Fiction
DVD
Availability
Details
PUBLISHED
©1979
EDITION
DESCRIPTION
2 videodiscs (130 min.) : DVD video, sound, color ; 4 3/4 in
ISBN/ISSN
LANGUAGE
SERIES
Criterion collection #864
NOTES
Based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski
disc one. [Feature film] -- disc two. [Special features]
"In one of his most finely tuned performances, Peter Sellers plays the pure-hearted, childlike Chance, a gardener who is forced into the wilds of Washington, D.C., when his wealthy guardian dies. Shocked to discover that the real world doesn't respond to the click of a remote, Chance stumbles into celebrity after being taken under the wing of a tycoon (Melvyn Douglas, in an Oscar-winning performance), who mistakes his protégé's horticultural mumblings for sagacious pronouncements on life and politics, and whose wife (Shirley MacLaine) targets Chance as the object of her desire. Adapted from a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, this satire, both deeply melancholy and hilarious, is the culmination of Hal Ashy's remarkable string of films in the 1970s and a carefully modulated examination of the ideals, anxieties and media-fueled delusions that shaped American culture during that decade"--Container
Originally produced as a motion picture in 1979
Restored 4K digital transfer
Special features: New documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team; Excerpts from a 1980 American Film Institute seminar with director Hal Ashby; Author Jerzy Kosinksi in a 1979 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show; Appearances from 1980 by actor Peter Sellers on NBC's Today Show and The Don Lane Show; Promo reel featuring Sellers and Ashby; Trailer and TV spots; Deleted scenes, outtakes, and an alternate ending; Plus an essay by critic Mark Harris
Production designer, Michael Haller ; costumes designed by May Routh ; music, Johnny Mandel ; editor, Don Zimmerman ; director of photography, Caleb Deschanel
Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Dysart, Richard Basehart
MPAA rating: PG
DVD, NTSC, region 1; widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio); Dolby Digital monaural
In English with optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing