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1982's Lookin' to Get Out is back in an entirely new
version, thanks to the intervention of its star Jon Voight. The
original release garnered "disappointing" reviews and did very
little business, seriously damaging the career of Hal Ashby. The
director of the cult hit Harold and Maude became a
casualty of a film culture that abandoned 70s experimentation in
favor of the Spielberg-Lucas brand of traditional
escapism.
Ex- editor Hal Ashby was fresh from the prestige successes
Shampoo, Coming Home and Being There. If
you count critical hits, he was one of the most successful of
the 70s directors. His Lookin' to Get Out is a hyper
comedy thriller about gambling and irresponsibility. Alex Kovac
and Jerry Feldman (Jon Voight & Burt Young) are New York
gamblers with a talent for turning success into disaster. Flush
from a big win, Alex blows it all in a card game with some local
hoods. The boys flee to Las Vegas in an unlikely scheme to make
up their losses. The irrationally optimistic Alex takes things
to the brink by accepting a complimentary booking into the MGM
Grand's "Dr. Zhivago Suite" -- the check-in clerk mistakes
Jerry for a close associate of hotel owner Bernie Gold (Richard
Bradford). Alex digs up ex- master gambler Smitty (the hilarious
Burt Remsen), and using money advanced by the hotel, stakes him
to a wild game of blackjack. Meanwhile, Jon's other past
catches up with him as well. Gold's present girlfriend Patti
Warner (Ann-Margret) wants to see if Jon has reformed -- and to
introduce him to the four year-old daughter he's never
met.
The behind-the-scenes battles on Lookin' to Get Out were
being publicized long before its release. When Ashby moved on,
Lorimar cut the film without his input, and the film as released
represented little of the director's original intention. Made at
a time when production costs were ballooning, Lookin'
cost $17 million and didn't even clear the $1 million mark at
the box office. After the debacle of Heaven's Gate, the
film became another "proof" that Hollywood needed to reign in
the power of film directors.
Twenty-five years later, Ashby biographer Nick Dawson told
Lookin' star and co-writer Jon Voight about a longer cut
of the film donated to the UCLA Film Archive for safekeeping.
This "Extended Version" is a full fifteen minutes longer. The
extra footage adds more than character scenes and detail; it's
an alternate editorial version all the way through. Jon Voight:
"Cut for cut it's a different picture. Every scene has been
played with."
In the shorter 1982 version Jon Voight's Alex comes across as
destructive and unlikable, a guy who always seems to be shouting
and making a scene. The new in-between material gives Alex more
of a human balance, and includes sentimental notes missing in
the original cut. With the emphasis on character touches
restored, the film seems less hectic and cartoonish. Lookin'
to Get Out is still the randy adventures of a couple of
ambitious lowlifes, but the new cut turns the film around by
restoring its oddball pacing. The same manic climaxes are there,
with the key difference that we now care what happens to the
foolhardy heroes.
Ashby's film is now a genuine Screwball comedy. Dreamer Alex
Kovac believes he can find a way out of any crisis, even when
gangsters have threatened to kill him. He plays every situation
to the brink, luxuriating in a suite meant for an Arab prince
while betting his life that the craggy old Smitty -- who has a
serious heart condition -- can prevail at the blackjack table.
Jerry Feldman is Alex's slower-thinking sidekick, in over his
head and wondering if he should pull Alex back before both of
their necks are chopped off. Jerry makes a pass at Patti, not
realizing that she's just peeking in to see if Alex has matured
any in the past few years. When Patti sees that the opposite is
the case, she does what she can to protect her ex- boyfriend
from the wrath of the Las Vegas establishment. Things come to a
head during the crucial blackjack game, when the New York thugs
and the hotel owner converge simultaneously on our foolhardy
heroes.
Had this version of Lookin' to Get Out been released in
1982, it could have been a special event in Hal Ashby's
filmography. In this looser cut, it's a more commercial
proposition than Robert Altman's California Split,
another story of compulsive gamblers. Warners' new release will
hopefully redeem Lookin's filmic reputation.
The Extended Cut restores the very first performance of Angelina
Jolie. The four year-old Jolie is very recognizably herself in a
brief but cute reunion scene with Alex Kovac. It's too bad that
Warners missed a Father's Day release date for the new DVD, as
the father-daughter sparks between Jolie and Voight give
Lookin' to Get Out an added kick of nostalgia.
Warner Home Entertainment's Extended Cut DVD release of
Lookin' to Get Out is a transfer of Hal Ashby's
one-of-a-kind archived print, and therefore is a few clicks
below transfer perfection. Only by looking at the original
trailer do we see that Haskell Wexler's original cinematography
was slightly richer and sharper. The new version has nothing to
hide.
Laurent Bouzereau's new featurette The Cast Looks Back
investigates the Lookin' experience through interviews
with Jon Voight, Burt Young and Ann-Margret. Co-screenwriter Al
Schwartz recalls dreaming up the story idea on a Las Vegas
bender with actor Joe Turkel. All share their memories of Ashby,
and praise the work of cinematographer Wexler and the legendary
production designer Robert Boyle. The featurette ends with some
funny on-camera exchanges between Voight and Ann-Margret, who
jokingly corrects Voight on her name.
For more information about Lookin' to Get Out, visit Warner Video. To order
Lookin' to Get Out, go to
TCM
Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
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