Hey!! Deadsurfer here with a great movie recommendation here, and it's a great horror classic!Ah Well...and just when i thought I'd put a lid on it as far as lengthy film reviews..out pops another one!!! =D But believe me, this film warrents such attention. This is NOT the regular DVD director's cut. This is the rare, 5 disc set that I almost gave blood to get!
Richard Stanley, director of "HardWare" brings us a horror set in South Africa. Starring the geat Robert John Burke, Chelsea Field, Zakes Mokae and John Matshikiza, Dust Devil is about a shape shifter (Burke) who comes from the desert in search of victims, a spirit the locals call "The Dust Devil". He prays on the lonely and the unloved, those that have already lost everything but life itself. Wendy (Field) has broken up with her husband and wanders aimlessly in her car. She picks up a stranger and begins having misgivings about picking him up when strange things begin to occur. Meanwhile a local police officer (Mokae) tracks the killer. Aided by a shaman's (Matshikiza) admonishments about witchcraft he sets off to try and stop the beast before it can complete its grisly task.
This review is of the VERY RARE DVD collection, Richard Stanley’s DUST DEVIL – The Final Cut. His opus, a 5 Disc DVD edition, was produced by Subversive Films, a Seattle company, and shipped in September, 2006. Opus it is. This work is not merely a collection of films. Stanley is a visual expressionist but he clearly loves to write and to talk, and he is very good at both. His creative vision is laid down in these discs, chapter by chapter. With Richard Stanley you get a content rich environment.
Stanley’s “Final Cut” was actually premiered in Montreal in 1997, but it took almost ten years to have it transferred to DVD. That is a pity, because the home video market is critical for a Director still competing for a breakthrough audience. This, along with few DVD collections really stands out for me. And by definitive, I mean the movie has to warrant repeated viewings, it must demonstrate high craft, the features should be informative rather than promotional, and the Director should show me things I have never seen on a screen. Peter Jackson’s King Kong – the Deluxe Extended Edition, and the Lord Of The Rings box sets are good examples here.
An obvious shot of the vicious shape-shifter standing under a mounted set of Kudu Horns, setting up a rather demonic tone to the character. DUST DEVIL (1987)Disc 1: DUST DEVIL - The Final Cut
* The Feature Attraction on this disk is The Final Cut, the Director’s own vision of the story, as delivered to Festival audiences in 1987.
* A Commentary feature with Richard Stanley talking about production issues and other good things. This is all content with no filler. Richard loves to talk.
* Interview with director Richard Stanley and Composer Simon Boswell which runs for over 30 minutes. It broadens coverage of the film but also delves into his career.
* Dust Devil “Home Movies.” This is a collection of footage shot for personal enjoyment. There wasn’t any DVD back in 1991 so it not as staged as what we get today.
* Dust Devil the 16mm Scrapbook. This is a sequence of production stills that are flipped like book pages.
* Original 16mm theatre trailer for the original 16mm, 85 minute version of Dust Devil.
* Stills Gallery. More production stills.
* Text biographies of those involved in the project.
* Trailers for other Stanley films and other Subversive Films DVD releases, including a DVD trailer for Dust Devil.
Disc 2: DUST DEVIL “Work Print”
* This is his work in progress cut, and clocks in at 115 minutes. The extra 7 minutes may be very crude, but certainly worth viewing. Decide for yourself.
* Included is an Intro segment by the Stanley.
* No chapter selection menu is provided, but the Print is divided into chapters, allowing the viewer to get closer to the extra sequences.
Disc 3: THE SECRET GLORY
* This is Stanley’s documentary about Otto Rahn, a German writer who worked for Hitler’s S.S. Rahn became convinced that he had found where the legendary Grail was hidden, and with the financial support of the SS, he began a quest of sorts, to uncover it. It began as a research project Stanley did for Britain’s CHANNEL 4 Television, intended to exploit public interest in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Stanley will undoubtedly return to this subject in another documentary or even a feature. This is a work in progress, and Richard has plenty of unused footage.
* A Commentary featuring Richard Stanley and Norman Hill discussing the origins of this film and the evolution of the project. Stanley is a walking encyclopedia of Nazi culture and all of it is verifiable if you have a large enough library.
* Interview with Richard Stanley with even more information on the making of the film.
Disc 4: VOICE OF THE MOON and THE WHITE DARKNESS
* Voice of the Moon is video mood piece that Stanley edited and set to music from cans of 16mm film he shot while living (and fighting) with Mujahadin rebels in Afghanistan during the last days the Soviet occupation. The only narrative is a Sufi poem, beautifully supported by Simon Boswell’s haunting music. During his time, he also met the Taliban.
