David Cronenberg's 'Naked Lunch' (The Criterion Collection) - April 9, 2013

[Akijama]

Naked Lunch Blu-ray

Naked Lunch Blu-ray Review

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
High-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Audio commentary featuring Cronenberg and actor Peter Weller
Naked Making Lunch, a 1992 television documentary by Chris Rodley about the making of the film
Special effects gallery, featuring artwork and photos alongside an essay by Cinefex magazine editor Jody Duncan
Collection of original marketing materials
Audio recording of William S. Burroughs reading from his novel Naked Lunch
Gallery of photos taken by poet Allen Ginsberg of Burroughs
PLUS: A booklet featuring reprinted pieces by film critic Janet Maslin, director Chris Rodley, critic and novelist Gary Indiana, and Burroughs

Synopsis

In this adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory, once-thought unfilmable novel Naked Lunch, directed by David Cronenberg, a part-time exterminator and full-time drug addict named Bill Lee (Robocop’s Peter Weller) plunges into the nightmarish Interzone, a netherworld of sinister cabals and giant talking bugs. Alternately humorous and grotesque—and always surreal—the film mingles aspects of Burroughs’s novel with incidents from the writer’s own life, resulting in an evocative paranoid fantasy and a self-reflexive investigation into the mysteries of the creative process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtflS5wCbjw

[RiFiFi1955]

no thank you

[a clockwork orange]

hell yes

[*PREACHER*]

Only Cronnenberg could bring the works of Burroughs to life...well maybe Gilliam...but Cronnenberg nailed the book!!!

What a trip/experience of a film....Day 1!!!!

[Mr. Eddy]

One of my most wanted Criterion upgrades, definitely a Day One for me.

[joie]

Already seen it. Once is enough.

[DrexlerMcStyles]

This and Repo Man?! Criterion coming up big with the Midnight Movies for April. Anything on this Blu that isnt on the DVD?

[iScottie]

Day 1

[benbess]

Very surreal and very sad film. Perhaps Cronenberg's best, but I'm not sure if I can make it through again....It's maybe a little too real, at least for those who know the real story.

[Todd Smith]

Originally Posted by benbess

Very surreal and very sad film. Perhaps Cronenberg's best, but I'm not sure if I can make it through again....It's maybe a little too real, at least for those who know the real story.

Where can I read more about this? I have seen the film and remember being pretty taken by it, but it has been YEARS and I dont remember a whole lot (I believe we were in a......uhh.......altered state when we watched it).

Looking forward to watching the blu ray though and revisiting this one from my youth.

[UniSol GR77]

One of the most compelling, visually and conceptually provoking movies ever produced in human history. A cosmic masterpiece.

Day one.

[bigshot]

I'm going to have to get this one... I have a mugwump in my screening room at home!



More pictures of my screening room...
http://www.blu-ray.com/community/gallery.php?u=123216

[brandon_260]

I will be buying this, just not sure how much of a priority it is, since I bought the DVD not long ago. I feel I could sell it for a decent price though, so that shouldn't make the upgrade too much.

[jmb1381]

Finally I can upgrade my dvd!April's shaping up to be a good month for blu

[Blu-21]

The current Blu-Ray isn't bad by any means but it just isn't enough of an upgrade over the DVD which is a top notch transfer for DVD standards. Looks excellent upconverted. Hopefully this new Blu-Ray is a knock out of the park like the DVD was.

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Todd Smith

Where can I read more about this? I have seen the film and remember being pretty taken by it, but it has been YEARS and I dont remember a whole lot (I believe we were in a......uhh.......altered state when we watched it).

Looking forward to watching the blu ray though and revisiting this one from my youth.

wikipedia has the basic facts of the sordid and tragic story:

"....During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit.
Joan Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was Benzedrine, an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. Vollmer would become Burroughs’ common-law wife. Burroughs was soon arrested for forging a narcotics prescription and was sentenced to return to his parents' care in St. Louis. Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis which resulted in her admission to a hospital, and the custody of her child was endangered. Yet after Burroughs completed his "house arrest" in St. Louis, he returned to New York, released Vollmer from the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital, and moved with her and her daughter to Texas. Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs's child. Their son, William S. Burroughs, Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.
Burroughs was arrested after police searched his home and found letters between him and Allen Ginsberg referring to a possible delivery of marijuana.

Mexico and South America
Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola state prison. Joan Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at the Mexico City College in 1950 studying Spanish, as well as "Mexican picture writing" (codices) and the Mayan language with R. H. Barlow.

In 1951, Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer in a drunken game of "William Tell" at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar in Mexico City....

[MTRodaba2468]

I'll definitely upgrade this one...

[Dr. Seymour Love]

Quoth Nelson, "I can think of 2 things wrong with that title!" Definitely will upgrade this one!

[Jamescush]

Been holding off buying the dvd version just in case a blu would be coming out.

So I'm all there!

[JoeDeM]

Great news, as I have been contemplating import from Japan, well there's another one I can cross off my want list.