The Osterman Weekend

Anchor Bay | minutes | | | Standard DVD reviewed by: Christopher Bligh

In 1983, while Return of the Jedi was breaking box office records, Twentieth Century Fox was putting together a block of two films in the late summer/fall that could continue the cash wave that they were riding by TV Spotting them on a consistant basis. One was a judicial thriller starring Michael Douglas called The Star Chamber and the other came from an independent production company distributed by Fox. This was to be a big comeback for a director who had long been out of the spotlight for years. This would be the comeback of "Bloody" Sam Peckinpah and it all takes place on a special weekend known as The Osterman Weekend.

Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt) has never recovered over the mysterious death of his wife. In his determination to find who was behind her death, he unexpectedly discovers the Omega network. In it, he uncovers three friends that may have an agenda against the CIA and the United States. With this he is determined to turn one or all of them with the help of a investigative TV reporter named John Tanner (Rutger Hauer). Tanner is friends with the three men and is approaching an annual weekend party named after one of them, Bernie Osterman (Craig T. Nelson). His assignment is to help reveal one or all of them as Russian spies, but getting through the weekend in one piece and revealing their sources isn't as easy as Tanner thinks for he is being watched all over his house, even in places where he doesn't know.

Away from all his gritty tales, Peckinpah gives an interesting yarn true to the eighties both in subject matter and in the environment (check out the computer screens!!). His first act starts a little shaky but gets going once the details are all punched out and the mission moves along as the three men get the word on the organization.

John Hurt gives a fascinatingly complex performance as Fassett, an agent that is horrified by his past but takes advantage of that to accomplish the mission or add other levels to it no matter how damaging or how dangerous it may be. Rutger Hauer is good in his first starring role and brings a man who is good at getting what he wants in his reporting and being trapped on what should be a fun weekend where it either weakens a friendship or strengthens it. As Osterman, Craig T. Nelson is wonderful as Osterman, a man with some secrets and a man of danger but realizes that there may be more to this weekend then just a meeting of old friends and reminicing about good times.

With all of that intrigue and solid Peckinpah action sequences, there lies a third act that has a promise and starts well but falls a little flat towards the final minutes of the film which tells a little too much before the outcome. This is handled better in the original cut but in the feature it lacks the element of surprise that it should pack. Despite that flaw, this is a good but not great movie that is curiously Peckinpah's last feature and he ends his life and career on an unexpectedly interesting note.

The Osterman Weekend gets its first widescreen transfer anamorphically in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and a digital remastering in the Divimax Series. The result is ,like the movie, good but not great. Many films of the early eighties have a cloud of haze on video and DVD and none is more evident than on this title. At times there is much grain in certain scenes, and many exterior scenes start to look like a ray of a sharp picture but then falls to be a little dimmer than it should be. Despite the grain, most of the film is sharp and the grain although a problem at times is not too distracting.

With negatives mostly from the visual transfer of the film, The Osterman Weekend's many audio tracks is an improvement in that the audio has been cleaned up with not too much mutedness evident in many films of the early eighties. The majority of the track is in the center and the main exteriors open up the sound field to all channels capturing all the effects plus the mixing of the score and dialogue very well. It's a good test for the sound system on DTS but I prefer the 5.1 track with it's clarity and it's sharpness. This disc also has a English 2.0 Surround track and a English 2.0 mono track. No subtitles are on this DVD but closed captioning can be found by switching to captions on your television set instead.

Here is where the meat of a "Bloody" Sam title lies. The first disc has a commentary track by Peckinpah historians Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle and Nick Redman. All are given equal time to discuss Peckinpah's involvement and feelings during this project and all give great information and are constantly informative throughout the entire track. The commentary read like a great chapter in a multi-authored book entitled Peckinpah's Present on Peckinpah's Past (A take on Peckinpah on Peckinpah). Even though it's hard to distinguish who is who, in which a captioned indicator would've been helpful, this is a great track and worthy of listening.

Moving onto more meaty extras on the second disc, we start with a messy transfer but an interesting watch called "Sam's First Cut". If the opinion of this viewer was decent about the theatrical version of this film, the opinion changed for the better with the original cut. Although the beginning sequence is ambitious but confusing, the setup of the other characters and the climax fits the film better in this version than it does in the theatrical version being that there are some nice editing tricks and a little more of an element of surprise in the final minutes of the film. The only upshot is the condition of the cut which is not so good and it is a bit gappy on switches but put together and cleaned up, it makes for a better movie and proving that sometimes the first guess is mostly the better guess. Also, it's good to note that the deleted scenes in this cut are categorized nicely on a submenu making a good jump in a particular spot. There are some other scenes that have alternate takes but those are not noted in the sub-menu but interesting to see in it's entirety.

After that is an amazing 75-minute documentary about the making of this film called Alpha To Omega and it interviews all the main players (minus Peckinpah and Dennis Hopper) present day about the difficulties of getting this film together along with a tribute to the great director. It also covers the casting across the board and the obstacles that came upon all players in getting the film done without sugar coating the details and giving a constantly entertaining look about an average film that could of been, but in the end is what it is.

Next is the theatrical trailer, which doesn't hide the fact that it is a Twentieth Century Fox film and is advertised as a comeback eighties style.

Finally, there is a wonderful photo gallery (81 photos) along with cast and crew bios that are more detailed, nicely fact confirmed and better organized than most studios who have put out filmographies and bios on some DVD titles.

Overall, like last year's release of Winter Kills, Anchor Bay's release of The Osterman Weekend gives us a good movie with a wonderful commentary/documentary that ranks up with some of the best documentaries made for DVDs. Decide for yourself which version you prefer as they are both intriguing and recommended nonetheless.

**Special Note- It is an added plus to see the Twentieth Century Fox logo at the beginning of this film as some other titles that were financed independently and distributed by Fox (Dreamscape, Buckaroo Banzai and a host of others) still fail to keep the logo in it's original spot when it was first released.