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Italy
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1982
Directed
by Lucio Fulci
Starring
Jack Hedley
Almanta Keller
Paolo Malco
Color
| 94 Minutes
| Not Rated
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC)
Blue Underground
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10
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
A
demented serial killer targets beautiful, promiscuous women
in the Big Apple, and it's up to a hypocritical cop (Jack Hedley)
to bring him down...
Lucio
Fulci was no stranger to controversy. As early as Beatrice
Cenci in 1969, the writer/director proved quite capable
of inciting the wrath of censors and the official establishment
by daring to vent about the Catholic Church. It could be argued
that his tenacity in airing his sometimes unpopular views hindered
his career in the long run, as Fulci found himself at the helm
of a series of low budget horror films at the start of the '80s.
This may not have been the path Fulci had envisioned for himself,
but he took to it like a duck to water —
and won an adoring fanbase in the process. Fulci's metaphysical
approach to horror had a strong accent on the surreal, but it
was his love of blood and gore that really got him noticed.
Even so, in the context of films like City
Of The Living Dead (1980) or The Beyond
(1981), the extreme set-pieces of excessive bloodletting were
somehow easier to take —
but when Fulci brought this approach to bear on a more realistic
giallo like The New York Ripper,
he unleashed a flood of controversy that continues to linger
to this day.
The criticism of Fulci
as a misogynist who took his hatred of women out on celluloid
mostly stems from this film. True, it's a mean-spirited, ugly
and utterly nihilistic affair —
but misogynistic? I would argue, no. The tone of the film is
truly more in tune with full blown misanthropy, though the director
betrays sympathy with certain key 'outsider' figures, a theme
consistent with his oeuvre. Much of the self-righteous
indignation directed towards the film stems from the fact that
the protagonist —
an embittered and highly compromised cop played by English character
actor Jack Hedley (For
Your Eyes Only) —
is fond of spouting pearls of wisdom like implying that the
latest victim of the ripper got what she deserved for having
loose morals. If one buys into the notion that Fulci is using
this character as a mouthpiece, it's easy to see why the film
has been so reviled —
and misunderstood. Yet, it's clear that the Hedley character
is anything but an idealized stand-in for the director. He's
a callous SOB to the core, and worse still, he's a brazen hypocrite
fond of visiting prostitutes while preaching morality to others.
It is Fulci's inversion of genre stereotypes —
i.e., the investigating detective is always in the right —
that makes Ripper such a challenge
for viewers. The film baits expectations only to undercut them,
and the final fadeout leaves one with little sense that justice
has been served. In short, this is an extremely angry and embittered
piece of filmmaking —
and the gory excesses seem as unpleasant here as they might
appear 'fun' in Fulci's supernatural horrors.
Another aspect that
has drawn criticism is the decision to have the killer quack
like a duck... yes, you read that right. In a sense, one can
see a linkage to the whistling of child murderer Peter Lorre
in Fritz Lang's M (1930), but it
seems more likely that Fulci was lampooning the 'animal' theme
of so many early '70s gialli inspired by the success of Dario
Argento, including Fulci's own Don't
Torture A Duckling (1972). In his book on Fulci, Beyond
Terror, author Steve Thrower suggests that Fulci is openly
mocking the killer in order to remove any shred of pathos from
the final revelation of his motive. This is entirely plausible,
and while it is understandable that viewers might find the sound
effects chuckle-enducing, I would argue that this is not entirely
unintentional. In any event, the contrast between the absurdity
of the killer's quacking and the grisly realism and sadism of
his actions is potent and adds to the film's intensity.
Beautifully lensed
in 'scope by Luigi Kuveiller (Deep
Red) and graced with an excellent, appropriately sleazy
score by Francesco DeMasi, The New York
Ripper remains one of Fulci's finest, most challenging
films. If it stumbles a little bit in the traditional 'let's
wrap it up and explain everything to the audience' coda (a typical
fault in Fulci's gialli —
unlike Argento or Mario Bava, Fulci could never resist attempting
to tie up all the loose ends as neatly as possible), it remains
an exceptional example of its genre.
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| Blue
Underground's release of New York Ripper
is a literal repackaging of the Anchor Bay DVD from 1999 — even
the menus and chapter-stops are the same. The 2.35/16x9 transfer
was very acceptable for its time, but almost ten years later it
looks less than pristine. The image is too dark and colors aren't
always as vivid as one would like. While certainly watchable,
the transfer could do with an upgrade. An odd glitch in the AB
transfer — an ambiguous freeze frame on actor Paolo Malco, meant
to cap a scene between him and Hedley early in the film, is repositioned
to the end of the film — has not been corrected. The mono English
soundtrack is acceptable, with DeMasi's music coming through loud
and clear. Extras include talent bios and a theatrical trailer,
which includes some interesting dialogue differences from the
final dubbing. 5/23/08 |
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