An unemployed writer (Gene Wilder) and his unemployed actor friend (Richard Pryor) leave New York for Hollywood, but make an unexpected detour into prison after being framed for bank robbery. A consistently enjoyable opportunity for the two stars to let their personalities drive the action, with a number of amusingly quirky characters along for the ride, Stir Crazy comes to Blu-Ray with no extras but reasonably good picture and sound. Recommended.
Stir Crazy (1980)
Studio: Columbia (distributed by Image)
Year: 1980
Rated: R
Length: 108 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p
Languages: English 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
MSRP: $17.97
Film Release Date: December 12, 1982
Disc Release Date: January 24, 2012
Review Date: January 24, 2012
“Yeah, that’s right. We bad.”
The Movie:
3.5/5
The working relationship between Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor started because of a mutual friend by the name of Mel Brooks. When Brooks was co-writing his now-classic western spoof Blazing Saddles, Pryor was one of the five men credited for its screenplay. He was intended to star in the film alongside Wilder, but Warner Bros. executives refused to allow it because of his drug use. The two men would have to wait for until 1976 when Silver Streak paired them on the screen for the first time. Their chemistry on screen played no small part in the film’s success, leading them to reunite four years later in an easygoing prison comedy called Stir Crazy.
The trouble starts when unemployed writer Skip Donahue (Wilder) and unemployed actor Harry Monroe (Pryor) leave New York for Hollywood. Along the way, their car breaks down in Texas. Taking whatever jobs they can find to pay the rent, they end up working at a bank dressed as singing woodpeckers. When they remove their costumes, two men don them and rob the bank, but it’s Skip and Harry who take the fall, both facing 125-year prison sentences. Sent to a maximum security prison where life is difficult for them, things don’t get better for them until head warden Beatty (Barry Corbin) and deputy warden Wilson (Craig T. Nelson) need someone to test the mechanical bull. When Skip is able to ride the bull at full power, Beatty chooses him for the upcoming prison rodeo. However, when he learns from fellow inmates and confidantes Jesus (Miguel Ángel Suárez) and Rory (Georg Stanford Brown) that the rodeo is a scam by Beatty and a warden (Nicolas Coster) at another jail to enrich their own coffers, he refuses to participate unless certain demands are met. Meanwhile, Skip and Harry’s lawyer (Joel Brooks), with the assistance of the lawyer’s attractive cousin Meredith (JoBeth Williams), is fighting on the outside to clear their names.
The film works for a number of reasons. For one thing, it’s simply easy to like, but what makes it so is what the cast puts into it. It’s obvious the film was conceived with a Wilder/Pryor reteam in mind, but it plays up their greatest strengths as performers. Wilder, of course, is playing up his trademark persona as a high-strung nebbish while straight man Pryor effectively mixes coolness with insecurity. Their personalities complement one another perfectly and their chemistry, despite the fact that they weren’t close off-screen, according to Wilder’s autobiography, is unbeatable. The film’s humor comes not so much from its loose plot as from its characters’ personality quirks, hence the name of the film. Everyone here is crazy in some way; Skip is socially awkward, Rory is an effeminate gay killer (a product of its time, yet an effective contrast to his imposing appearance), while other inmates, especially the bald, bulky, physically intimidating serial killer Grossberger (Erland van Lidth), turn out to be merely benign eccentrics. Only the warden is truly malicious; character actor Barry Corbin, best known for WarGames and his recurring role on Dallas as the sheriff, has the corrupt good-ol-boy antagonist role down pat.
Sidney Poitier directs the film with a light touch, keeping the actors down to earth, reining in Wilder’s more manic tendencies without totally suppressing them. His visual style is conventional but features a few interesting angles where appropriate. If there’s any real caveat, it’s that the relationship subplot between Wilder’s and JoBeth Williams’ characters is a little thin.
Released six months after Pryor’s near-fatal freebasing accident, Stir Crazy was a huge hit, coming in third for the year behind The Empire Strikes Back and Nine to Five and becoming the first film with a black director to gross over $100 million; its success spawned a short-lived CBS series of the same name but with nobody from the original film involved with it. A film like this probably couldn’t get made today because it’s far from politically correct and the type of strong comedy teams needed to drive it just don’t seem to be there anymore.
The Video:
3.5/5
Nowadays, it’s news when a Sony-owned film gets a bad Blu-ray transfer. Fortunately, this isn’t the one to break their quality streak. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in an above-average AVC-encoded transfer. It’s fairly dark in low-lit scenes but relatively bright in the exteriors, with strong color saturation and excellent sharpness. There is mild film grain in most scenes, but the credits and transitions have a little bit more, which is to be expected. Contrast and shadow detail are average.
The Audio:
3/5
The film was released in mono; Sony decided not to go with a remix and just presented the track as it was. While the dialogue has the distinctive sonic qualities of 70s mono films, such as compression and very slight distortion, it’s not unpleasant to listen to. Tom Scott’s musical score has a fairly good range of frequencies, favoring the bass over the treble.
The Extras:
0/5
There are no extras whatsoever.
