Spawn: We checked out Arrow Video’s new special 4K Blu-ray release of the 1997 film
We recently took a look at Arrow Video’s Lost in Space 4K Blu-ray. Now, we take a look at the 1997 Michael Jai White and John Leguizamo adaptation of the popular gothic comic.
As the big two comic brands, Marvel and DC, continued to duke it out on the newsstands in the 90s. Marvel artist vets banded together to found Image Comics, which was much friendlier to the creatives and let them own their own properties. One of the biggest characters to debut with the new company is Todd McFarlane’s Spawn.
Spawn became an incredibly popular character from the independent company and 1997 would see him be taken through new mediums. Firstly, as a lot of famous superheroes, the character would break through to a wider audience through an animated series. HBO aired the adult-oriented cartoon, Spawn, to great reception. The show pulled no punches, as it showcased a lot of mature content, including graphic violence and animated nudity. However, when it was released on home video, Warners would make two versions available — an unrated cut and a PG-13 cut. It’s obvious that Warner Bros thought they had a new comic book property that they could capitalize on with a teen audience, so in compromise with the character, they would have a watered-down version and the original unaltered vision.
The same goes for 1997’s Spawn from New Line Cinema. One could assume that since they got away with 1995’s Mortal Kombat being a PG-13 film (even though the source material sported plenty of gore) that they could do the same with Spawn.
Thus, when the moviefirst debuted in theaters, it sported a PG-13 rating and barely spilled a drop of blood. Human blood — that is — as most wounds in the movie have a “necro” green hue or glow to them. However, when the film made the transition into home video, New Line would also release a new Director’s Cut that was R-rated. Ever since, then, both versions have usually been readily available. However, the differences between the two are pretty miniscule.
With Arrow Video’s new 4K UHD Blu-ray release, fans can now get both cuts in great crystal clarity (with a remaster scan from the original negatives). Now, as for the film itself, the movie’s reception is in a spot of being an adaptation of a beloved property that hardcore fans may feel dropped short of expectations, as well as being massacred by critics and casual viewers, but it was able to survive on a cult fan base. I raise my hand on finding it to be a guilty pleasure.
Spawn has a good skeleton for a dark superhero movie. The pace of the movie plows through a lot of character stuff to get to the extravagance and the action. In fact, this 4K Blu-ray release features a brand new interview with star Michael Jai White, where he shines a light on the fact that he saw a totally different movie at the premiere than he was expecting. White revealed that all the scenes he filmed with the Wanda character were scrapped and only made it in the final cut as brief flashbacks, much to his dismay. Inversely, the director, Mark Dippé (who everyone had nice things to say about), had come from a special effects background and he would add a lot of elements in post-production that were both not in the script and not filmed.
In fact, a lot of the special features on this release bring a lot more context to the film. White was disappointed that the studio wanted to make Spawn PG-13. And while White, D.B. Sweeney, Melinda Clarke, the special effects crew, the editior, the composer, etc. had a lot of positive things to say about their time on the movie (even with White talking about dealing with being in the suit and make-up for so long), a lot of behind-the-scenes details were revealed that show why the movie came out the way it did.
According to the interviews in the special features, Mark Dippé (who made his feature directorial debut with this film) and the editor were less concerned with the story and the characters and wanted to get to the fun action. Special effects directors Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero outlined that there had been some miscommunication during production, or there would be curious decisions that altered their work.
On recent rewatch, you can see that Michael Jai White truly cherished this opportunity, as his character Al Simmons was a tragic anti-hero and those are aspects that he rarely gets to explore with his usual tough guy/action roles. White gives the movie his all, and what ended up in the final product was a hero with a lot of pain and anger. It would’ve been interesting to see how he might’ve done in the film’s more quiet dramatic moments between him and Wanda. John Leguizamo also really runs with his role as Clown. Though he may be an acquired taste for some audiences, Clown is one who purposely pushes buttons and is completely devoid of inhibition, and Leguizamo uses this as carte blanche to throw anything he can out there. Martin Sheen, who has already established himself as a great actor, chews scenery in this film like he’s starving. Like Frank Langella in Masters of the Universe and Raul Julia in Street Fighter, Sheen looks like he having a blast while he hams up his lines with an even gruffer voice than he usually has.
While Tim Burton’s Batman was a standard in comic book adaptations for a long time, Spawn came at an era when ambitous material needed to be uncuffed in order to truly be realized. It was an era when CGI was new and exciting, but it was also trying new things that haven’t been perfected. It’s still entertaining schlock.
For fans of the movie, this Arrow release is a must have. The picture and sound are amazing, and it ironically brings out even more of the campiness as you can see in crystal clarity how some of the bad special effects have aged even poorer. I can wholeheartedly sympathize with both Spawn’s fans and critics, but dammit, the movie still has atmosphere and a plucky attitude, and it’s just a fun, cheesy schlockfest.
You can order the Spawn 4K Blu-ray on the official Arrow Video website HERE.
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