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Articles & Profiles: Treasure Hunting: DVD’s vs. Bootleg Tapes - By Cary Conley
Posted on Thursday, July 02, 2009 @ 00:05:48 Mountain Daylight Time by Duane
 This past June, my family gave me some DVD’s for Father’s Day. In fact, there are three dates a year that my wife and children automatically know that the standing order for gifts is always DVD’s, and that is my birthday, Father’s Day, and Christmas. My wonderful bride even extends this to our anniversary date as well.
This Father’s Day, one of the movies I received was the last in the series of “Lone Wolf and Cub” films, variously titled Babycart 6: Go to Hell, Daigoro!; Lone Wolf and Cub 6: Cold Road to Hell; and White Heaven in Hell. This started me thinking about a time not so long ago when a legendary movie such as this would have been a bit more difficult to find than just walking into your local Borders bookstore and picking it up. The fact is, only about 10 years ago, I was still working the bootleg video circuit to find some of these more obscure titles.
There was a time in the not so distant past that films like the Guinea Pig series, Shogun Assassin, Lucker, Cannibal Holocaust, Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Anthropophagus and others were hard to find in any watchable form, much less uncut. Nowadays, just about everything that has been put on celluloid is being released on DVD. Believe it or not, I view this trend with mixed emotions.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that I can finally get the aforementioned films in pristine condition, uncut, and with a slew of extra features. Just a few years ago, I was watching a VHS copy of Shogun Assassin that had been through so many generations of copies that it was like watching TV snow—and I was glad to have it! So I’m not bashing DVD’s in any way, shape, or form.
But part of the fun in working the bootleg circuit was the “thrill of the hunt”. Sure, it could be frustrating, but the delicious feeling of anticipation as you waited for that next package of multi-generational, uncut, unsubbed Japanese horror flicks to arrive was undeniable. Sometimes, that “pristine” copy of Salo you were expecting was more than a little disappointing, but oftentimes, the disappointment was somewhat alleviated by the surprises your latest source included at the end of a tape. Bootlegs taught me about letterboxing and how important a correct aspect ratio can be to a film. Bootlegs introduced me to audio commentaries. And bootlegs offered me a plethora of film experience I had otherwise not known, from art house movies like In the Realm of the Senses and In a Glass Cage to Alejandro Jodorowsky and the classic sleaze films of John Waters. I live smack in the middle of the Bible Belt, so films such as these just aren’t around this area, even nowadays.
A typical conversation with one of my sources might go like this:
“Hey, have you ever heard of Coffin Joe?”
“No, never heard of him. Who is he? Can I get more cool flicks from him?”
“No, you doofus, he’s a movie character. It’s an old movie, from somewhere in South America, like from the 60’s, but it’s supposed to be really bloody and pretty scary.”
“Well, I have a friend who knows a girl who dates a guy that has a South American connection. Let me see what I can do.”
“Man, I want this flick so bad that if you come through for me on this, I’ll give you 10 videos!”
And that is all it would take to start me on a search for a film I’d never heard of that not only sounded terrific, but would net me 10 more bootlegs along the way.
Alas, those days are over. I’ve long since forgotten the names and addresses of my connections. Sometimes I wonder if they miss the long conversations and friendly one-upmanship we would have on the phone (“Man, I found a great copy of Cannibal Apocalypse with the footage of the dude that gets a hole blown through his stomach!” “Oh, yeah, well I just got the first Blind Dead film uncut AND in English!”).
But everything in life is a tradeoff. The advent of DVD allowed me to obtain stuff that had always eluded me. And in great quality. With extra features. And Easter eggs. I sometimes still miss all my friends on the bootleg circuit, but at least I have Coffin Joe, the Knights Templar and all the Fulci and D’Amato films to keep me company.
On the same note, something else I kind of miss from my bootleg days is the long hours of hardcore research I put in to ensure I was getting the correct films. Take, for example, the famous Jess Franco sleazefest Female Vampire. Depending upon what country your VHS print came from, you could have a vastly different version of the film, some of which were so edited down, it could make a Lifetime Channel “Movie of the Week” look risqué. So when someone said they had an uncut version under the title The Loves of Irina, was it the hardcore French version, the soft-core German version, or the horror-oriented American version? I didn’t want to waste my precious money and time on a version I already had under a different title, so research had to be done. Organization was imperative. Nothing could upset the delicate balance of the bootleg circuit more than a bootlegger trying to pass off one version of a film as a different version. You could find your sources drying up so fast it would make your head spin!
I used to love poring over the dozens of film books I had collected over the years. Of course, for a horror fan, the Holy Grail was the Overlook Film Encyclopedia of Horror, edited by Phil Hardy. I was lucky enough to find a new copy in the late eighties on a sale table and it quickly became my most important tool for identifying obscure horror films. I still have it, along with the updated second edition, but they sit on a shelf gathering dust now, since the Internet took over. And while I sometimes still miss sitting in the floor with a couple of dozen books scattered around me, the Internet is much faster and certainly more effective.
Of course, the number one source of movie info for films of all kinds is IMBD. I marvel that there are still people walking around and breathing the same air as I that are unaware of this wonderful website. I started co-hosting a film series each semester at the local college in town about three years ago. When we met the first time, I about choked when the head of the group pulled out three huge reference books on film. Each book must have weighed 10 or 12 pounds! I asked him in a somewhat astonished tone why we didn’t just go to IMDB, and of course, it was because he had never heard of the site!
Another great site I use frequently is Rewind. If you want to know which DVD version of a film has the best set of extra features, this is the site for you. It compares all known versions of a DVD (from every region) and rates them. It also spells out the special features contained on each disc as well as whether the film is cut or uncut. I always consult this site before I shell out my hard-earned dollars for an expensive foreign DVD.
One of my favorite fun sites for independent, foreign, and obscure horror information—as well as the regular American stuff—is Kitley’s Krypt. It is chock full of good stuff as well as upcoming release dates for everything related to cult and horror DVD’s. He’s also a personal friend of mine and an all-around good guy.
And now I can add Rogue Cinema to my list of favorite sites for cult, indie, and genre films. Thanks, Duane, for allowing me to hop aboard! Ain’t the Internet just grand?
There are plenty of great websites out there to peruse in search of information on that obscure little film you’re just itching to get your hands on, but the ones named above are, in my opinion, the best research sites out there—plus they’re free, leaving me more money to buy DVD’s instead of those expensive reference books.
One last resource I’ve found to be absolutely essential to my cause is Netflix. We’ve all bought DVD’s that people have just raved about only to be completely disappointed by the film. I certainly have been burned on numerous occasions. And not only do I hate the movie, but I’m now out the $20 or $25 it cost for me to buy the thing! Netflix has been my salvation. Now I can get the movie I’m thinking of purchasing, view it, and then make a decision on whether I want to drop 20 bucks on the DVD. Netflix doesn’t have everything, but it certainly has saved me mucho dinero over the last few years.
Well, it’s time for the trip down Memory Lane to come to an end. I hope you have enjoyed my reminiscing and I hope you’ll return for more!
Thursday, July 02, 2009 @ 00:05:48 Mountain Daylight Time Articles & Profiles | |
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