The Loveless [Blu-ray]

Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery Kathryn Bigelow

Overview

After robbing a woman stranded with a flat tire, a biker (Willem Dafoe) heads into a small town where he is reunited with his gang and they go to a garage to fix a bad motor. While at the garage, the biker hooks up with an attractive teenager, and eventually they spend some time together in a motel room. At that point, her enraged father bursts in on them and hauls his daughter off while she screams at him that she was only doing what he had done to her for years. After scenes of rough-housing by the gang of bikers, and a night at the local hot spot, the film heads toward its dramatic conclusion as the teenager confronts her father in a showdown, just as he is about to go out with his brother and kill the "communist" bikers.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/09/2019
UPC:	0760137261384
Original Release:	1981
Rating:	NR
Source:	Arrow Video
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	18,184

Special Features

Brand new restoration from the original camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by Co-Writer/Director Monty Montgomery and Director of Photography Doyle Smith; High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation; Original lossless mono audio; Optional English Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; New Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Co-Director Monty Montgomery, moderated by Elijah Drenner; No Man's Friend Today: Making The Loveless, new video interviews with actors Willem Dafoe, Marin Kanter, Robert Gordon, Phillip Kimbrough and Lawrence Matarese; U.S. 17: Shooting The Loveless, new video interviews with Producers Grafton Nunes and A. Kitman Ho; Chrome and Hot Leather: The Look of The Loveless, new interviews with Production Designer Lilly Kilvert and Director of Photography Doyle Smith; Reckless, new Audio Interview with musician Eddy Dixon ; Extensive image gallery, including on-set photographs, storyboards and original production documentation; Theatrical Trailer; Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Willem Dafoe	Vance
Robert Gordon	Davis,Composer
Marin Kanter	Telena
J. Don Ferguson	Tarver
Tina L. Hotsky	Sportster Debbie
Tina L'Hotsky	Debbie
Lawrence Matarese	La Ville
Danny Rosen	Ricky
Phillip Kimbrough	Hurley
Ken Call	Buck,Actor
Liz Gans	Augusta,Augusta
Margaret Jo Lee	Evie
John King	John
Bob Hannah	Sid
Jane Berman	Lady in T-Bird
Tina Lhotsky	Actor
John Lurie	Composer

Technical Credits

Kathryn Bigelow

Monty Montgomery

Kathryn Bigelow	Director,Screenwriter
Monty Montgomery	Director,Screenwriter
A. Kitman Ho	Producer
Grafton Nunes	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Kathryn Bigelow's debut feature, The Loveless, which she co-wrote and co-directed with Monty Montgomery, is a strange, but compelling amalgam of art film and homage to the American International Pictures biker flicks of the 1960s. The film's dialogue consists almost entirely of attitudinal epigrams, in the style of Marlon Brando's famous line from The Wild One. When asked, "What are you rebelling against?" Brando's character responds, "What d'ya got?" The dialogue in The Loveless isn't quite so memorable, and its reliance on such existentialist biker repartee occasionally borders on self-parody. "Every one of us die like chips in some big floatin' crap game," opines Vance (Willem Dafoe) in the film's sparsely used, but overblown narration. Still, Dafoe's performance is memorable. It's clear right from the start of his career that the camera loves him, as the filmmakers memorialize his leather outfit and the gears of his bike with frequent fetishistic close-ups. The other performances are uneven, though Marin Kanter makes a strong impression as Telena, the troubled local girl who scratches what Vance refers to in the narration as "an itch between my legs." The films takes its sweet time studying these characters, as they sit around and talk about nothing in particular, or stare silently into space, waiting for something to happen, for much of the early going. Dafoe and Kanter's performances bring surprising emotional impact to the somewhat predictable ending of the film. There's a nice scene in a black liquor store in the segregated town, in which New Yorker Vance tells the quietly hostile proprietor, "I'm not as white as I look." The film also slightly amps up the homoeroticism of the earlier biker flicks. The great soundtrack and the sure-handed visuals enhance the atmosphere and help the talented filmmakers overcome the plodding pace.