Desperate Hours

Summary

“Give me back my Walkman.”

The MVD Rewind label has a unique understanding of film collectors that aids them in their decisions for releases. With a focus on titles from the yesterdays of video stores (think Eighties and Nineties,) MVD has released films that collectors have vocalized wanting to see on Blu-ray. This does not necessarily mean that the label will release the most critically acclaimed work of a director. In many cases the label will release a film from their catalog that film collectors need in order to round out their collection. The film Desperate Hours is a perfect example of this approach. The only way to see the film on Blu-ray prior to this release was on a Shout! Factory Blu-ray that paired the film with The Pope of Greenwich Village. That release has gone out of print and become quite pricey.

Directed by Academy Award winning director Michael Cimino, Desperate Hours was taken away from the director during post-production and was then re-edited. The resulting film shows elements of a strong picture, but it never quite comes together properly. Cimino’s film career was limited to only seven films that he directed and seven on which he served as screenwriter. All said, there are only nine films in which Michael Cimino was involved. Cimino received universal acclaim for his excellent film The Deer Hunter, and then received universal disdain for his next film Heaven’s Gate. That film was box office poison and critically slaughtered until Criterion Collection assisted Michael Cimino with reassembling his original cut of that film. The reassembled cut of Heaven’s Gate has been given critical reassessment and has gone on to achieve lauded status from many of the same people that crucified the film when it was released theatrically in an abbreviated state. As a collector, I want to see all of the films by Cimino, even when they have issues. With this understanding of MVD Rewind’s mission and the inherent quality issues with Desperate Hours, I dug into the film.

A car driven by Nancy Breyers (Kelly Lynch) drives quickly through the desert and near the mountain ranges of Utah. She abandons her car near a lake and walks to a bus stop at the nearby highway. Nancy arrives back in Los Angeles at the courthouse. Prisoner Michael Bosworth (Mickey Rourke) is walked to the court from a cell. Michael has been imprisoned for three years. As Nancy tries to defend her client against the charges of assault on an officer, he makes an outburst that the guards want to kill him. He asks to represent himself. Given his outburst, the judge allows Nancy to take him back to chambers to discuss the next steps. Through some trickery, Michael escapes the courthouse jail while making it seem as if Nancy was held against her will. Before he flees in a car with his brother (Elias Koteas) and his friend Albert (David Morse) he tells Nancy that he will wait for her as long as it takes and then he kisses her. Nora (Mimi Rogers) lives with her teenage daughter May (Shawnee Smith) and son Zack. She is visited by her exiled husband Tim (Anthony Hopkins.) Tim had broken up their marriage when he took up with a younger woman named Karen, but now he has broken things off with her. He wants Nora back. Nora is planning to sell the house. Tim takes the children with him to their school after pleading with his wife for another chance. Meanwhile, after sinking their escape vehicle into the lake, the three criminals drive off in the Jaguar that was left there. The three criminals settle on the house of Tim and Nora as their hideout. Michael and his men take control of the lives of the family as he waits for Nancy to reach back out to him. 

Desperate Hours was based on a novel and play by Joseph Hayes. It was adapted into a film in 1955 which starred the inimitable Humphrey Bogart. I have not seen that film, so I can not speak to the differences in quality between the two films. By updating a picture that was already known to film reviewers, Cimino may have set himself up for failure from the beginning. Reviewers repeatedly drew comparisons between Bogart and Mickey Rourke and very few gave Rourke any favorable reviews for his performance. Having never seen that film, I feel somewhat bad for Mickey Rourke. His acting in Desperate Hours is enjoyable and one of the best aspects of the film. I also thought that both Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers were perfectly fine in their roles. I also really enjoyed Kelly Lynch’s contribution to the film, although she is inexplicably shirtless in many of her scenes. While the film may seem overly melodramatic, I didn’t take issue with the performances in the film like so many other reviewers did. 

The film starts off strong with an excellent opening sequence that sets up the picture well. Unfortunately, the editing of the film is strange and feels abrupt, the intensity of the thriller never quite takes hold, and the picture just feels off. The picture almost works, but it just doesn’t quite get there. I think part of the issue is the editing (which was taken away from director Cimino), but also the score of the film by David Mansfield does not fit the picture properly. The score never makes the audience feel any sense of intensity, even though parts of the score are very pretty.

I also think that the film has difficulty selling the initial plot points of the film. For example, the plot of the picture demands us to believe that men on the run from the law would willingly enter the home of a family that is inhabited. This is a critical plot point that fails to convince. Somewhat ironically, this plot point for the original play and novel was based on true life actions of a criminal who held up in a family’s house. I think that this plot point could have been developed in a way that actually made sense, but as it stands, it just seems extremely illogical. These criminals who planned out a clever and daring escape that relied on numerous machinations, decide to arbitrarily stay in an occupied house? This is not the only plot point that fails to make sense, but this is the most difficult pill to swallow in the film. The reason to watch the film is not the script, but instead to have a chance to watch Michael Cimino direct again. The man had a real cinematic eye. Even when the material Cimino worked with failed him, his movies were so aesthetically pleasing that I have difficulty criticizing them. The work of cinematographer Douglas Milsone is above reproach and is a notable highlight of the film.

In its current form, Desperate Hours is not a very good film, but I can’t help but feel somewhere inside this picture is a better film. I can not say that I think extremely highly of the final product, but I still took away something from watching the film. I appreciate MVD Rewind’s continued commitment to releasing difficult to obtain pictures for collectors who want entire filmographies of notable directors.

Video

MVD Rewind have provided a good-looking transfer of the film using an MPEG-4 AVC codec in 1.85:1 aspect ratio in 1080p. From what I have read, this transfer is sourced from the same transfer that Shout! Factory used on their release of the film a few years back. I would imagine that by virtue of being a standalone release this film probably looks the same or slightly better here than that release, but I can not verify this. It’s an older master and shows some of its age, but overall fans of the film should be pleased to see the film in high definition.

Audio

MVD Rewind has provided an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 track and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track. The prior Shout! release only featured the 2.0 track, so this is a nice upgrade. Out of the two, I preferred the surround track which brings some nice immersion to the final sequences in the film as the more action packed moments occur. It’s a good track.

Supplements:

Behind the Scenes Featurette – a five minute EPK

Photo Gallery

Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 3.75/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 1/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Desperate Hours is not Michael Cimino’s greatest film by a long shot. The picture had a troubled history that I believe led to many elements of the picture falling flat in the film’s final presentation. The film never quite comes together, but I enjoyed watching the picture. Somewhere inside this film, there is a much better picture that Cimino envisioned. Despite the shortcomings of the film itself, I appreciate MVD Rewind’s commitment to helping collectors round out their collections. Prior to this release, Desperate Hours was only available in an out of print double feature from Shout! Factory that is now very expensive. This release by MVD is inexpensive and also features a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track that was not included on the prior release. For fans of the film, this is probably the best release that this film will receive.