. . . I just discovered the French made western, BLUEBERRY, directed by Jan Kounen, has shown up on R1 DVD from Columbia in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, with both English and French 5.1 sound, under the title RENEGADE . . . I don't really know much about this film, other than it stars Vincent Cassel, Juliette Lewis, and Michael Madsen - I believe I read it was not very well received when released in France . . . anyway, for those who are Eruo-Western people, this might be one to check out - has anyone seen it . . .

There is a positive review of it in the latest issue of Shock Cinema (the one with William Atherton on the cover). It sounded unusual enough that I bought the disc (it is on its way). Plus I am down for anything featuring Ernest Borgnine and Geoffry Lewis. I'll post my thoughts when I check it out.

I have a friend's Russian dvd on loan (I think it's Russian; I listened to the English audio track once I located it), and watched several weeks back. With 'realistic' expectations in place ('There will never be another classic Spaghetti Western' being my mantra), I quite enjoyed it...the way I would a Harry Potter, an episode of Deadwood, another of Little House on the Prairie, and Oliver Stone Doors peyote experiences channelled through a tranquillized Jodorowsky if all those quantities had infected one another - a puzzling but painless combination, especially given the brand of prettiness on display, different and imaginative enough to just outpace the steady, advancing flood of new age ickiness and Wonder. The magma-tic metaphor is in keeping with the psyllocibinic organic analogues seen 'under the influence' of magic herbs -spematazoa, asps and adders, showers of gold exploding from neural firecrackers as animal selves take flight over the Grand Canyooon yawning below, or scurry into the crevaces of mental caverns dragging their millipede hind quarters behind them. That's a lot of the running time so just be warned. If you liked the trip part of 2001, the sensorium here will be welcome, the only thing breaking the pleasant enough altered state being Juliette Lewis lullabying Oh Danny Boy to get some heart, soul and cornsyrup in there...and even she's kinda sweet if you can get in touch with your inner muskrat-love vibe.

Hope that doesn't scare you off! Curious to hear what you think (and I should add Ernest Borgnine's 'special participation by' part is pretty cool, and probably closer to the spirit of the original comic books (which I'm unfamiliar with) than the spirit questing which dominates whenever we strike out for the desert)

Wade:

Thanks for the heads up! I've had BLUBERRY in my queue at nicheflix for months.

Now, I'll be picking be ordering this at DDD. Thank goodness for those extra codes.

When you guys watch it, can you post if the massive amounts of Native American dialogue is subbed in English? The version I saw had none, which was very frustrating, since at least half of the movie's dialogue is in this tongue... Thanks!

Yup, it is.

Netflixed the Renegade disc, I liked it quite a bit more than I expected. I'd heard reactions ranging from "boring" to "pretentious messy trash." I found it to be a offbeat but interesting (and fun!) western. Guess it depends how much native american mythology you can stomach. In my experience years of appropriation by the New Age movement has made it a chore to pay attention to, which is why I was surprised to enjoy this film as much as I did.

I've only read one collection of the comics, back when Moebius didn't write it but only drew it, and the series then was very much like a spaghetti western in tone. I understand the later comics written by Moebius were far more surreal and spiritual, like the film.

Re: subs. I didn't see any, but I may have not been picking the right watching/listening option (and on a Russian DVD, there'd probably be no "right" option: one set of tongues (not just native American but Arcadian French, Gaelic. etc.) subbed with another). I'll doublecheck, but the effect didn't bother me, it added to the disorienting defamiliarization of things which is part of the charm to begin with.

Now the American version must have something in store. I hope it's only subbed and not dubbed!

. . . according to the package, the R1 VD is in both English 5.1 and French 5.1, with subtitles in English, French and Spanish . . . I haven't watched it yet, but would not Juliette Lewis, Michael Madsen, Temuera Morrison & Ernest Borgnine have been speaking their lines in English . . . I was kind of wondering which language would be the "proper" one to use when watching the film . . .

I don't think this is a situation where it was like an Italian production with everyone speaking their own languages then individuals redubbed based on country of release, but rather intended from the start to be an English language production, despite being French-financed. That's probably why they went to the trouble of making Mike Blueberry be from Louisiana, to explain Vincent Cassell's French accent. And I'm pretty sure it was his voice(otherwise why the character origin change).

That's right about the languages: They coexist on the screen in the English Language version AS multi-language. Cassel is in French for a while and then goes accented English (and 'Native American' as well). I'm pretty sure that from a production-standpoint this was slanted to the English dub inasmuch as the majority of actors playing immigrant Americans are Anglophone to start with.

I wonder what the French dub is like and how they handle Cassel going from French into...French posing as English? An accent and argot shift? There's bound to be more lost than gained there, I'd think...

Glad I read this thread before ordering the (VERY attractive-looking) French Collector's Edition set - which offers no English subs at all. (Menu screens published on Dvdrama's site confirm that the polyglot track is indeed the "Version Originale", with the French dub track being an homogenised easily-digestible variant not to be trusted.)

But, ye gods, that Collector's Edition packaging...it's just gorgeous, I tells ya.

Yes, I just watched the Columbia Reg 1 disc under the title RENEGADE the other night and was simply blown away! Jan Kounen's visuals and cinematography were just so smooth as each scene accented the other with superb craftmanship! Cassel was great as Mike Blueberry and from what I hear there was two actors in the running for that role, but for the life of me I can't remember which two?!? Isn't Kounen gave the role to Cassel, who are good friends stemming back from Kounen's breakthrough flick DOBERMANN. I would second or third the recommendation to all Euro-Cult/Spaghetti Western fans to pick this up or to simply see this!

According to the IMDb, Willem Dafoe, Val Kilmer and Benico Del Toro were all considered for the role.

But apparantly French Cinema's rules dictate that Vincent Cassel must be in every French film that is exported to the world since 1994. :D