Dead Presidents - Criterion Collection Laserdisc Preservation

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

Albert and Allen Hughes have brought a raw, edgy, urban sophistication to two complex narratives, deftly reconfiguring genres to reflect the social and political realities of the inner city. Working on their first special edition, they told us they first learned their craft from Martin Scorsese, listening to his Criterion commentaries. Here they return the favor, sharing their filmmaking experiences for future generations.

The Hughes Brothers’ groundbreaking thriller is one of the few major Hollywood films to deal head on with the African-American experience in Vietnam. The story--about a Bronx youth who spirals tragically downward from dreams of a good life to two harrowing tours of duty in Vietnam and finally a life of crime--is underscored with a stirring soundtrack of late ‘60s and early ‘70s hits.

Special Features

Audio: English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

1995 119 MINUTES COLOR SURROUND 2.35:1 ASPECT RATIO DEAD PRESIDENTS is under exclusive license from Buena Vista Home Entertainment TM ® © 2019 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

Cat. no. CC1453L. ISBN 1-91619-94-1.

Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.

1995

Theatrical Trailers n The electronic press kit, including a promotional featurette n Deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, and storyboards n Commentary by the Hughes brothers, director of photography Lisa Rinzler, Dr. Todd Boyd, PhD., Larenz Tate, Keith David, and Ari Merretazon n Dr. Boyd’s guide to Blaxploitation movies n An epilogue to the story: The real Anthony, Ari Merretazon today n The “Walk On By” music video n Al Green in Pimpstrumental Color n

BLU-RAY EDITION

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

The Hughes Brothers’

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 301

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

Albert and Allen Hughes have brought a raw, edgy, urban sophistication to two complex narratives, deftly reconfiguring genres to reflect the social and political realities of the inner city. Working on their first special edition, they told us they first learned their craft from Martin Scorsese, listening to his Criterion commentaries. Here they return the favor, sharing their filmmaking experiences for future generations.

The Hughes Brothers’ groundbreaking thriller is one of the few major Hollywood films to deal head on with the African-American experience in Vietnam. The story--about a Bronx youth who spirals tragically downward from dreams of a good life to two harrowing tours of duty in Vietnam and finally a life of crime--is underscored with a stirring soundtrack of late ‘60s and early ‘70s hits.

Special Features

Audio: English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

1995 119 MINUTES COLOR SURROUND 2.35:1 ASPECT RATIO DEAD PRESIDENTS is under exclusive license from Buena Vista Home Entertainment TM ® © 2019 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

Cat. no. CC1453L. ISBN 1-91619-94-1.

Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.

1995

Theatrical Trailers n The electronic press kit, including a promotional featurette n Deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, and storyboards n Commentary by the Hughes brothers, director of photography Lisa Rinzler, Dr. Todd Boyd, PhD., Larenz Tate, Keith David, and Ari Merretazon n Dr. Boyd’s guide to Blaxploitation movies n An epilogue to the story: The real Anthony, Ari Merretazon today n The “Walk On By” music video n Al Green in Pimpstrumental Color n

BLU-RAY EDITION

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

The Hughes Brothers’

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 301

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

Albert and Allen Hughes have brought a raw, edgy, urban sophistication to two complex narratives, deftly reconfiguring genres to reflect the social and political realities of the inner city. Working on their first special edition, they told us they first learned their craft from Martin Scorsese, listening to his Criterion commentaries. Here they return the favor, sharing their filmmaking experiences for future generations.

The Hughes Brothers’ groundbreaking thriller is one of the few major Hollywood films to deal head on with the AfricanAmerican experience in Vietnam. The story--about a Bronx youth who spirals tragically downward from dreams of a good life to two harrowing tours of duty in Vietnam and finally a life of crime--is underscored with a stirring soundtrack of late ‘60s and early ‘70s hits.

Special Features n Theatrical Trailers n The electronic press kit, including a promotional featurette n Deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, and storyboards n Commentary by the

DVD EDITION 1995 119 MINUTES COLOR SURROUND 2.35:1 ASPECT RATIO DEAD PRESIDENTS is under exclusive license from Buena Vista Home Entertainment TM ® © 2019 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

Cat. no. CC1453L. ISBN 1-91619-94-1.

Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.

