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Academy Award-winner John Schlesinger (Marathon Man) reunites with Midnight Cowboy screenwriter Waldo Salt (Coming Home), a victim of the 1950s McCarthy-era blacklist, to adapt Nathanael West's acid satire of Hollywood decadence and broken dreams. Painter Tod Hackett (William Atheron, Looking for Mr. Goodbar), working in the art department of a movie studio during the 1930s 'golden age' of Hollywood, falls in unrequited love with aspiring starlet Faye Greener (Karen Black, Five Easy Pieces). He competes for her affections against other men: a pair of cowboys (Bo Hopkins, American Graffiti and Pepe Serna, Scarface), and a forlorn accountant (Donald Sutherland, Invasion of the Body Snatchers). As Faye's career fails to take her beyond roles as an extra, her life becomes increasingly desperate and her relationships with men take a darker turn, reaching fever pitch at a red-carpet movie premiere that explodes into barbaric chaos. A bitter critique of tinsel-town's empty promises and the lost souls cheated by them, featuring lush, dreamlike cinematography by Conrad Hall (In Cold Blood), and stunning performances by its talented cast, The Day of the Locust remains a relevant and shattering experience.

Media

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Bonus Materials

• Brand new 2K remaster by Arrow Films from the original negative
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original restored lossless mono audio
• Optional restored lossless 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio options
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on all films
• Brand new oral history audio commentary conducted by writer and film historian Lee Gambin, featuring assistant directors Leslie Asplund and Charles Ziarko, production associate Michael Childers, actors Grainger Hines and Pepe Serna among others
• Welcome to West Hollywood – brand new appreciation of the film by critic Glenn Kenny
• Days of the Golden Age – costume historian and film historian Elissa Rose discusses the film’s costumes in this brand new visual essay
• Jeepers Creepers, Where’d You Get Those Peepers? – brand new visual essay on the film and its themes by writer and film historian Lee Gambin
• Image galleries, including exclusive behind-the-scenes photographs from the archives of production associate Michael Childers and assistant camera operator Ron Vidor
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Pamela Hutchinson

Sales Points

• This is the movie from which animated character Homer Simpson gets his name
• Nominated for two Oscars, two Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and named one of the Year's Best Films by the National Board of Review
• One of the last 1970s American Maverick Masterpieces to get a blu-ray release - and this is its global debut
• Conrad Hall's cinematography and John Barry's score are among their career best - frequently included in USC's film school curriculum

Press Quotes

Conrad Hall's superb photography and Schlesinger's fine sense of detail all work to recreate the mood and substance of the novel. Director John Schlesinger has been absolutely faithful to this brutal vision of Hollywood

     —Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News

Under John Schlesinger's direction, 'The Day of the Locust' is memorable in scene after scene. The sulfurous glow of Conrad Halls camerawork on afternoon Hollywood scenes is remarkable as is John Barry's music. The performances are all extraordinary

     —Kevin Kelly, Boston Globe

Director John Schlesinger so skillfully depicts the artificiality of Los Angeles that... as I watched the climactic scene of The Day of the Locust I found myself cheering on the losers who sack Hollywood in revenge for false hopes and chap dreams

     —M. Howard Gelfand, Minneapolis Star Tribune

An astute and often troubling look behind the scenes of Hollywood during the 1930s. It touches the glamour of filmmaking by viewing it from the gutter of the ignored backroom boys and aspiring starlets... arguably one of the best movies about Tinsel Town

     —Martin Unsworth, Starburst