The Sapphires (2012) - August 6, 2013

[Scottie]

The Sapphires (2012)

It's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertain the US troops in Vietnam.

Source: Walmart

[FilmFanSam]

Originally Posted by iScottie

The Sapphires (2012)

Source: Walmart

DVD only.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Sam McCormack

DVD only.

[Sodslaw]

Will be released on Blu Ray in Canada.
Superb movie and well worth a first day purchase.

[FilmFanSam]

Originally Posted by Sodslaw

Will be released on Blu Ray in Canada.
Superb movie and well worth a first day purchase.

I own the Aussie Blu and I must say it looks and sounds fantastic. Quite a few extras as well

[Sodslaw]

Originally Posted by Sam McCormack

I own the Aussie Blu and I must say it looks and sounds fantastic. Quite a few extras as well

Is it region free?

[Arlington]

The U.S. release will be a Blu/DVD combo...nice price on Amazon right now. Great flick!

[Scottie]

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Sam McCormack

DVD only.

No, as stated above it will be released as a DVD and BD/DVD combo.

[cferreiro]

What an offensive cover. The Australian aboriginal leads are shoved to the back of the cover and made a monochrome (god forbid we see their actual skin colour) while the minor role white guy is in colour in centre frame. Well done to the marketing twat who decided that!

[Sky_Captain]

Minor role white guy?

I take it you haven't actually seen it and are white knighting, for the hell of it?

[Arlington]

Great flick....seems that BB will carry this in stores (says "Coming soon" for availability, so I hope so), which would mean 12.99 after U&S

[shireguy]

Originally Posted by cferreiro

What an offensive cover. The Australian aboriginal leads are shoved to the back of the cover and made a monochrome (god forbid we see their actual skin colour) while the minor role white guy is in colour in centre frame. Well done to the marketing twat who decided that!

Originally Posted by Sky_Captain

Minor role white guy?
I take it you haven't actually seen it and are white knighting, for the hell of it?

I take it that you are not 'offended' then.... like others are :

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and...802-2r4d8.html

But fans of the movie might be confused by the US and Canadian versions of its DVD cover. See, instead of lead actresses Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell, you’ll find Irishman Chris O’Dowd as the standout star. The Dreamgirls – all four women in the lead cast – are rendered into a blur in the background, looking more like back-up singers for a glitzy, male rising star.

Of course, those who have watched and loved the film will note that O’Dowd, lovable though he is, actually played the relatively minor role of the group’s manager. The bizarre choice by North American DVD distributor Anchor Bay to recast O’Dowd as the face of the film has therefore sparked an onslaught of social media wrath.

[tylergfoster]

Note that this story was first brought up by MaryAnn Johanson at FlickFilosopher and many pieces (like DailyLife) have not seen fit to credit her.

http://www.flickfilosopher.com/2013/...sapphires.html

What is offensive about the cover is not the centering of O'Dowd (which as many have noted is a common tactic, even if O'Dowd is hardly a "draw"), but the fact that they intentionally backgrounded the leads. The US poster was O'Dowd in the center in that pose with the women occupying the same "space" around him, in full color -- the decision to turn them all blue and put them in boxes as part of the design ends up reading like an intentional decision to downplay them and not a decision to highlight O'Dowd.

I do think it's racist. However, it's not like I'm saying the cover designers said "background them, they're black." It's unintentional common racism by exclusion -- which in some ways, is more insidious because that's what perpetuates these kinds of things.

[LordCrumb]

Original Sapphires Also Unhappy With Cover

The original Sapphires have reached across the globe to call on race rights advocates to boycott the US DVD version of the movie made about their lives.

The DVD, due for release in the US on Tuesday, carries a cover relegating the four star Aboriginal characters to the background, while Irish actor Chris O'Dowd - who plays their manager - is featured in the foreground.

The four women - Naomi Mayers, Beverly Briggs, Lois Peeler and Laurel Robinson - who inspired the award-winning film about battling racism and sexism in 1960s and 1970s Australia have launched an angry broadside against the US distributor.

