Search - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge on DVD

Great film, lousy print (unfortunately, with film the medium

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 03/02/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Enrico's legendary film of the Bierce short story, an adaptation arguably as good as the original, certainly deserves a print freshly struck from the original negative. The film has been used as a "textbook" introduction to cinematic techniques as well as to the uses of time in film--and moreover it's been cited as the inspiration for feature-length films such as "Donnie Darko" and the underrated but powerful "Jacob's Ladder." Unfortunately, for someone who has seen a good 16mm print, this DVD transfer is a pale imitation of how the film should look, so bad I can't bear to watch it let alone screen it for students. (If you're a jazz buff, you'll appreciate the credits, which include the expatriot American drummer and original member of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Kenny Clarke.)

There's another 25-minute French masterpiece that uses the same theme and which has acquired an even more devoted, cult-like following: Chris Marker's "La Jetée." The film takes a while longer to sink in, but upon doing so, it's unshakeable, a permanent part of the viewer's consciousness. Good thing, because the surviving VHS and DVD prints are even worse than "Occurrence"--so unwatchable as to be pointless. The copy that I recently saw was so lacking in definition and grey scale that it was impossible to discern the film's one and only moving image."