Audio: English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

1995

Hughes brothers, director of photography Lisa Rinzler, Dr. Todd Boyd, PhD., Larenz Tate, Keith David, and Ari Merretazon n Dr. Boyd’s guide to Blaxploitation movies n An epilogue to the story: The real Anthony, Ari Merretazon today n The “Walk On By” music video n Al Green in Pimpstrumental Color

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

The Hughes Brothers’

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 301

Laserdisc Production Credits Producer Executive producer Technical director Production manager Videographic design Editorial coordinator Research Art director Commentary editors

Audio commentaries recorded at:

Film-to-tape transfer

Mark Rance Peter Becker Lee Kline Catherine Gray Fernando Music with Susan Arosteguy Rebekkah Linton Susan Ricketts Gordon Reynolds Mark Rance Michael Wiese Rex Arthur Westlake Audio, Los Angeles The Works, Little Rock Theta Sound, Burbank Gregg Garvin / Modern Videofilm, Los Angeles

Special thanks to Allen and Albert Hughes, Keith David, Larenz Tate, Lisa Rinzler, Todd Boyd, and Ari Merretazon.

Thanks to Darryl Porter, Michael Bennett, all the folks at Underworld Pictures, especially AnnMarie Deringer; and Dan Lebental at Park Place Editing.

And thank you very much: Jeff Robinov, Jeff Gorin; Lori MacPherson, Lawson Reinsch, Rick Schlesinger, Ann Hyatt, and Angela Robinson; Josh Silver; Jason Weinberg, Dominic King; Sarah Olson-Graves, and Amanda Veith, New Line Home Video; Steve Housden, Xenon Entertainment; Kit Parker, Gary Meyer, Landmark Theatres; Pat Rand and Marisa Johnson, Caravan Pictures; Tim Barbour and Steve Allen, Disney Inventory Services; Desmond Henry and JoAnne Finan, TRM Negative Cutting; and Sean “Sweet Mack” Anderson.

About the laserdisc transfer

Dead Presidents is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. This digital transfer was created from a 35mm interpositive and the 2 track stereo print master.

Telecine operator: Gregg Garvin / Modern Videofilm, Los Angeles; supervised by the Hughes brothers and director of photography Lisa Rinzler.

A note on the heist

Dead Presidents is based loosely on the life of Ari Merratzon, as it was told to Wallace Terry in his oral history of African-American Vietnam veterans, Bloods.

In fact, no one was killed during the 1970 armed robbery for which Ari Merretazon served a five-year prison term. Today he is a minister living in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Hughes Brothers’

What should concern not only film critics and reviewers, but all citizens of the United States in this age of O. J. and Farrakhan’s Million Man March, is the problem of language and race. We have yet to evolve an appropriate vocabulary that neutralizes the fictions and attendant mythologies of racialist thought.

In the case of Dead Presidents, if a white reviewer made note of the fact that one of the film’s submotifs involves background imagery of black men eating chicken, some sensibilities would be offended by the observation, and the reviewer would be attacked as a racist. Obviously, Allen and Albert like to get with some KFC. So why shouldn’t America in all its ethnic diversity be able to discuss the meaning of a drumstick of fried chicken in a Hughes brothers film? I’ll assume you get the point I’m driving at.

The additional problem in discussing Dead Presidents is its marketing. The film is saddled by both the hype generated by the on-point brilliance of Menace II Society and a promotional campaign framing it as an action-crime drama by individuals who have no inkling of African-American aesthetics. The vocabulary of the marketplace often undercuts serious critical dialogue in judging aesthetic value.

The Hughes brothers, hip-hop heads that they are, after turning a three-milliondollar production into a thirty-million-dollar hit, followed their generation’s dictum, the Public Enemy call: DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE! and resisted pressure to produce a calculated commercial production. Instead, with Dead Presidents, the Hughes brothers seized a space for themselves to grow, not only as filmmakers but also as men. Menace II Society examined the meaning of manhood in South Central Los Angeles by combining the urgency of rap with the explosive visual power of graffiti, spinning a visceral tale of ghetto noir : off-the-deep-end Dads squeezing the trigger on welshing poker pardners with licorice-stick crackheads opening their toothless mouths and drooling blood while offering to gum the local dopeboys for a piece o’ da rock. It was, as they say, the real shit.

Dead Presidents is based on portions of the book Bloods , a documentary look at African-American G.I.s in ‘Nam (Ari Merretazon’s story in particular); and events inspired by the attempted 1973 holdup of an armored truck by the Black Liberation Army (the film’s character of political conscience is loosely based on exiled revolutionary Assata Shakur - no relation to Tupac, though his mother is also a former member of the Black Panther Party), as well as Merretazon’s own attempted robbery.

