who are proud to have their town known as "the Stool Capital of the World" and insist that they were once visited by a UFO, or Corky with his citified pretensions, who sees this tale of provincial history as his ticket to the big time. Corky does eventually return to New York, though in a different capacity than he initially envisioned. Somebody missed a marketing opportunity with Guffman, because I would have happily bought the action figures from My Dinner with Andre, and I don't think I'm alone.

Waiting for Guffman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Waiting for Guffman was shot by Roberto Schaefer, who would reunite with Guest for Best in Show and For Your Consideration. The film was photographed in Super16, which was then blown up to 35mm to create release prints. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility scanned (at 2K) a 35mm interpositive made from the original camera negative, followed by appropriate color correction and WAC's customary cleanup to remove dirt and print damage. The results are every bit as good as MPI's and WAC's efforts on Best in Show, with excellent detail and sharpness, given the nature of the source, and a colorful palette, especially during the performance of Red, White and Blaine. The resolution is so good that it's easy to read the mock theater posters in Corky's shrine to his New York past and to appreciate the numerous satirical touches in the establishment where we find him at the end of the film (I'm deliberately being vague to avoid spoilers). The Texas locations that stood in for Blaine, Missouri, are vividly rendered, as is the wide variety of outfits worn by the film's characters. Because it was photographed on 16mm, Guffman's grain is more pronounced than on the typical Nineties film, but MPI has treated it carefully and respectfully. Guffman has been mastered on Blu-ray at WAC's usual high average bitrate, here just a fraction under 35 Mbps, and the encode is proficient.

Waiting for Guffman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Waiting for Guffman was released in stereo, which WAC has taken from the original magnetic master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. Consistent with the film's documentary aesthetic, the bulk of the soundtrack remains front and center, with an emphasis on the dialogue and interviews, which are always clearly rendered. Stereo separation is most evident during the climactic performance of Red, White and Blaine, but even here it's relatively limited. There's no music, except for the show tunes composed by Guest, McKean and Shearer, and they sound just amateurish as they should.

Waiting for Guffman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from New Line's 2001 DVD of Waiting for Guffman. The trailer has been remastered in 1080p.

• Commentary with Director/Co-Writer Actor Christopher Guest and Co-Writer/Actor Eugene Levy: As in their other commentaries, Guest and Levy are such masters of deadpan delivery that it's often hard to tell whether they're joking, but they're an entertaining pair, and they provide an informative behind-the-scenes look at the unique challenges of working in a faux documentary format. Among many entertaining details is Guest's report that the Texas town used for Blaine refused to let him emblazon a billboard with the phrase "Stool Capital of the World".



• Additonal Scenes (w/Optional Commentary by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy) (480i; 1.85:1; 34:04): A "play all" function is included. This selection gives some hint of why Guest's editing process took as long as it did. With such a wealth of hilarious alternatives, the choices must have been excruciatingly difficult.
• Sperm Whale
• Pearl Interview
• Baseball
• Libby Audition
• Savage Dinner
• Good News
• Blaine
• Hunting
• Ron and Sheila—Alternate Epilogue
• Towels
• Shirley Temple
• Miami
• Bulging River



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:03): The trailer includes scenes that didn't make the final cut.

Waiting for Guffman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Corky St. Clair has acquired such a following that Guest brought him back in a supporting role in Mascots, where he is introduced as "Mentor" and serves as a dramatic coach to one of the contestants in a competitive mascot match (played by Guffman alum Parker Posey). He looks older, and his latest toupee is even more obvious, but he bears the same self-certainty he displayed when we first met him in Guffman and the same unshakeable belief in his artistic judgment. Mascots is currently streaming on Netflix, and I encourage all of Corky's admirers to pair it on a double bill with WAC's new Blu-ray of Guffman, which is excellent and highly recommended.