* A Commentary track once again with Stanley and Norman Hill. What emerges is Richard’s sensitivity for the plight of the Afghani’s and the fact that he is brave man. Further, he clearly relishes teasing the audience with bits and pieces of his encounters with the Taliban and also the mystery surrounding the notorious death of Carlos Mavroleon.
* An Interview with Richard Stanley. The subject is of course the “making of” Voice of the Moon, a project originally funded by UNICEF, but never finished.
* The White Darkness (clever title that) was commissioned by the BBC and documents current Haitian voodoo practices, while speculating on their origin. I think Richard has nailed it on this one. I learned much, and am convinced by his imagery and his insight. He is steeped in the legends and cultural lore of so many races, that one can readily detect the influence of intelligent parents. This guy sat on a copy of The Golden Bough, and it’s still stuck to his ass!
* Commentary track on The White Darkness, again with Stanley and Norman Hill.
* An Interview with Richard Stanley dealing with production, and also how much fun he had messing with the American peace keeping force which descended on Haiti in 2000.
Disc 5: Simon Boswell: Dust Devil Score
* This disc is not a DVD, but a CD recording of the score of the film. It is very good and the score was clearly written with input from Richard, as it incorporates some samplings designed to cue the audience when the homage bits to Leone are coming up.
Crowded into the case are also three colour booklets. A book of essays on the three documentaries, a Production Diary for DUST DEVIL and a comic book written and drawn by Phil Avelli. Also, the DVD case has a reversible slip cover.
* The Feature Attraction on this disk is The Final Cut, the Director’s own vision of the story, as delivered to Festival audiences in 1987.
* A Commentary feature with Richard Stanley talking about production issues and other good things. This is all content with no filler. Richard loves to talk.
* Interview with director Richard Stanley and Composer Simon Boswell which runs for over 30 minutes. It broadens coverage of the film but also delves into his career.
* Dust Devil “Home Movies.” This is a collection of footage shot for personal enjoyment. There wasn’t any DVD back in 1991 so it not as staged as what we get today.
* Dust Devil the 16mm Scrapbook. This is a sequence of production stills that are flipped like book pages.
* Original 16mm theatre trailer for the original 16mm, 85 minute version of Dust Devil.
* Stills Gallery. More production stills.
* Text biographies of those involved in the project.
* Trailers for other Stanley films and other Subversive Films DVD releases, including a DVD trailer for Dust Devil.
Disc 2: DUST DEVIL “Work Print”
* This is his work in progress cut, and clocks in at 115 minutes. The extra 7 minutes may be very crude, but certainly worth viewing. Decide for yourself.
* Included is an Intro segment by the Stanley.
* No chapter selection menu is provided, but the Print is divided into chapters, allowing the viewer to get closer to the extra sequences.
Disc 3: THE SECRET GLORY
* This is Stanley’s documentary about Otto Rahn, a German writer who worked for Hitler’s S.S. Rahn became convinced that he had found where the legendary Grail was hidden, and with the financial support of the SS, he began a quest of sorts, to uncover it. It began as a research project Stanley did for Britain’s CHANNEL 4 Television, intended to exploit public interest in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Stanley will undoubtedly return to this subject in another documentary or even a feature. This is a work in progress, and Richard has plenty of unused footage.
* A Commentary featuring Richard Stanley and Norman Hill discussing the origins of this film and the evolution of the project. Stanley is a walking encyclopedia of Nazi culture and all of it is verifiable if you have a large enough library.
* Interview with Richard Stanley with even more information on the making of the film.
Disc 4: VOICE OF THE MOON and THE WHITE DARKNESS
* Voice of the Moon is video mood piece that Stanley edited and set to music from cans of 16mm film he shot while living (and fighting) with Mujahadin rebels in Afghanistan during the last days the Soviet occupation. The only narrative is a Sufi poem, beautifully supported by Simon Boswell’s haunting music. During his time, he also met the Taliban.
* A Commentary track once again with Stanley and Norman Hill. What emerges is Richard’s sensitivity for the plight of the Afghani’s and the fact that he is brave man. Further, he clearly relishes teasing the audience with bits and pieces of his encounters with the Taliban and also the mystery surrounding the notorious death of Carlos Mavroleon.
* An Interview with Richard Stanley. The subject is of course the “making of” Voice of the Moon, a project originally funded by UNICEF, but never finished.
* The White Darkness (clever title that) was commissioned by the BBC and documents current Haitian voodoo practices, while speculating on their origin. I think Richard has nailed it on this one. I learned much, and am convinced by his imagery and his insight. He is steeped in the legends and cultural lore of so many races, that one can readily detect the influence of intelligent parents. This guy sat on a copy of The Golden Bough, and it’s still stuck to his ass!
