There exists, to this day, a certain segment of the film fanatic population that continues to collect and fetishize VHS tapes. For them, there are "books" such as Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box, which is little more than a collection of photos and scans of approximately one hundred VHS tape boxes. Many of the titles in this collection will likely become lost films once their respective tapes have worn out, with little chance of them seeing a rebirth in the DVD and Blu-ray market. In some cases this loss will be a true tragedy, but for some titles obscurity will be more than appropriate. Despite being a novel idea for a book (get it? novel, book) Portable Grindhouse could have easily been improved by including some commentary on the VHS covers themselves or by organizing the titles with some regard towards genre or era. Rating: Be Kind, Rewind%
(Image from thebookbeat.com)
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4 comments:
first
You certainly are.
Quammy, what (potential) lost film do you think is most tragic?
@ Robyn
The first movie that I always think of that will likely be lost along with VHS is Meatballs III, starring a young Patrick Dempsey. It's the age old story of a young man being assisted by the ghost of a porn star in his quest to lose his virginity.
But there's plenty of good movies that might be lost too. Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, the theatrical versions of the original Star Wars trilogy, the Decline of Western Civilization films, The Beatles' Let It Be documentary, Disney's Song of the South (which might not be such a bad thing), a number of Roger Corman films, most of Russ Meyer's work, and that's just what I could think of off the top of my head.
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