Its title refers to the worn U.S. currency slated for incineration at the center of the plot.

The story begins in adolescent innocence; but, given as it’s the late ‘60s, that innocence is shattered by the absurd and grotesque cruelties of war (this absurdity is heightened when one realizes it’s also a movie simulacrum financed by the Disney corporation, staged on a cattle ranch in Florida). With his humanity numbed and buried by the experience of Vietnam, Dead Presidents ’ protagonist returns with a value system wholly out of sync with early ‘70s America. His attempts at readjustment are thwarted at every turn; in the process, he realizes that despite his earnest efforts, the values of a local pimp who has been supporting the mother of his child prove greater than his own. In his final descent into a true moral hell, what’s left of his humanity rolls out of his soul in one final roar. Flinging a chair at a black-robed Martin Sheen, seated behind a judge’s bench, the protagonist attacks the very system that created what he has become. It is a moment that speaks to the frustrations felt by African-Americans across the generations.

Due to Dead Presidents ’ Vietnam-era coming-of-age theme, followed by a descent into a world of crime, the film is a very close cousin to John Woo’s Bullet in the Head. It hits all the conventional points of Western dramatic structure (one critic, Don Shewey, compared the language of Western drama to sex: foreplay, friction, squirt, snore); it has the trappings of the crime-action genre; and the visual signifiers that scream ‘70s big-afro funk. But the essence of the film is neither crime action drama nor period protest piece. It is an essay, a cinematic meditation reflecting on the roots of the generation which sired the rag-eared ghetto dogs of the drive-by ‘90s. It explores the motivations of a generation of African-American men who would eventually give birth to the psycho teens who popped each other off like kernels of Orville Redenbacher’s microwaved corn in Menace II Society. In the final analysis, Dead Presidents is the son questioning the experience of the father, to deepen his understanding of self.

-- Darius James Darius James is the author of Negrophobia and That’s Blaxploitation! Roots of the Baadasssss ‘Tude.

Laserdisc Production Credits Producer Executive producer Technical director Production manager Videographic design Editorial coordinator Research Art director Commentary editors

Audio commentaries recorded at:

Film-to-tape transfer

Mark Rance Peter Becker Lee Kline Catherine Gray Fernando Music with Susan Arosteguy Rebekkah Linton Susan Ricketts Gordon Reynolds Mark Rance Michael Wiese Rex Arthur Westlake Audio, Los Angeles The Works, Little Rock Theta Sound, Burbank Gregg Garvin / Modern Videofilm, Los Angeles

Special thanks to Allen and Albert Hughes, Keith David, Larenz Tate, Lisa Rinzler, Todd Boyd, and Ari Merretazon.

Thanks to Darryl Porter, Michael Bennett, all the folks at Underworld Pictures, especially AnnMarie Deringer; and Dan Lebental at Park Place Editing.

And thank you very much: Jeff Robinov, Jeff Gorin; Lori MacPherson, Lawson Reinsch, Rick Schlesinger, Ann Hyatt, and Angela Robinson; Josh Silver; Jason Weinberg, Dominic King; Sarah Olson-Graves, and Amanda Veith, New Line Home Video; Steve Housden, Xenon Entertainment; Kit Parker, Gary Meyer, Landmark Theatres; Pat Rand and Marisa Johnson, Caravan Pictures; Tim Barbour and Steve Allen, Disney Inventory Services; Desmond Henry and JoAnne Finan, TRM Negative Cutting; and Sean “Sweet Mack” Anderson.

About the laserdisc transfer

Dead Presidents is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. This digital transfer was created from a 35mm interpositive and the 2 track stereo print master.

Telecine operator: Gregg Garvin / Modern Videofilm, Los Angeles; supervised by the Hughes brothers and director of photography Lisa Rinzler.

A note on the heist

Dead Presidents is based loosely on the life of Ari Merratzon, as it was told to Wallace Terry in his oral history of African-American Vietnam veterans, Bloods.

In fact, no one was killed during the 1970 armed robbery for which Ari Merretazon served a five-year prison term. Today he is a minister living in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Hughes Brothers’

What should concern not only film critics and reviewers, but all citizens of the United States in this age of O. J. and Farrakhan’s Million Man March, is the problem of language and race. We have yet to evolve an appropriate vocabulary that neutralizes the fictions and attendant mythologies of racialist thought.

