Cockfighter (1974) - April 26, 2022

[El Sleezo]

Think I’ll buy Friday either way, but interested in video impressions first.

[houseca]

A couple of other things about this release. There are no special features (other than a trailor), but that is somewhat expected from such a limited release. Also, the reverse art has the "born to kill" title, so if you don't care for the Cockfighter title, you can change it.

[HuggyBear73]

Huge Warren Oates fan but was never a fan of ..Cockfighter.

I want Oates in Monte Hellman's .. China 9 Liberty 37. It's one of the last great spaghetti westerns. Co-starring Jenny Agutter and Fabio Testi.

[Mr. Thomsen]

I ordered this (and a few other exclusives) through a re-shipper.

Never seen it, but I have friends who are outspoken fans. I am a bit hesitant due to the animal cruelty involved, but worst case, I figure I can always offload it to someone else. Some people certainly have been asking for this on BD for a long, long time.

[Rayjg]

Jonathan Rosenbaum included it in his top 1000 films of all time. Dave Kehr hates it. Hellman says in the DVD commentary that Corman walked in the room and threw the script at him after reading it. He still let him make it though.

[serya]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

...Hellman says in the DVD commentary that Corman walked in the room and threw the script at him after reading it. He still let him make it though.

Classic story. And good for Roger.

Thanks to all the comments re the Shout release. I collect Hellman including poor public domain stuff and have the Anchor Bay DVD of Cockfighter and I am still trying to learn to not buy BD just because it is new and "better" - not always. Thanks to all.

[Jaymole]

I placed an order for this yesterday...I can now Retire my DVD

FYI:There was a porn film parody of this called Chickenfighter but it was not very good

[FlyBry]

Just watched my copy, and boy does it look rough. Constant flickering, a maddening grain field, horizontal lines, print damage, etc. Just ugly. Also, watched with subtitles and noticed quite a few errors with spelling and wrong words being used. This was a blind buy for me, and I'm glad I got to see it after hearing about it for years, but the price is far too high for a transfer of this quality.

[darthtater]

Originally Posted by FlyBry

Just watched my copy, and boy does it look rough. Constant flickering, a maddening grain field, horizontal lines, print damage, etc. Just ugly. Also, watched with subtitles and noticed quite a few errors with spelling and wrong words being used. This was a blind buy for me, and I'm glad I got to see it after hearing about it for years, but the price is far too high for a transfer of this quality.

Watching now and completely agree with the video roughness!

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by FlyBry

Just watched my copy, and boy does it look rough. Constant flickering, a maddening grain field, horizontal lines, print damage, etc. Just ugly. Also, watched with subtitles and noticed quite a few errors with spelling and wrong words being used. This was a blind buy for me, and I'm glad I got to see it after hearing about it for years, but the price is far too high for a transfer of this quality.

Originally Posted by darthtater

Watching now and completely agree with the video roughness!

I received it earlier today... and yeah, it's definitely not a transfer that anyone is going to get excited over.

They sure didn't have anything about a "New 2K scan from -------" on the back cover, so any good vault elements for this one must be either long gone or currently lost.

[Rayjg]

Is it at least an upgrade over the Anchor Bay DVD picture-wise?

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

Is it at least an upgrade over the Anchor Bay DVD picture-wise?

I never owned that release, so really can't say...

It definitely looks "HD" on the Blu-ray, it just comes from a print source that looks rather rough sometimes. Detail is average, colors appear kind of flat. No traces of any excess DNR or anything like that was apparent to my eyes when I scanned through it earlier.

BD-25 disc. The sole extra is a "Trailer" for the film.

[Laserguy]

Originally Posted by FlyBry

Also, watched with subtitles and noticed quite a few errors with spelling and wrong words being used.

Subtitle errors are par for the course with Shout! Factory releases. I've noticed quite a few of them on their Hammer discs. These are not errors a person familiar with the story and characters of these films would make. They read more like the product of some audio transcription computer program.

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by FlyBry

Just watched my copy, and boy does it look rough. Constant flickering, a maddening grain field, horizontal lines, print damage, etc. Just ugly. Also, watched with subtitles and noticed quite a few errors with spelling and wrong words being used. This was a blind buy for me, and I'm glad I got to see it after hearing about it for years, but the price is far too high for a transfer of this quality.

