MovieChat Forums > Reach for the Sky (1956) Discussion > R1 DVD from VCI coming Oct. 18, 2011

R1 DVD from VCI coming Oct. 18, 2011


Reach for the Sky finally arrives on DVD in North America on October 18, 2011. VCI, which has been issuing many great British classics from Rank for the past several months, is adding this film to the list. Retail price, $19.95. The only extras are the trailer and a photo gallery. On past experience with this company, the DVD should be excellent.

Updates.... Release of the film was held up until November 15, 2011, but it's out now. And this is the original full-length British film at 136 minutes, not the edited US version. (1/21/12)

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Only if they have the correct running time. I just watched a 105m version on TCM this afternoon.

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Don't worry -- the DVD has the complete, uncut, original British film, at 136 minutes. VCI gets its prints direct from Rank.

I have an R2 DVD of the complete film from the UK but was happy to get the R1 disc. I added the fact that the VCI disc is of the full-length original, plus the actual, delayed release date of the film, to my OP. Thanks for bringing up the matter of the running time.

I saw part of the film on TCM today too, and immediately realized it was the edited US release, not from its being cut but from the weak quality of the print. The cuts gradually became evident after that. The sound and picture on the new DVD are excellent.

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I still find it hard to believe they originally considered Richard Burton for the role. I read the book, I think, in the 9th grade and some of it really lingered in my memory for over 50 years.

A comparable story, of course, would be Harold Russell who never made it into the war but lost his hands, I think, in training. He won two Oscars, one for Best Supporting Actor in The Best Years of Our Lives, of course, and a special AA. It was 35 years before he made another film. I also remember seeing him on Trapper John, MD one.

My wife, who has CP, initially didn't want to watch RFTS because it was a war film but she did like Bader's story until she fell asleep.

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I'd heard Burton was considered for this role, and actually I think he would have been good in it. If Bader's personality was as depicted in the movie, Burton's own character and personality may have been closer to Bader than Kenneth More's.

Bader liked More's performance and the two men remained lifelong friends. When More died in 1982 Bader delivered the principle euolgy at the funeral, just two months before Bader himself died.

Funny story about your wife. Frankly, I do think the film is a bit overlong.

Not really much of a connection to Harold Russell, though. As you pointed out, Russell was a non-professional who had sustained real injuries, then was tapped for his fictional role in Best Years. (Interestingly, the training accident that cost him his hands -- a grenade he was holding exploded prematurely -- happened on June 6, 1944: D-Day. But Russell was on an Army base in North Carolina, not in France.) More was an actor portraying a man who had lost his legs. I see your point, but the two situations really aren't comparable, I think.

But I remember Russell in his second film role 34 years later, Inside Moves (1980), as well as the Trapper John, M.D. episdoe you mentioned. He was a pretty good actor. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly behaved disgracefully toward him in the 90s, when he put his special Oscar up for sale in order to pay his wife's medical bills. Oscars awarded after 1950 remain the property of the Academy and so cannot be sold, but ones given prior to that date belong to the recipients, who can do with them what they please. Russell's action, which he took with great reluctance, so upset the Academy that they tried to stop the sale. Karl Malden added insult to injury by saying the Academy would loan Russell some money (not nearly enough) at the going interest rate, if he'd agree to withdraw the sale. Ultimately, I believe Steven Spielberg bought the Oscar for $60,000, then donated it, I think to the Academy.

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Thank you for the background on Bader and Russell.

One movie I always recommend because I have Asberger's is Rain Man which, I think, was inspired by a true story. Two reasons: the writers commentaries are very informative about these disorder. Second, a friend of mine character actor Ralph Tabakin plays the casino security man who figures out how Hoffman and Cruise are winning to much money. Ralph was surprised when it grosses $300m. Like The King's Speech and The Best Years of Our Lives RM touched a lot of nerves.

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I've seen Rain Man. My favorite scene was the 246 spilled toothpicks! But to bring this back at least to the subject of aviation, I read that when the film came out, all the airlines cut out the scene where Hoffman panics about flying, and the two instead rent a car...which confused air travelers no end, as they couldn't understand why the two said they were going to fly, then were suddenly shown driving. But one airline did retain that scene...Qantas (of course), since Hoffman gave them the best possible advertising, as the only airline that had never had a crash. (A record I don't think still exists.) But I've never been a Tom Cruise fan, and he and Hoffman were not convincing as brothers.

Anyway, I guess we should get back to RFTS.

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Is the DVD of the British version also letterboxed as the film is listed as being in 1:85 aspect ratio.

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Yes, but the a.r. is 1.78:1, which I believe is actually the correct ratio. That's also the R2 disc's dimensions.

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Thanx.

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