Home Entertainment : ‘Menace’ on Laser Disc: True Grit and Urban Gore

Watching and listening to filmmakers Allen and Albert Hughes talk about their debut 1993 feature film, “Menace II Society,” on a new Criterion laser disc ($100) takes commitment and a strong stomach.

First, there is the raw film itself, seen for the first time in an unrated director’s cut. From the unsparing, “Sunset Blvd.”-style opening to the literal closing shot of “Menace II Society,” there is little question of the film’s resolution: violent death amid grinding hopelessness.

Then there is the special supplementary material on this jam-packed laser disc in which each identical twin is given his own analog soundtrack. To hear what they have to say about the making of “Menace,” you have to watch the film play out twice to give each brother a chance to explain, scene by grueling scene, how their bold vision was put on film.

There is little doubt that we’re in the presence of two young, uncompromising filmmakers with much potential. The Hughes brothers were 20 when they co-directed “Menace II Society,” a film whose story they say they had thought about since they were 15.

The Criterion laser edition leaves almost nothing out: In addition to the unrated film featuring material deleted from the theatrical release and the two audio commentaries, the package includes the original theatrical trailer; two deleted scenes dropped in the final cut; two music videos directed by the Hughes brothers; excerpts from Albert Hughes’ Los Angeles City College student film, “The Drive By,” and the short, “Menace to Society”; a video interview with the Hugheses; storyboards and storyboard-to-film comparison of key action sequences, and other production notes and documentation.

In this home theater version, “Menace” unwinds with all the graphic violence that the MPAA insisted be removed to avoid an NC-17 rating. Even more than in the movie theater, the assault on the senses in the comfort of your living room amplifies the harsh realities of this corner of urban life: young men living a nasty, short and brutish “gangsta” existence seemingly handed down from generation to generation, with little done to break the cycle.

For some, the raw language and bullets tearing apart bodies may be too much; for others, it may simply underscore the film’s point, in Allen’s words: “The whole idea of the movie was to make people understand; we wanted people to know what they’re thinking.” And, he cautions, “People shouldn’t read too deep into this movie. We just wanted to make a movie that had some kind of morality.”

Albert says that black audiences often had less trouble dealing with the violent subject matter than white audiences: “They know it’s just a film,” he says.

(“Menace II Society,” without supplementary material and deleted scenes, is also available in a letterboxed, single-disc CLV edition from Image Entertainment at $35.)

Grotesque Carnage

“Man Bites Dog,” the 1992 French film by Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde, offers even more grotesque carnage than “Menace” in a director-approved Criterion edition ($50) that includes disgusting scenes excised by censors. An interview with the filmmakers at the end of the single disc makes the point that “it’s not a film about violence, it’s a film about filmmaking.”

Shot in black-and-white with a hand-held camera as a document of the life and mind of a sociopathic killer, it’s been hailed as a sendup of reality-based docudrama films. Liner notes by Holly Willis also argue that assailing the film for its brutality “completely misses the film’s point.” That may be so, but it is hard to find much redemption in this unrelenting series of murders and graphic rape, and even harder to watch for its full 92 minutes. There is little humanity involved here. In fact, “Man Bites Dog” makes “Menace II Society” look tame by comparison.

Laserbits

New Movies Just Out: “The Three Musketeers” (Disney, letterboxed, $40); “Addams Family Values” (Paramount, letterboxed, $35); “A Perfect World” (Warner, $40); “Into the West” (Touchstone, $40); Columbia TriStar’s “Mr. Jones” (Columbia TriStar, $35); “Flesh and Bone” (Paramount, $40); “The Return of Jafar” (Disney, $30); “RoboCop 3” (Orion, $40); “Glengarry Glen Ross” (Pioneer, $60), with audio commentary by director James Foley and actor Jack Lemmon.

Older Movies Just Out: “My Friend Irma” (Paramount, $35, 1949) with Marie Wilson as the dumb blond in the film version of the radio series, featuring the film debut of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (Image Entertainment, letterboxed, $60, 1970), with reconstructed material, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Robert Stephens.

Coming Soon: LIVE Home Video/Pioneer plans to release a special edition of Tim Robbins’ political satire “Bob Roberts,” with a director’s commentary, outtakes and other bonuses on Wednesday, for $70.