Does the print on the Bd look worse than the clips in the trailer that Kishiro posted right after the above post?

[FlyBry]

Originally Posted by Mose Harper

Does the print on the Bd look worse than the clips in the trailer that Kishiro posted right after the above post?

Way worse. I wish Shout's BD looked half as good as that Japanese trailer.

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by FlyBry

Way worse. I wish Shout's BD looked half as good as that Japanese trailer.

I probably read your response at the time and filed it away as "I'll just have to ignore this release then".

Until the thread got bumped when Rayjg posted it was 60% sold. Then FOMO activated my lizard brain and suddenly I had to make plans to order it.

I'd been meaning to pick up Lady In Red before it sold out too, so this seemed like the excuse to grab both.

Sorry to read (again) how poor the PQ is. Wouldn't be the first time the print on a trailer looked superior to some release of the film itself. I'll probably just keep this sealed for the time being now.

[kishiro]

Japanese Trailer (in HD 1080p)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jh_gVyBItw

US Trailer, wait a minute... wrong movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iviB-qC64RM

[70’sHicksploitation]

I will say this to everyone complaining. We are lucky to even have been given a Blu-ray release at all especially for a film like this. This is one of my favorite movies and I’ll be honest I thought we’d never even see a Blu-ray release of this in my lifetime given the subject matter and the brittle world we now live in. Is there special features? No. Is the transfer the best quality? No. I am just thankful I’m able to own a Blu-ray copy with a bit better quality release than the DVD especially for such a good classic such as this. This poor movie needed something, anything at this point in time and I’m glad it finally got it.

[McCrutchy]

I guess I will go against the grain and say that when I watched this tonight, I was disappointed. I hate animal cruelty, but I support films stupid enough to stage it being available uncut so I can have proof of how ignorant and / or despicable the filmmakers are. I can also usually stomach cruelty when it isn't dogs...or cats...he said grudgingly (Also the rabbit scene in Roger and Me was scarring and I can still hear the hammer hit the rabbit's head), but in this film, I felt bad for delicious chickens, especially at the end. The movie just seemed pretty pointless to me, but I did enjoy the gratuitous breasts (not of any chickens, but rather Patricia Pearcy) and I saw Steve Railsback put a live chicken's head in his mouth and then try to slip his finger in the same chicken's anus, so that's one way to spend a Saturday night, I guess. I watched Dr. Strange (1978) right beforehand and I think I'll go to the evil fourth dimension with Jessica Walter any day:

[Show spoiler]

before I'll call Cockfighter even a minor masterpiece. I think the film's only real virtue is in its unique theme, as least as far as Western cinema is concerned. Unfortunately, that theme is rather unsavory, which is not good for a film with so many chickens.

[Zillamon51]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

[Show spoiler]I guess I will go against the grain and say that when I watched this tonight, I was disappointed. I hate animal cruelty, but I support films stupid enough to stage it being available uncut so I can have proof of how ignorant and / or despicable the filmmakers are. I can also usually stomach cruelty when it isn't dogs...or cats...he said grudgingly (Also the rabbit scene in Roger and Me was scarring and I can still hear the hammer hit the rabbit's head), but in this film, I felt bad for delicious chickens, especially at the end. The movie just seemed pretty pointless to me, but I did enjoy the gratuitous breasts (not of any chickens, but rather Patricia Pearcy) and I saw Steve Railsback put a live chicken's head in his mouth and then try to slip his finger in the same chicken's anus, so that's one way to spend a Saturday night, I guess. I watched Dr. Strange (1978) right beforehand and I think I'll go to the evil fourth dimension with Jessica Walter any day:

[Show spoiler]

before I'll call Cockfighter even a minor masterpiece. I think the film's only real virtue is in its unique theme, as least as far as Western cinema is concerned. Unfortunately, that theme is rather unsavory, which is not good for a film with so many chickens.

Now this ^ is more what I expect from an obscure '70s movie about cockfighting. Not all this talk of it being some kind of minor masterpiece.