Sol Bellear, the chairman of the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service, wrote on their behalf:

As I'm sure you can appreciate, the treatment of people of colour in Australia mirrored much of the trauma to which people in the United States were subjected," their letter reads.

That trauma - and much of that treatment - remains alive and well in Australia today, as I know it does in the United States.

The US cover of the DVD completely misses this point, and in fact reinforces precisely the sort of bigotry that Naomi, Beverly, Lois and Laurel fought so hard against.

We're hopeful that the NAACP - with its long and proud history of advocating strongly for the interests of people of colour - will add its significant voice to calls for the DVD cover to be changed.

Naomi Mayers, who is the chief executive of the Redfern AMS, where Ms Briggs and Ms Robinson also work, said the DVD cover was disrespectful.

"What has upset us is that the DVD cover appears to miss that point [of the film] entirely. It's disrespectful to the very talented young Aboriginal actors in the film, and it's disrespectful to us as a group.

"But in particular, it's disrespectful to women of colour everywhere who have stood up against this sort of thing all their lives.

"We are very proud of our work with the Sapphires and we are proud of the film. We hope that the US distributors of the DVD stop and think about how their depiction of that work might be received, and that it motivates them to reconsider the cover artwork before the DVD is distributed."

The US cover image has already prompted outcry on social media and commentators have labelled it racist. O'Dowd called it vile. He later added on his Twitter account:

Source

I agree with them.

[vocalhouse]

Finally watched this tonight. Anybody else notice that the US version is missing scenes? For example, it is missing the scene

[Show spoiler]where they get stopped and almost get shot by the Vietcong (?) on their way to Nhang Tran

. Is shortening a movie a de facto practice by Weinstein? I know they removed about 30 minutes from the US version of Dragon (Wu Xia).

[Arlington]

Originally Posted by vocalhouse

Finally watched this tonight. Anybody else notice that the US version is missing scenes? For example, it is missing the scene

[Show spoiler]where they get stopped and almost get shot by the Vietcong (?) on their way to Nhang Tran

. Is shortening a movie a de facto practice by Weinstein? I know they removed about 30 minutes from the US version of Dragon (Wu Xia).

Gah! Didn't know about this...I saw this in a theater in the States, and don't remember that scene...now I'll have to get the Aussie release...apparently it's 4 minutes longer. Great film regardless.

[Buscemi]

Not only did the distributor refocus the marketing (in what seems like an attempt to sell the film to people who liked Bridesmaids) and cut the film, they also didn't do a very good job of releasing the film. Seeing how Pitch Perfect (which was basically Glee Goes to College) grossed $65 million, The Sapphires should have opened wide immediately. Instead, they went limited (while giving something like Scary Movie V 3,000 theatres) and it died quickly. I live in a small movie market and the film did very well here (word of mouth was also strong from the showing I attended) so there was no excuse not to give it a decent release and ad campaign.

It's also sad that Australian films hardly get a chance to find audiences in the US anymore. I seem to remember the last Australian film to get wide distribution was Wolf Creek (which was ironically a Weinstein release) and that was eight years ago. Other than that, they either seem to die quickly in limited release, barely get released or go straight-to-DVD (the last one was the case with Red Dog, a huge success in Australia).

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by shireguy

I take it that you are not 'offended' then.... like others are...

No, because I have larger things to worry about, besides the xenophobia of the Weinsteins and their marketing people. Regardless of whether or not what they have done if wrong, (of coarse it is), and speaking as someone who has actually seen the UK release of the film and loved it, I'm bemused by the attempts to paint O'Dowd's character as 'minor'. 'Oh, he's just the manager...'

Manager, my arse. He's in large portion of the film, complete with romantic sub-plot and even weds one of the girls. Supporting character? Yes. Minor character? Bollocks.

[thelwig14]

Lol at the "outcry."

It would be idiotic not to feature him prominently on the cover in the states. He had a big role in a huge hit in the states and is coming off his own HBO show. The 4 actresses are complete unknowns. It is a smart marketing business decision.

My redbox didn't have the blu but I enjoyed it. I love this kind of music so I am not objective towards the movie. I just wish it would have been fleshed out more.