Plot: What’s it about?
A little more than a year ago, I heard about a movie whose subject was the former head of Paramount Pictures and I was so curious to know when it was coming out. It took a friend of mine to remind me of the title, which I kept forgetting every time we chatted about movies we were looking forward to, it took the internet to familiarize me with the trailer and a peek of what was to come, and it took a trip to a theatre in the Times Square section of New York City one July afternoon to actually see it with my own eyes. A hundred fourteen minutes later, I had witnessed not only a movie that I felt later on, in retrospect, to be the best movie of 2002 but a masterpiece about a kid, but not just any kid. The kid’s name is Robert Evans and the film is “The Kid Stays In The Picture”, based on his best selling autobiography.
Evans started out as an actor in the late 1950s, discovered by Norma Shearer on a business trip while jumping into a swimming pool in Beverly Hills. His acting would last him in only a few films at that time but it took the drive of one man, Darryl Zanuck, on one of those pictures, that inspired him to go into film production and also quoted the title of the film to prevent him from getting fired. A few years after that, Evans is hired to head Paramount Pictures after an article written by Peter Bart drives Gulf and Western to take a chance at recovering the studio from financial ruin. From that point on, Evans greenlights films like Rosemary’s Baby, Harold and Maude, and The Odd Couple as well as producing The Godfather, before going on his own banner with films such as Chinatown, Marathon Man, Black Sunday (three movies my father encouraged me to catch in my moviegoing travels) and many other rises and falls through the next 3 decades but ultimately proves he’s a fighter that never quits and will always stay in the picture.
From the red curtain beginning to its gag reel end, The Kid Stays in the Picture had me entertained by it’s subject matter and his narration, moved by the chances he had taken all through his life both good and bad, intrigued on how involved he was during some of my favorite movies of the 70s and others, and thrilled by making the impossible truly possible when the chips were way down for the count. Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgan have truly made a film that has a little bit of everything as well as giving me a good shot of nostalgia for old talk shows I haven’t seen in ages that I miss (Dinah’s Place, Mike Douglas Show, David Susskind Show). One of the big keys to this movie is editing and Jun Diaz takes a great assortment of film clips, graphics, sound bites from the book on tape and photos of the past and put together a winning combination any film fan curious about the last golden age of Hollywood will treasure. The choice of music, both source and pop, elevates the film and flows the movie with an infectious pace I see once in a while but not often with film. All in all, The Kid Stays In The Picture is one hell of a picture and a journey every film buff should take.
Video: How does it look?
The Kid Stays In The Picture is filmed in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The ratio varies with film and tv clips and the picture quality vary from weak to very strong. Some of the materials were speckly and scratchy and some didn’t have any hints of grain especially the filming at Evans’ residence. All were transferred to 35mm and it made for a clean print despite the condition of the clips at the various time periods. Warner has made a superb looking disc.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a normal sounding track having similar sounds through the left and right not using the surround sound to its capacity. The dialogue and music come out very sharp and are well represented not too booming and not too silent. This disc includes English, French and Spanish subtitles and like many Warner titles (Elvis: That’s The Way It Is comes to mind) when it comes to musical song moments are not captioned with words.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc has a great bevy of extras that are not listed on the back cover and come as a great surprise. The bulk of them are divided into two sections, The Truth According to Bob and The Truth According to Others.
In The Truth According to Bob, the first of these extras is The Film That Saved Hollywood, an extended version of the film shown to the board members of Gulf and Western that kept the studio from closing. During this film we have short commentaries by Bob Evans about the movies originally included in the film without their appropriate clips. In “The Kid Speaks”, we’re introduced to video bites of Evans.”On The Red Carpet” covers a brief snippit of Evans’ arrival at an event honoring the producer in 2003. “UpClose with The Kid” is a 5 minute clip of Evans on Nightline’s interview show after midnight. “The Spirit of Life Award” and “The 2003 David O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award” represent Evans as the honoree and his acceptance speeches are memorable and are introduced by Larry King (Spirit of Life) and wonderfully by Dustin Hoffman (David O. Selznick).
In The Truth According To Others, the first of which is a screen specific commentary by directors Brett Morgan and Nanette Burstein. Both of them split their time evenly and give an informative and entertaining track on their choices, the responses from audiences as well as the varied responses from Evans who grew to appreciate his life story. “Showgirls on Evans” is a clip from The David Susskind show and is amusing and ,like The Film That Saved Paramount,slightly longer than the clip included in the film. “The Evans Gag Reel” is a gem from the set of Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman doing his best Bob Evans in between takes (My personal favorites: The bathroom scenes). Another “On The Red Carpet” is included but in this section by various friends attending the tributes and say a few words in honor of Evans with their congratulations. This disc also includes cast and crew only covering Evans and Burstein, and the theatrical trailer I encountered on the internet.
