The Good Soldier
BluRay for today
I am often careless. Care-free crossing the line.
Somewhere I have a DVD of The Soldier’s Tale (and somewhere else a VHS and maybe even a UMatic. Definitely no laser disc, though they’re out there.).
Right in front of me is the recent Kino Classics BluRay edition.
I’d like to compare the additional tracks on the DVD. From (highly flawed) memory, No Room at the Inn may not be on the DVD. And from my experience with R. O. Blechman it’s easy to imagine a juggling of the additional features even as the disks were going to press. There are several other pieces I don’t recall from the DVD, great work that Blechman was less likely to promote 25 years ago, like The Medical Dilemma, an intriguing short created for NBC and Exercise another film from the 70s. Both of those were animated by Ed Smith. I would be surprised to find either on the DVD, but like I said, my memory isn’t great.
Also include Sesame Street’s “OA”. “OA” is a clever piece of writing with smart graphics and clever animation from an era when creativity and a little sophistication in children’s media wasn’t taboo. Blechman has a few more Sesame Street films from the 1970s that deserve preservation. There’s a Shakespearian one starring witches. And maybe three (or more) from that era.
We did a lot of work for Children’s Television Workshop at Blechman’s studio. The first time I was involved in a pitch, Bob said to the CTW producer “That’s the same as I was paid 20 years ago!” She corrected him, “It’s actually less than we paid 20 years ago.” 20 years later you could repeat that conversation. Amongst the many pieces we did for CTW was the last animation of their birthname “Children’s Television Workshop”. It was a short-lived logo designed by Pentagram just before the name change to “Sesame Workshop.” We also animated the first Sesame Workshop broadcast logos.
One of the best CTW films R. O. made is “A Foot Is A Foot”. Probably for 3-2-1 Contact. Beautifully animated by Ed Smith and one I wish was on this disk. I haven’t seen it decades. A few other Blechman films deserve elevation through inclusion on a collection like this, Abraham & Isaac with a great Pete Seeger soundtrack. Bob was apparently mortified after proudly screening for Fred Mogubgub when told “it could have used a close up.” That’s a criticism he incorporated into later work. There’s also The Emperor’s New Armor and The Emperor Visits from his pre-Ink Tank era which need preservation.
This collection does include one of the great “What Ifs…”, the 5:00 proof-of-concept for the proposed feature film The Golden Ass. Once again animated by Ed Smith, showcasing his extraordinary character work as well as his effects animation.
The feature has the same commentary as the DVD, a conversation amongst Blechman, Tissa David and George Griffin. The transfer is the 2k from the DVD as well. That was created from a 35mm print and looks great.
The Soldier’s Tale is a high point for drawing-based animation. In some ways Blechman is to animation what Stravinsky is to music- an unabashed modernist in conversation with creative traditions that distantly range from his own field. Maybe his signature line is unsteady or vulnerable, shaky or broken. Can the “squiggle” be reconciled with it’s deliberate structure? The Blechman line is an element in the construction of an emotional narrative. The Soldier’s Tale takes the storytelling approach of his 1951 graphic novel (using this terminology to position the book with its peers) The Juggler of Our Lady but applies 30 years of experience. The space of that first work is present. There is lushness here too. There are top notch voice performances which are exceed by even more inventive and bravura animation. There is joyous and visceral abstraction. The image beguns with Blechman’s airy sketches and completes in the space between the spectator and the screen. There are even close ups.
When working together, we were fairly close. Being invited to Thanksgiving close. When we stopped working together, the closeness became distance. I was moving in one direction and he, and the studio, were moving another. Like a DVD when you’re moving house, especially when you mistake carelessness for being carefree, a relationship can be misplaced, or lost, or trashed, or just rest at the bottom of a box in a stack of boxes you never plan to open. Good fortune, or Kino Lorber, sometimes issues a BluRay.