Final Score:
3.5/5
Stir Crazy, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor’s second cinematic pairing, is a consistently enjoyable comic romp through a maximum-security prison with a number of memorably eccentric supporting characters. The Blu-ray, while bare bones, is a very good reproduction of the film’s picture and sound, making it a worthwhile upgrade from the DVD. Recommended.
Studio: Columbia (distributed by Image)
Year: 1980
Rated: R
Length: 108 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p
Languages: English 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
MSRP: $17.97
Film Release Date: December 12, 1982
Disc Release Date: January 24, 2012
Review Date: January 24, 2012
“Yeah, that’s right. We bad.”
The Movie:
3.5/5
The working relationship between Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor started because of a mutual friend by the name of Mel Brooks. When Brooks was co-writing his now-classic western spoof Blazing Saddles, Pryor was one of the five men credited for its screenplay. He was intended to star in the film alongside Wilder, but Warner Bros. executives refused to allow it because of his drug use. The two men would have to wait for until 1976 when Silver Streak paired them on the screen for the first time. Their chemistry on screen played no small part in the film’s success, leading them to reunite four years later in an easygoing prison comedy called Stir Crazy.
The trouble starts when unemployed writer Skip Donahue (Wilder) and unemployed actor Harry Monroe (Pryor) leave New York for Hollywood. Along the way, their car breaks down in Texas. Taking whatever jobs they can find to pay the rent, they end up working at a bank dressed as singing woodpeckers. When they remove their costumes, two men don them and rob the bank, but it’s Skip and Harry who take the fall, both facing 125-year prison sentences. Sent to a maximum security prison where life is difficult for them, things don’t get better for them until head warden Beatty (Barry Corbin) and deputy warden Wilson (Craig T. Nelson) need someone to test the mechanical bull. When Skip is able to ride the bull at full power, Beatty chooses him for the upcoming prison rodeo. However, when he learns from fellow inmates and confidantes Jesus (Miguel Ángel Suárez) and Rory (Georg Stanford Brown) that the rodeo is a scam by Beatty and a warden (Nicolas Coster) at another jail to enrich their own coffers, he refuses to participate unless certain demands are met. Meanwhile, Skip and Harry’s lawyer (Joel Brooks), with the assistance of the lawyer’s attractive cousin Meredith (JoBeth Williams), is fighting on the outside to clear their names.
The film works for a number of reasons. For one thing, it’s simply easy to like, but what makes it so is what the cast puts into it. It’s obvious the film was conceived with a Wilder/Pryor reteam in mind, but it plays up their greatest strengths as performers. Wilder, of course, is playing up his trademark persona as a high-strung nebbish while straight man Pryor effectively mixes coolness with insecurity. Their personalities complement one another perfectly and their chemistry, despite the fact that they weren’t close off-screen, according to Wilder’s autobiography, is unbeatable. The film’s humor comes not so much from its loose plot as from its characters’ personality quirks, hence the name of the film. Everyone here is crazy in some way; Skip is socially awkward, Rory is an effeminate gay killer (a product of its time, yet an effective contrast to his imposing appearance), while other inmates, especially the bald, bulky, physically intimidating serial killer Grossberger (Erland van Lidth), turn out to be merely benign eccentrics. Only the warden is truly malicious; character actor Barry Corbin, best known for WarGames and his recurring role on Dallas as the sheriff, has the corrupt good-ol-boy antagonist role down pat.
Sidney Poitier directs the film with a light touch, keeping the actors down to earth, reining in Wilder’s more manic tendencies without totally suppressing them. His visual style is conventional but features a few interesting angles where appropriate. If there’s any real caveat, it’s that the relationship subplot between Wilder’s and JoBeth Williams’ characters is a little thin.
Released six months after Pryor’s near-fatal freebasing accident, Stir Crazy was a huge hit, coming in third for the year behind The Empire Strikes Back and Nine to Five and becoming the first film with a black director to gross over $100 million; its success spawned a short-lived CBS series of the same name but with nobody from the original film involved with it. A film like this probably couldn’t get made today because it’s far from politically correct and the type of strong comedy teams needed to drive it just don’t seem to be there anymore.
The Video:
3.5/5
Nowadays, it’s news when a Sony-owned film gets a bad Blu-ray transfer. Fortunately, this isn’t the one to break their quality streak. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in an above-average AVC-encoded transfer. It’s fairly dark in low-lit scenes but relatively bright in the exteriors, with strong color saturation and excellent sharpness. There is mild film grain in most scenes, but the credits and transitions have a little bit more, which is to be expected. Contrast and shadow detail are average.
The Audio:
3/5
The film was released in mono; Sony decided not to go with a remix and just presented the track as it was. While the dialogue has the distinctive sonic qualities of 70s mono films, such as compression and very slight distortion, it’s not unpleasant to listen to. Tom Scott’s musical score has a fairly good range of frequencies, favoring the bass over the treble.
The Extras:
0/5
There are no extras whatsoever.
Final Score:
3.5/5
Stir Crazy, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor’s second cinematic pairing, is a consistently enjoyable comic romp through a maximum-security prison with a number of memorably eccentric supporting characters. The Blu-ray, while bare bones, is a very good reproduction of the film’s picture and sound, making it a worthwhile upgrade from the DVD. Recommended.
