Forbidden Zone
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Gisele Lindley, Herve Villechaize, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Susan Tyrell Director: Richard Elfman Brand: LEG DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language) Format: Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.78:1 Running Time: 74 minutes DVD Release Date: 2008-07-29 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Legend Films, Inc. |
| New | New Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $9.38 | ||
| Used | Used Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $14.04 |
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Movie Reviews of Forbidden Zone
Movie Review: Warning! COLORIZED!
Summary: 4 Stars
It hurt to give this wonderful film only four stars, since it's definitely a five-star movie. But nowhere in the description of this item does it mention that it's been colorized, and is not the glorious black-and-white version I watched dozens of times from the front row of the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
After receiving the DVD and finding out it had been monkeyed with, I returned to the product page and actually had to click on the "See larger image" link to make out the words "In Color for the first time!" I ended up purchasing another version that was spared the abomination Ted Turner hath wrought.
I have since read, in reference to this DVD, that Richard Elfman had originally intended to have the movie hand-tinted in Asia before being released, but didn't have the funding. If this is indeed true, then good for him and I'm glad he has finally gotten his vision on the screen. But frankly this smacks of revisionism. It reminds me of the desperate justifications Spielberg made for his unforgivable digital vandalism of Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."
Think about it: this is a film shot on a nonexistent budget, literally using cardboard sets, starring mostly unknown actors and featuring music that was either composed by the director's brother or so old it was in the public domain. Hand-tinting a movie is an insanely expensive and time-consuming process; even during the silent era when labor was cheap it was rarely done, and generally reserved for films expected to make boatloads of money.
My suspicion is that "Forbidden Zone" was colorized simply because the producers wanted to sell more copies, and far too many people are morons that refuse to watch anything in black-and-white. I hope I'm completely wrong about this, and Richard Elfman really DID dream of having every frame of his twisted epic carefully painted by hand.
Like pan-and-scan and "full frame" versions of wide-screen films, colorization is spitting in the face of the cinematographer and should not be tolerated. I ended up not returning the color version because I wanted the filmmakers to have the money and there's the chance that the colorization was planned, but if it hadn't been this particular movie I would have sent it back without a second thought. The movie itself is absolutely fantastic and everyone involved should be showered in gold. But be aware that it's NOT the version that premiered at Filmex in 1980.