I'd dearly love to see this on DVD, largely for the footage of Africa when it still teemed with wildlife. I wonder if it would be a step too far for producers though - 'look, it's not that we're super-PC, but this is just too much.' I suspect that, if anything, I'd do better to buy the video while even that is available.
shareTrader Horn was available on VHS, and I have a copy. Try eBay; it might be floating around. I will admit liking the film, but I will also say I grimaced at some of the dialogue about Africans. ouch.
shareI just watched this yesterday on TCM for the first time since I was probably 9 years old, before the term PC (in either of its popular senses) was conceived, and was totally enthralled. Yeah, it's racist, insensitive, brutal and clumbsy, but what a window onto the past, and here I am seeking a DVD of it.
I'm a caregiver for my dad who is going through old age senility and yet when I asked him about it, his eyes lit up and boy oh boy does he remember it. He was born in 1922 and so was just the right age to catch this when it first came out and was such a sensation for "young laddies" who dreamed of being manly white hunters in darkest Africa.
I searched the Turner Classic site and was disappointed to find that was not available on disc as of yet, and I'm not likely to pay 50 bucks for a used VHS...so I quickly cast my vote on the website where visitors are encouraged to do so with the idea being that if some producer sees there's a demand they'll respond with a release. I'd be totally into paying $50 for a criterion remastering with historical notes. The don't make 'em like that anymore, nor should they, but we shouldnt' overlook our past in the interest of being politically correct though ignorant of our history today.
Damn..I wish I had a DVR so I could have recorded it for my dad, if nothing else. Cheers.
That was cool about your dad -- thanks for sharing. (I would like to have asked my dad if he recalled this great flick, but he passed in '94 and I just saw it for the first time in '08.)
God Bless in you care-giving,
Brad, RN
Apparently, the film has too much of a reputation for it's political incorrectness and not enough historical value for people to look past it. Personally, it's the politically incorrect views that I want to see the most. I often get hot-blooded when presented with certain views of racial inequality found in the film and literature of times past, but I occasionally find myself seeking out representations of such views to see just how bad it was. It's like a train wreck where one can't help but survey the damage and see just how bad it was. I desperately want to see it, but not enough that I would pay $50 dollars on Ebay or Amazon to get a VHS copy of it. If it never comes on TCM or AMC, I just might have to give up on watching it or pay several times what its worth to see it.
shareYou can vote for a DVD release on TCM.com. Every vote helps.
shareThanks for reminder...I just did!
shareOkay, about 7 months after the last post. Should I assume TRADER still hasn't been released on DVD?
shareNo, it hasn't and it doesn't look like it will be anytime soon. The best bet now is that the Warner Archives Collection program of burning DVD-Rs will release this, though I personally think it deserves a restoration and "true" DVD release. Does pop up on Turner Classic Movies every so often, and if you have a DVD recorder, that's your best bet. The movie's running time of 122 min. though means it can't fit on a 2-hour DVD-R for home use and will either have to be recorded in two parts or in a 4-hour mode with lesser picture quality.
shareThe Warner Archives collection has produced some wonderful stuff, much of it far more obscure than this picture, but would they do something by MGM? I must admit the whole business of this studio buying that studio's back catalogue leaves me totally confused.
shareFive years ago I mentioned Warner Archives and they've finally done it! So now we have an official DVD. Not cheap, but I didn't hesitate.
share