Review: Richard Kelly’s Cannes Cut of Southland Tales Arrives on Arrow Blu-ray

Arrow’s release gives viewers the opportunity to experience the original cut of Kelly’s freewheeling satire for the first time.

Southland Tales“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp,” wrote English poet Robert Browning. Southland Tales certainly reveals Richard Kelly’s considerable reach. The film is so densely woven that, between its Cannes premiere and theatrical release, Kelly released a trilogy of prequel graphic novels just to provide viewers with the requisite backstory. Suffice it to say, the film’s narrative center of gravity comprises kidnapped action film star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) and twin police officers Roland and Ronald Taverner (both played by Seann William Scott). Their fates unfold against the backdrop of the then-future 2008 presidential election, specifically the contest for California’s 55 electoral votes, pitting Bobby Frost (Holmes Osbourne), a right-wing candidate for vice president, against a band of neo-Marxists led by pornographer-cum-activist Cyndi Pinziki (Nora Dunn). And at the center of the dispute is the inauguration of a massive surveillance system, described as “the Patriot Act on steroids,” called USIDent.

As befits its status as postmodern farrago, the film wears many of its cultural allusions on its sleeve, including references to the life and philosophies of Karl Marx, poets T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost, and the novels of Philip K. Dick. Apart from the neo-Marxist slogans evident on walls everywhere, Marx’s hometown lends its name to the Treer Corporation, whose CEO, Baron von Westphalen (Wallace Shawn), names his ill-fated MegaZeppelin after Marx’s wife, Jenny von Westphalen, to whom he’s somehow inexplicably related. And if it seems initially strange to put Frost’s woodsy verse in the mouth of an alt-right crypto-fascist, we should bear in mind that the poet was an ardent supporter of American empire in the Cold War era. (Eliot’s xenophobic brand of conservatism is also a matter of public record.)

Dick’s influence permeates Southland Tales in a number of ways. At the most basic level, many of the film’s psychotropic notions—alternate histories, spacetime irregularities, and doppelganger messiahs—could have been lifted straight from many of his novels. One of them is specifically mentioned in the line “flow my tears” delivered by racist policeman Bart Bookman (Jon Lovitz). The novel is, perhaps unsurprisingly, titled Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and its protagonist is named Taverner. And then there’s the fact that Simon Theory (Kevin Smith) is made up to bear an uncanny resemblance to Dick himself.

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Many of the theatrical release’s strengths and weaknesses emerge when comparing it to the Cannes cut, which runs almost 15 minutes longer. Most noticeably, the Doomsday Scenario Interface exposition dump from early in the film is completely gone, its most relevant information now layered in through Pilot Abilene’s voiceover narration. Many scenes are extended, and characters fleshed out thereby, most notably Simon Theory. One standout extension includes a bravura driving sequence that segues into a pensive montage of various characters, all set to Muse’s ethereal “Blackout.” As a result of these additions, the connectivity of the film’s numerous plot threads feels more organic, and its internal logic (not to mention the dizzying intricacy of its internal world-building) gains substantially.

It’s virtually impossible to take in all of Southland Tales in a first viewing. It’s a film that plentifully rewards multiple revisits to trace out the various nodes of connectivity, to discover new details in parts of the overstuffed set design, to bask again in the dreamy haze of Moby’s soundtrack. In an era of one-and-done pop-cultural ephemera, this is no doubt the very definition of a cult film. After the stunningly inspired one-two punch of Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, it seems vaguely criminal that Richard Kelly hasn’t been allowed to do much in the intervening 15 years, apart from the fascinating misfire that is The Box. But if Southland Tales indeed represents the way the world ends, then bring on the cozy catastrophe.

Image/Sound

Arrow includes both the theatrical cut and the never-before-released Cannes cut in terrific-looking new 2K restorations. Compared to the 2008 Sony Blu-ray release of the film, the theatrical cut looks a little darker overall, without sacrificing any of the clarity of fine details, and boasts more grain. The Cannes cut is virtually indistinguishable from the theatrical in terms of image quality, except for some shot-on-video sequences that take on a different aspect ratio than in the theatrical cut, where they were blown up to fill the 2.35:1 Scope frame. On the audio front, there are 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo tracks for both cuts. The surround mix is pleasingly immersive, making excellent use of the lateral and rear channels to fill out crowd scenes and other ambient effects. The stereo mix hews closer to the original theatrical experience. Both do well by dialogue clarity, as well as highlighting the exceptional soundtrack, stacked with dreamy rock anthems, assembled by Moby.

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Extras

The disc with the theatrical cut contains all the extras, while the second disc contains only the Cannes cut. On his commentary track from 2008, writer-director Richard Kelly goes at great length into the film’s elaborate backstory, as well as the elements that had to be excised from the film after its disastrous Cannes premiere. Kelly also has some interesting things to say about location shooting and staying faithful to the layout of Los Angeles. The archival featurette “USIDent TV: Surveilling the Southland” is an excellent blend of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, with some great footage of several FX scenes being shot.

“It’s a Madcap World: The Making of an Unfinished Film” is a new piece with lots of talking-head commentary from Kelly and other crewmembers. Kelly goes into the initial conception of the film, how it kept growing and adding layers, much like what had happened during the development of his prior film, Donnie Darko. He discusses aspects of Southland Tales that he considers to be still unfinished. Somewhat inexplicably, the doc is more or less randomly chopped up into three segments, and there’s no “play all” option. The disc is rounded out with a short animated film that appears briefly on one of the many screens at USIDent.

Overall

Now you can now experience Richard Kelly’s postmodern blend of wildly disparate tonal shifts, cultural referents, and generic trappings as it was originally intended.

Score: 
 Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Miranda Richardson, Bai Ling, Wallace Shawn, Nora Dunn, John Larroquette, Kevin Smith, Holmes Osbourne, Amy Poehler, Wood Harris, Zelda Rubinstein, Beth Grant, Will Sasso, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Smith, Janeane Garofalo  Director: Richard Kelly  Screenwriter: Richard Kelly  Distributor: Arrow Video  Running Time: 145 min  Rating: R  Year: 2006  Release Date: January 26, 2021  Buy: Video

Budd Wilkins

Budd Wilkins's writing has appeared in Film Journal International and Video Watchdog. He is a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

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