Spliced in-between some classic grindhouse and drive-in film fodder made by the maestro himself (as well as some behind-the-scenes production footage from 2010’s Cable-TV cheesefest, Dinoshark) are stories from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Jack Nicholson, William Shatner, Robert De Niro, Peter Fonda, Joe Dante, Paul W.S. Anderson, brother Gene Corman, Jonathan Demme, Bruce Dern, Jonathon Haze, Dick Miller, Pam Grier, Quentin Tarantino, Polly Platt (who also co-produced), Eli Roth, John Sayles and more. Stapleton obviously started work on his project several years before, as the late David Carradine (who died in 2009) and Irvin Kushner (who passed in 2010) are also interviewed here — and Carradine’s final message to Roger is a particularly haunting one to hear now.
Anchor Bay brings this delightful documentary to Blu-ray and DVD in a beautiful transfer with an energetic 5.1 soundtrack and optional English (SDH) and Spanish subtitles. Special features include several “Extended Interviews” (with some participants who weren’t included in the finished product) and “Special Messages to Roger” (which also features some folks who didn’t make the final cut). A trailer for this wonderful film is also included, as are some previews for other (often less-interesting) titles.
Yes, Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel has certainly been a long time coming. But the end result has been well worth the wait. I’m sure there’s a heap of footage containing even more interesting information that went unused, and I would certainly not object to someone else trying their hand at making another documentary on Tinseltown’s greatest independent filmmaker (hey, Ken Burns, how ‘bout it?). They might even be able to call it Fast, Cheap & Out of Control — I’m sure that enough time has passed so that no one will really remember the title had already been taken. That certainly wouldn’t have stopped Roger Corman!
Highly recommended.
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