DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The transfer is in 4:3 fullscreen. Picture quality is never better than VHS: black levels are murky, colours are dull and an overage of orange-red predominates in many scenes making the transfer seem smudged. Young’s visual style is indifferent despite the odd high and low angle juxtaposition, his contempt for the characters, the film and even his intended audience showing through. He is callous, resolutely ugly in design although revelling in the ways in which the Klan has appropriated Christian iconography – hence crosses, Klan colours and churches frequent the film. Differences in costume and behaviour between blacks and whites define their respective subcultures and class. Although depicting an impoverished society, the film establishes only a generic “South”. Racial oppression saturates the movie but the censorship choices are questionable: the cut print used here removes the violence by whites against blacks. Cutting these scenes robs the film of not only the ambiguity inherent in its spectacle but lessens the responsibility of the Klan as the perpetrators of such violence. The removal of the rape scene in particular negates the film’s attempt to depict both the glee in Klan violence and the awful pettiness behind it: it denies the shocking consequences of white racism rather than removing an offensive experience. The final scenes of a Klan induced Hell on Earth are effective in context.
Sound
The sound transfer is available in Dolby Digital mono. It too reveals the defects of a worn source, with background hiss, frequent pops and static at reel change moments and apparent splice points. However, it at least does preserve most of the score – one of the intriguing facets of this movie. Indeed, it is the score that is the real cue to the film’s irresolute nature: it begins with an ironic refrain concerning the “Good Christian People” but is subsequently used most noticeably in action scenes wherein it is reminiscent of the funk in black action movies. This gradually signals the intent to transpose the material of blaxploitation onto the South but to invert the genre’s political agenda into a dramatization of white response and responsibility more than Afro-American responses: to appropriate the genre. But in doing so, the film risks appealing to the same redneck elements that Young also hopes to indict. In a talky and dull film, voices are plays on authority. Dialogue is riddled equally with racial slurs and Christian refrains. Ambient effects are minimal, reserved for larger moments – gunshots work well as indicative of violent justice. The script attempts to elucidate the points underlying racism but is riddled with a disturbing, even gleeful racist humour. Vocal mannerisms indicate race and class: however, Burton is drunk throughout and fumbles over his lines. A drum roll seeks to enhance the impending conflict of the final scenes. read more
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