In the case of Dead Presidents, if a white reviewer made note of the fact that one of the film’s submotifs involves background imagery of black men eating chicken, some sensibilities would be offended by the observation, and the reviewer would be attacked as a racist. Obviously, Allen and Albert like to get with some KFC. So why shouldn’t America in all its ethnic diversity be able to discuss the meaning of a drumstick of fried chicken in a Hughes brothers film? I’ll assume you get the point I’m driving at.

The additional problem in discussing Dead Presidents is its marketing. The film is saddled by both the hype generated by the on-point brilliance of Menace II Society and a promotional campaign framing it as an action-crime drama by individuals who have no inkling of African-American aesthetics. The vocabulary of the marketplace often undercuts serious critical dialogue in judging aesthetic value.

The Hughes brothers, hip-hop heads that they are, after turning a three-milliondollar production into a thirty-million-dollar hit, followed their generation’s dictum, the Public Enemy call: DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE! and resisted pressure to produce a calculated commercial production. Instead, with Dead Presidents, the Hughes brothers seized a space for themselves to grow, not only as filmmakers but also as men. Menace II Society examined the meaning of manhood in South Central Los Angeles by combining the urgency of rap with the explosive visual power of graffiti, spinning a visceral tale of ghetto noir : off-the-deep-end Dads squeezing the trigger on welshing poker pardners with licorice-stick crackheads opening their toothless mouths and drooling blood while offering to gum the local dopeboys for a piece o’ da rock. It was, as they say, the real shit.

Dead Presidents is based on portions of the book Bloods , a documentary look at African-American G.I.s in ‘Nam (Ari Merretazon’s story in particular); and events inspired by the attempted 1973 holdup of an armored truck by the Black Liberation Army (the film’s character of political conscience is loosely based on exiled revolutionary Assata Shakur - no relation to Tupac, though his mother is also a former member of the

Black Panther Party), as well as Merretazon’s own attempted robbery. Its title refers to the worn U.S. currency slated for incineration at the center of the plot.

The story begins in adolescent innocence; but, given as it’s the late ‘60s, that innocence is shattered by the absurd and grotesque cruelties of war (this absurdity is heightened when one realizes it’s also a movie simulacrum financed by the Disney corporation, staged on a cattle ranch in Florida). With his humanity numbed and buried by the experience of Vietnam, Dead Presidents ’ protagonist returns with a value system wholly out of sync with early ‘70s America. His attempts at readjustment are thwarted at every turn; in the process, he realizes that despite his earnest efforts, the values of a local pimp who has been supporting the mother of his child prove greater than his own. In his final descent into a true moral hell, what’s left of his humanity rolls out of his soul in one final roar. Flinging a chair at a black-robed Martin Sheen, seated behind a judge’s bench, the protagonist attacks the very system that created what he has become. It is a moment that speaks to the frustrations felt by African-Americans across the generations.

Due to Dead Presidents ’ Vietnam-era coming-of-age theme, followed by a descent into a world of crime, the film is a very close cousin to John Woo’s Bullet in the Head. It hits all the conventional points of Western dramatic structure (one critic, Don Shewey, compared the language of Western drama to sex: foreplay, friction, squirt, snore); it has the trappings of the crime-action genre; and the visual signifiers that scream ‘70s big-afro funk. But the essence of the film is neither crime action drama nor period protest piece.

It is an essay, a cinematic meditation reflecting on the roots of the generation which sired the rag-eared ghetto dogs of the drive-by ‘90s. It explores the motivations of a generation of African-American men who would eventually give birth to the psycho teens who popped each other off like kernels of Orville Redenbacher’s microwaved corn in Menace II Society. In the final analysis, Dead Presidents is the son questioning the experience of the father, to deepen his understanding of self.

-- Darius James Darius James is the author of Negrophobia and That’s Blaxploitation! Roots of the Baadasssss ‘Tude.

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Criterion Collection - Laserdisc Preservation Dead Presidents: Special Edition #301 (1995) [CC1453L] https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/07078/CC1453L/Dead-Presidents:-Special-Edition Blu Ray - Region A/B/C DVD - Region All Audio: English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p Laserdisc source

Artwork Criterion Blu Ray Case - Inlay 273mm x 160mm Standard Blu Ray Case - Inlay 269mm x 148mm Standard DVD Case - Inlay 272mm x 182mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Blu Ray Disc Art 115mm x 115mm