Hardware (Dylan McDermott) - Where is it?
 

A few years ago this DVD was announced and then scrubbed for some unknown reason. Is there any word on when this movie will finally be released on DVD. I'm only interested in a NTSC region 1 legitimate release.

I think we'll have to keep waiting on that one. I think the German release is legitimate, it's called MARK 13, but it's pan-and-scan, and the quality is infamously terrible. I've read an interview with Richard Stanley (from a Stanley fansite...I can't remember it off the top of the head) and I think he said the rights are tangled up somewhere.

I like Dylan McDermott as an actor but haven't heard of this. Is it any good?

Ha ha, not a good question to ask if you're uninitiated! Funny, I first knew McDermott from this. In the Line from Fire came out and I thought, huh, the guy from Hardware! Really, every person will have a different answer. If you like moody, low-budget 80s sci-fi, you'll probably like it. Others think it's shit. So it's got a post-apocalyptic setting, Ministry's Stigmata and Public Image Ltd on the soundtrack, bathed in very dark red lighting (which will be hell for any video transfers--Stanley has said that everyone had used blue lighting in the 80s, ala Cameron, so he wanted to be different), a robot, a peeping Tom ("pop by pop..."), Lemmy, Iggy Pop on the radio, John Lynch, and Burglekutt from Willow.

This was one of the first movies I saw in theaters when I started giving up watching sports on TV. It didn't gross well. Well, maybe more than Gigli. I didn't know Dylan McDermott was in it. After seeing it, it was one of the most boring movies I ever saw. But that's my thoughts.

I look forward to avoiding it.

This was actually scheduled for DVD release a couple of years ago (I had it on preorder) and then it was just canceled one day out of the blue. Haven't heard a peep about it since.

I own this movie on VHS, one of the few I have in that format.

This is one of the better Sci-Fi movies IMHO. It's like a rollercoaster....starts off very slowly for the first half hour...really slow...then it's non-stop intensity til the end.

Its sci-fi cheese but if they released it with good pic and sound I would cop.

In other words, what's not to like?

BTW, I rented the German disk and that disk does suck. Still, liked the movie, though...

Exactly! This movie really only appeals to a certain sensibility.

"This is what you want...this is what you get...."

I'd also love to see nice R1 DVD versions (or just as good, for it to pop on an HD channel) of "Hardware" and Stanley's other underrated genre movie "Dust Devil". "Hardware" is kind of like Argento's "Suspiria". On the surface not much of a story, but a captivating visual and aural experience for those viewers receptive to it. Also like "Suspiria", there a real "love it or hate it" response in many viewers -- and it's hard for the lovers to argue with the haters, other than it "worked" for them.

Seeing "Hardware" and "Dust Devil" makes me wish that director Stanley was able to make more features. I'm a bit spotty on the history, but he seemed primed for the big time until getting fired from "Island of Dr. Moreau", and has been working on other non-feature projects since. However, he's still in his 30's so there's time (imdb lists a feature thriller called "Vacation" in preproduction, but you know how unrealiable these imdb postings can be).

I can appreciate what this movie was able to accomplish on basically a budget of $1.98. Somehow it manages to elevate above direct-to-video or low-budget sci-fi trash. It is a shame it never got released on DVD. (I had to eventually cave in and purchase the laserdisc off Ebay.)

By the way, there does not appear to be a widescreen release of this movie on any format. I wouldn't be surprised if all previous home video versions were open-matte instead of pan & scan, but I honestly don't know for sure.

wait!.. are we talking about the movie that got slapped an X-rating by the MPAA over a scene where some unfortunate victim gets sliced in half by an elevator -right?

I really like this movie as well. It's definitely style over substance, but it creates its own little world so well that it ends up really working. The unrelenting robot attack on Stacey Travis is one of the better sci-fi horror sequences of that era and I think the film as a whole is heads-and-tails more fun than most 80's genre crap. Lots of industrial touches and sounds of machinery and gears turning as the robot attacks should appeal to fans of industrial rock as well. I just really like the look and feel of it. I can definitely understand how some people may hate this film, but it shouldn't be casually dismissed as a throwaway film by any means.

As far as the video prints being open-matte or P&S, I vaguely recall that in the shower scene, you can see that McDermott is actually wearing shorts so that would imply that its most likely open-matte.

Yes, among other moments in the film. Director Richard Stanley and Hardware became somewhat emblematic of MPAA issues at the time.

Last year, Disney received an R rating for a resubmission of the film. Details are not given, but presumably they submitted the full uncut version (why else bother submitting anything for re-rating?). They likely wanted to clear an R rating for the film so that they can release it uncut and also comply with the in-house policy of not releasing X material. It's unclear what the plan is, as Disney has not divulged such, nor have they been working with Richard Stanley on it.

Even the fully uncut version of the film is not Stanley's true director's cut. In addition to gore cuts made late in the game, the producers had the actors dub in dialogue that was not meant to exist (e.g., when the camera doesn't actually show any actors, additional dialogue is dubbed in to explain what's going on). Any real director's cut would involve the removal of all of the extraneous dialogue. No such version has ever been released anywhere.

DJ

The film was shot for 1.85:1 exhibition. Video versions are likely not completely "open matte," as they probably zoom in somewhat. So you're probably seeing both too much at the top and bottom and not enough on the sides.

There has never been a video transfer that involved the director's participation.

DJ

If they cut something out of the film, they would have to resubmit it.

When I rhetorically asked "why else bother submitting anything for re-rating," I meant anything with regard to Hardware. It doesn't make any sense that Disney would bother cutting Hardware further, only to seek yet another R rating. If Disney had cut it with the intent of seeking a PG-13 (!) rating somehow, it's doubtful that they would have accepted the R certificate on the further-cut version.

DJ

Can we back up a bit, and forgive my ignorance? Since when has Disney owned this movie? And if it's been resubmitted, that must mean we'll see a DVD release, right?

it was a Miramax release

Hardware was originally a Miramax property (the Weinsteins were listed as producers for it, as they were for Richard Stanley's follow up film, Dust Devil). Disney has owned Miramax for many years. The particular Disney subdivision that obtained the new rating was Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Whether the new rating "must mean" we'll get a DVD remains to be seen. The new rating happened a few months after Disney announced and then cancelled a DVD in late 2003. The new rating was given in early 2004. It is over a year and a half since that new rating was given, and we have yet to see anything come of it.

DJ

a resubmittion/rerating also applies to any film that has new or previousily deleted footage reinstated into the movie. Now if it's true that Disney had restored the previousily problamatic footage (i,e the original uncut version) - the MPAA must have had a good day and didn't find the extreme gore to warrantt a MPAA rating this time around.

I guess they should retitle it "Vaporware."

The only reason I remember this at all is because of its rating. I would like to see it though.

And thus the DVD marketing scheme of the "unrated edition"!!! Add an additional 45 second of footage back into Dodgeball, and suddenly it's the all new unrated version.

I wonder what this means for legitimate unrated stuff like Poison Ivy 3?