It’s a strange sensation, revisiting a film you made 30 years ago.
Generally speaking, I don’t watch my old movies because my eyes go straight to the things I never got right, either due to lack of time or budget. But since Lionsgate was stepping up for a 4K remastering of my sci-fi thriller THE ARRIVAL, and since they agreed to let me remix it in the storied Hitchcock Theater on the Universal lot, well, I sorta had to get in there and get my hands dirty again, didn’t I? Good news is, Lionsgate rescanned the original negative to get the best possible resolution for this new edition. Cudos to them for making the effort — for even locating all the archived elements. (I lost some original elements for CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK in the Universal backlot fire of 2008, which destroyed a lot of archived films and music masters. Quite the tragedy.)
But one of the benefits of not routinely watching your old movies is that, when you finally do get around to them, you can almost see them with the eyes of a new viewer. Almost. And I must say, there were times when I just leaned back, laced my hands behind my head, and took it all in with a silly grin on my face. I actually enjoyed how ambitious this little film was that we made for something like $15 million. I enjoyed The Big Twist. I even enjoyed Charlie Sheen as an astrophysicist, as unlikely as it may seem today, post tiger-blood madness. But I especially enjoyed the ecological theme: The character of Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) talks about how our factories were, dangerously, pumping 7 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each and every day. How quaint that sounds today! Because the CO2 we output now is more 30 million tons a day. Staggering, huh?
Anyway, it’s still a good watch. And hey, of all the movies I’ve done, THE ARRIVAL was Harlan Ellison’s absolute favorite. Go figger.
Street date for this 4K edition is June 16.
DT