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Stars:
Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Cameron Dye, Michelle Meyrink,
Lee Purcell, Richard Sanders, Colleen Camp, and Frederick Forrest
Writers:
Andrew Land and Wayne Crawford
Director:
Martha Coolidge
Feature
length: 1 hour and 39 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Director’s Commentary, Video Commentary, Trivia and Nostalgia
Commentary, Featurettes, Music Videos, Storyboard-To-Film Comparisons, Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and English and French Language
Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 32
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1983/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Atlantic Releasing Corporation
Home
Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Valley
Girl” is a time capsule of early 1980s Southern California pop culture or at
least I guess it is. Being born and raised 3000 miles away in Brooklyn, New York
I can only guess because the pop culture here was still recovering from the post
disco era ignited by “Saturday Night Fever.” If you were to ask me questions
regarding that film’s impact on a generation of filmgoers I could definitely
recognize the locations and attitudes that people held on to traces of well into
the mid 1980s while New Wave, or Alternative Music as it would be better
recognized here took hold as well as poser Heavy Metal and Rap a bit later.
However the strength of “Saturday Night Fever” for me is not just the time
capsule of music and styles that seem ridiculous by modern standards, it was the
story of one guy eventually breaking away from his environment with all the
angst you can expect from a melodrama. I feel the same holds true for “Valley
Girl” in that it is the story and characters that ultimately make the film
memorable twenty years later. I think a film like “Valley Girl” also bought
that culture out from the west into Middle America and the East Coast because
personally I think the fashion and music caught on later here than over there.
However just like I doubt you would see the kind of character John Travolta
played in “Saturday Night Fever” walking around Los Angeles before that film
bought a small urban subculture into public awareness, I can absolutely
positively tell you all that no one in Brooklyn ever spoke “Valley Speak”
except in terrible attempts at mimicry sounding nearly as bad as when some
Americans attempt to copy a British accent after watching a few hours of
“Monty Python.”
“Valley
Girl” is not an outstanding film, but it is good one in my opinion because it
has a certain ring of truth to it that helps it transcend from one generation to
the next because we as teenagers we all deal with peer politics and in and out
crowds as well as the basic dating rituals that occur sometimes on the fly, with
Cage and Foreman capturing that kind of uncertainty and intensity quite well.
Cage was only 17 so one could arguable that he might have been calling more upon
his own personal experience rather than creating a character, but according the
Director Martha Coolidge his being a “Coppola” had nothing to do with
casting since this would be the first time he would promote himself with the
“Cage” last name and both Judd Nelson and Eric Stoltz were possible leads
too. Following a “Romeo & Juliet” like paradigm minus the tragic twist
“Valley Girl” is about individuality and how sometimes opposites attract.
Personally I have found more instances of like attracting like in life, but
there is usually some root of truth hidden in a cliché whether or not we agree
with it.
I
shouldn’t be so hard on “Valley Girl” since it is a low budget film, but
in terms of transfer I wasn’t that impressed by either the anamorphic
widescreen (1.85:1) presentation found on the dual layered side or the (1.33:1)
version found on the single layered side. I suppose the film looks better than
television broadcasts and VHS tapes, but personally I just found the picture
quality to be acceptable, but with the grain and such maybe I’m being
generous. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is pretty flat too.
An English and a French Monaural Soundtrack are included along with English
Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired coupled with French and
Spanish Language Subtitles. Director Martha Coolidge gives a retrospective and
somewhat screen specific audio commentary that covers how the film came
together, calling on favors from film school and industry friends alike while
pulling from her own experience with the Hollywood club scene in the late 1970s
and early 1980s. I have to admit I miss the music of the early 1980s, especially
with all the soulless corporate shit that gets passed of as music today. It is
even funnier to realize just how much more of an innocent time the 1980s appears
to be compared with our own present decade. Perhaps what is even scarier is the
probability that in 2023, 2003 will seem quaint too.
The pop up trivia and nostalgia anecdotes track is also available for
both the widescreen and full screen presentations of the film while only the
widescreen side has the pop up video comments from cast members available to
viewers.
Though
I was not impressed with the video and sound presentation on this DVD, I have to
give credits to MGM for going the extra mile on the extra features that go
beyond the commentary track options detailed above. There are three featurettes
with brand new videotaped interview clips with much of the cast from the film,
including Nicolas Cage. (24:13). Ironically Lee Purcell looks like she hasn’t
aged a bit in the last twenty years. I wish I could say the same for everyone
else interviewed in these featurettes. Also included is an interview with
Nicolas Cage by Martha Coolidge discussing the film with the expected nostalgia
(19:38). The last featurette focuses on the music of the film with interviews
with the lead singer of “Modern English,” “The Plimsouls,” and “Josie
Cotton” (15:56). I never knew the song “Johnny” was adapted from a punk
song by a band called “Fear” and that “I Melt With You” was about a
couple making love as the bomb drops, but I guess if the lyrics said, “I’ll
stop the world and make love to you while our eyes melt out of our sockets, our
skin roasts, and we suffer more terrible agony before we die the farther we are
from ground zero” wouldn’t sell very well, but then again I am not in the
music industry so who knows? No, the romantic element just isn’t the
same…
The
Modern English music video for “I Melt With You” (3:50) and The Plimsouls
music video for “A Million Miles Away” (4:26) and three storyboard-to-film
comparisons that can be viewed individually or as one reel (9:15) are also
included. There are a few Easter Eggs on the Special Features menu too.
Highlight the picture of Nicolas Cage to the right and click enter and one will
get an interactive map of locations from the film. Highlight them and press
enter and you will get videotaped footage of what the locations look like today.
With the exception of the view of the valley itself (1:35), the rest of these
clips are less than a minute each. Return to the Special Features Menu and
highlight the hearts above the picture of Cage and viewers can enjoy three clips
of the film with some “Valley Speak” to English translation.
On
the single layered side of the DVD is the original theatrical trailer (2:28)
along with bonus trailers for “The Sure Thing” (1:38) and “Legally
Blond” (2:27) as well as the “MGM Means Great Movies” promo (1:15) and an
MGM “ Best Of The 80s On DVD” promo (1:26).
The
menus feature animated transitions and are easy to navigate. “Valley Girl:
Special Edition” is available on DVD-Video now from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home
Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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