* Commentary track on The White Darkness, again with Stanley and Norman Hill.
* An Interview with Richard Stanley dealing with production, and also how much fun he had messing with the American peace keeping force which descended on Haiti in 2000.
Disc 5: Simon Boswell: Dust Devil Score
* This disc is not a DVD, but a CD recording of the score of the film. It is very good and the score was clearly written with input from Richard, as it incorporates some samplings designed to cue the audience when the homage bits to Leone are coming up.
Crowded into the case are also three colour booklets. A book of essays on the three documentaries, a Production Diary for DUST DEVIL and a comic book written and drawn by Phil Avelli. Also, the DVD case has a reversible slip cover.
A horror flick set in Namibia during the pullout of the South Africans. The fact that the movie director had also written documentaries on Nazi culture, Haitian society and the War in Afghanistan, heightened my interest. How could so much material be crammed into one DVD release? Well it can, and was. This man is a great story teller but he is also a teacher and a good researcher.
Wendy faces a phalanx of South African Casspirs on the highway. DUST DEVIL (1987)
I must warn you that this DVD set is RARE! And took forever to find it. But the regular director's cut can be located at most video stores, or ordered for you. The DVD set not only has an exausting amount of info into the creation of this amazing film, but is FULL of biography on South African born Writer/Director Richard Stanley, and an excellent figure to watch if you seek insight into Independent film production.
DUST DEVIL, was originally completed in 1992, and immediately betrayed by the producers. They tried to cut and paste it for a general distribution in American, breaking their agreements with Stanley. In the end it got no distribution at all. Resurrected and now restored as a “Limited Collectors Edition” showcasing Stanley’s work, it’s a five disc, vest pocket marvel. At only 9,999 copies for worldwide this puppy is already SRO and has shown up a few times on EBay at $50+.
This is a “horror” film with several grisly scenes but it offers no genuine shudders. Let’s NOT try to label it.
DUST DEVIL is set in Namibia during the transition period when South Africans were forced by the U.N. to abandon their colony of South West Africa. This allowed the political arm of SWAPO to form a government. [Canadian cops are not mentioned, but we had a 100 man contingent of RCMP onsite, to oversee the handover of assets to black majority rule.] Into this confusion of a lost cause and lost power returns a “Nagtloper” or Night Walker, a shape shifting demon that the Herrero have long understood, but white’s are quick to dismiss. The role was handled well by Robert John Burke. The Nagtloper of course begins to murder with studied ritual and claims trophies. The significant twist is that he seeks only those who have already lost the will to live. The highway of shame stretching back to South Africa runs through the shit town of Bethany. He senses, as do we, that the town itself has lost the will to exist. A bountious hunting ground indeed.
Director Stanley assures us in the ample bonus material, that his script is based on a series of unsolved killings that unnerved people in a region already numbed by the war against the SWAPO insurgency. The bonus goodies include a lengthy, and informative Production Diary and a DUST DEVIL colour comic. Most important is a “Work Print” disc, assembled from both finished scenes and rough dailies, which does show what might have been.
As the story itself begins to take shape, a savvy black police Sergeant, (in a memorable performance by Zakes Mokae) realizes that these are not covert military killings, but at that critical moment his white Boer colleagues pull out. He is forced to consult with the local witch doctor, (John Matshikiza) proprietor of the town’s now redundant Drive-In movie theatre. A modern African, he resists the bush wisdom of his people. “Stop being a white man. Be a man.”
I won’t give away the story but I must note that there are plenty of catches for the film buff. Homage is everywhere. If you remember the train station in Once Upon A Time in the West, you’ll smile. And if you loved the cemetery sequence in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with tough guy Tuco dissolving into tears with a noose around his neck, you’ll chuckle when you see the DUST DEVIL heroine walk down the road, pumpgun on shoulder, ignoring a blubbering abusive hubby hand-cuffed to a Land Rover! hahaha!!
This story plays out in a brilliantly lit landscape. Ostensibly a flat desert plain, the skills of the cinematographer reveal southern Namibia in all of its sun-baked splendor - rusty and folded sedimentary slabs, vast rippling dunes and an immense plunging canyon complex reminiscent of the Colorado. Stanley used helicopter and crane shots to great dramatic and aesthetic effect. The musical score, written by Simon Boswell, is superbly mated to the dramatic elements of the tale but also enhances our enjoyment of the journey through the Karoo.
This film delivers a good time, and I am enjoying Richard Stanley on several levels. There were just a few scenes I found a tad obvious, but in sum, DUST DEVIL offers much that is fresh. This film is an 8 out of 10 for me!
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