S.O.B.
($20) is writer/director Blake Edwards’ jaundiced and often times hilarious
black comic view of Hollywood and the insane world of movie making. Of
course, the over-the-top manner in which Edwards’ screenplay goes about
ripping apart Hollywood, would indicate that every bit of it must have
some basics in reality. S.O.B. tells the story of an enormously
successful Hollywood producer named Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), who
commits tinsel town’s biggest cardinal sin- he produces the biggest, most
expensive flop in the history of the movies. As a result of his film bombing
at the box office, the shock causes a devastated Felix to lose his mind…
After
several suicide attempts, a spontaneous Hollywood orgy at his beach house
produces an epiphany in Felix- he knows how to save his film and turn
it into the greatest motion picture success in the history of Hollywood.
Of course, the studio won’t give Felix another dime, so he mortgages himself
to the teeth to purchase the film outright, so he can re-shoot it as a
sexual epic. However, none of this sits well with the film’s star Sally
Miles (Julie Andrews), who is Felix’s estranged wife and America’s "G"
rated sweetheart. Making matters worse, Sally discovers that she will
have to do a nude scene in the revised version of the movie, if she wants
to recoup any part of the community property that Felix has already spent.
The truly first rate cast of S.O.B. also includes William Holden,
Larry Hagman, Robert Loggia, Stuart Margolin, Robert Preston, Craig Stevens,
Loretta Swit, Robert Vaughn, Robert Webber and Shelley Winters. Look for
a very young and nubile Rosanna Arquette in small, but highly visible
role.
Warner
Home Video has made S.O.B. available on DVD in a 2.35:1 wide screen
presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for 16:9 displays.
The transfer looks very good, but the movie is over twenty years old and
has a slightly dated appearance. There is a mild softness in a few shots,
plus a bit film grain crops up now and again. Still, the image is usually
very crisp and renders with a fairly respectable level of detail. The
film element itself, displays a few blemishes, but nothing too bad for
a movie over two decades old. Colors are pretty realistic and the flesh
tones come across as appealing. There is no real chroma noise, but sometimes
colors are a bit fuzzy, which may be attributable to mild photographic
filtering. Blacks are accurately rendered, contrast is good and the picture
produces decent shadow detail in the darker scenes. There are no overt
problems with digital compression artifacts on the dual layer DVD.
S.O.B.
is offered with a Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack. While the sound is
a bit flat, fidelity isn’t particularly constricted, so the film’s music
manages to sound pretty good with a bit of amplification. The few sound
effects in the film are adequately reproduced, despite the lack of a true
bottom end. Dialogue is clean sounding and is usually intelligible, except
for a few heavily accented voices. A French monaural soundtrack is also
encoded onto the DVD, as are English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese,
Korean, and Thai subtitles. Music underscores the basic interactive menus,
which provide access to the standard scene selection and set up features
as well as a theatrical trailer and cast filmographies.
S.O.B.
is a personal favorite because this film gleefully trashes every aspect
of Hollywood and the movie making industry. Additionally, S.O.B.
is vulgar, exceedingly black and delivers moments of utter hilarity. If
you are a fan, you will want to own a copy of Warner’s DVD, which offers
a very nice looking presentation of the film.
S.O.B.
($20) is writer/director Blake Edwards’ jaundiced and often times hilarious
black comic view of Hollywood and the insane world of movie making. Of
course, the over-the-top manner in which Edwards’ screenplay goes about
ripping apart Hollywood, would indicate that every bit of it must have
some basics in reality. S.O.B. tells the story of an enormously
successful Hollywood producer named Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan), who
commits tinsel town’s biggest cardinal sin- he produces the biggest, most
expensive flop in the history of the movies. As a result of his film bombing
at the box office, the shock causes a devastated Felix to lose his mind…
After
several suicide attempts, a spontaneous Hollywood orgy at his beach house
produces an epiphany in Felix- he knows how to save his film and turn
it into the greatest motion picture success in the history of Hollywood.
Of course, the studio won’t give Felix another dime, so he mortgages himself
to the teeth to purchase the film outright, so he can re-shoot it as a
sexual epic. However, none of this sits well with the film’s star Sally
Miles (Julie Andrews), who is Felix’s estranged wife and America’s "G"
rated sweetheart. Making matters worse, Sally discovers that she will
have to do a nude scene in the revised version of the movie, if she wants
to recoup any part of the community property that Felix has already spent.
The truly first rate cast of S.O.B. also includes William Holden,
Larry Hagman, Robert Loggia, Stuart Margolin, Robert Preston, Craig Stevens,
Loretta Swit, Robert Vaughn, Robert Webber and Shelley Winters. Look for
a very young and nubile Rosanna Arquette in small, but highly visible
role.
Warner
Home Video has made S.O.B. available on DVD in a 2.35:1 wide screen
presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for 16:9 displays.
The transfer looks very good, but the movie is over twenty years old and
has a slightly dated appearance. There is a mild softness in a few shots,
plus a bit film grain crops up now and again. Still, the image is usually
very crisp and renders with a fairly respectable level of detail. The
film element itself, displays a few blemishes, but nothing too bad for
a movie over two decades old. Colors are pretty realistic and the flesh
tones come across as appealing. There is no real chroma noise, but sometimes
colors are a bit fuzzy, which may be attributable to mild photographic
filtering. Blacks are accurately rendered, contrast is good and the picture
produces decent shadow detail in the darker scenes. There are no overt
problems with digital compression artifacts on the dual layer DVD.
S.O.B.
is offered with a Dolby Digital monaural soundtrack. While the sound is
a bit flat, fidelity isn’t particularly constricted, so the film’s music
manages to sound pretty good with a bit of amplification. The few sound
effects in the film are adequately reproduced, despite the lack of a true
bottom end. Dialogue is clean sounding and is usually intelligible, except
for a few heavily accented voices. A French monaural soundtrack is also
encoded onto the DVD, as are English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese,
Korean, and Thai subtitles. Music underscores the basic interactive menus,
which provide access to the standard scene selection and set up features
as well as a theatrical trailer and cast filmographies.
S.O.B.
is a personal favorite because this film gleefully trashes every aspect
of Hollywood and the movie making industry. Additionally, S.O.B.
is vulgar, exceedingly black and delivers moments of utter hilarity. If
you are a fan, you will want to own a copy of Warner’s DVD, which offers
a very nice looking presentation of the film.
