Search - Story of a Three Day Pass on DVD

Content Advisory: Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1968 DVD Release: 01/24/2006 Format: DVD - Black and White Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 20 mins Studio: Xenon Total Copies: 2 Genres: Drama, Romance, Romantic Drama, Psychological Drama

Artfully squeezing every penny out of a grant from the French Cinema Center, Melvin Van Peebles made his directorial debut with Story of a Three-Day Pass. Harry Baird plays a black American GI, Turner, who falls in love with French mademoiselle (Nicole Berger). Upon his return from an idyllic weekend, Turner is demoted by his bigoted captain for fraternizing with a white girl. Honored as the French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival, this poignant little romantic drama "made" Van Peebles, who on the strength of his newly established reputation was assigned to direct Columbia's The Watermelon Man. Story of a Three-Day Pass was based on Van Peebles' own novel -La Permission. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pierre Doris - Peasant
Christian Marin - Hotelman
Nicole Berger - Miriam
Harry Baird - Turner

Melvin Van Peebles' first feature film has long deserved a release on DVD, and while this edition from Xenon Pictures is hardly perfect, it at least gives Story of a Three-Day Pass a much-needed digital upgrade. Story of a Three-Day Pass has been transferred to disc in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1; the source print shows some slight wear and speckling, but the image is clear and sharp, and the scale of grey tones is quite good. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo, using the film's original monophonic sound mix; the track sounds good enough, though not quite up to the quality of the images. The dialogue is primarily in English, with optional English subtitles but no multiple language options. The onscreen introduction Van Peebles shot for the film's previous VHS release on Xenon has been included, but it hasn't been given a separate chapter stop and can only be accessed by starting the film from the main menu. The only additional bonus material is a collection of trailers (including previews for four Melvin Van Peebles films, among them Three-Day Pass). While this isn't a major improvement over the film's release on tape in terms of extras, it looks and sounds noticeably better, and given the film's scarcity, this DVD edition is more than welcome. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide