An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Customer Reviews:

Great film, lousy print (unfortunately, with film the medium always is the message).......2007-03-02

Enrico's legendary film of the Bierce short story, an adaptation arguably as good as the original, certainly deserves a print freshly struck from the original negative. The film has been used as a "textbook" introduction to cinematic techniques as well as to the uses of time in film--and moreover it's been cited as the inspiration for feature-length films such as "Donnie Darko" and the underrated but powerful "Jacob's Ladder." Unfortunately, for someone who has seen a good 16mm print, this DVD transfer is a pale imitation of how the film should look, so bad I can't bear to watch it let alone screen it for students. (If you're a jazz buff, you'll appreciate the credits, which include the expatriot American drummer and original member of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Kenny Clarke.)

There's another 25-minute French masterpiece that uses the same theme and which has acquired an even more devoted, cult-like following: Chris Marker's "La Jetée." The film takes a while longer to sink in, but upon doing so, it's unshakeable, a permanent part of the viewer's consciousness. Good thing, because the surviving VHS and DVD prints are even worse than "Occurrence"--so unwatchable as to be pointless. The copy that I recently saw was so lacking in definition and grey scale that it was impossible to discern the film's one and only moving image.

Great copy with no Rod Serling.......2007-02-15

Actually this is a pretty clean copy. I was hestitant to buy it after reading some of the negative reviews, but it looks pretty good to these eyes. One of the best literary, short films of all time.

Sad.......2006-11-15

The five stars are for the film. I must have seen this in a cinema in about 1964. I thought it was one of most stunning short films I had ever seen. It seemed amazingly vivid, mind-expanding, moving and a masterpiece of film-making. It stayed with me from this one viewing for the next 42 years. Just now I watched this dvd. The quality was appalling, and the experience was the biggest let-down imaginable. I couldn't believe it. Fuzzy, with incredibly poor sound. There are some idiotic, semi-literate "Discussion Topics" included on the disc. Plus a reasonable short written bio of Bierce's life. Surely, surely there must be a better print of this memorable film?

It finally dawned on me that Hitchcock's Vertigo uses the same idea: the whole film takes place in a man's mind in the split seconds between his fall and his actual death. It's the same idea in Point Blank.

Mind-blowing and masterful.......2006-11-07

This was the first film that blew my mind. As an 8th-grader circa 1970, I recall watching this film with my church group. Its images, seared into my young mind, have returned to me many times over the years. Finally, over the past few months, I searched it out. I was amazed at how much I remembered -- a slithering water snake, a sandy beach, a long row of trees, the distorted voices of the soldiers, the ending.

In the years since I first saw "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," I have developed (somewhat) my appreciation for good film and cinematography. And good film this is. Using hardly a spoken word, it intelligently takes us into the mind of a Civil War era spy awaiting execution by hanging. We experience his longing for the life he is leaving as well as his mounting terror. The underwater shots especially are amazing and well-shot. There are subtexts of life v death, and even a hint of Christliness in the central character.

My second viewing, 36 years after the first, was worth the wait. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"" is a 25-minute psychological and emotional masterpiece -- a perfectly-rendered period piece that precisely echoes the mood and methods of 1862.

great film.......2006-07-02

and yes the quality sucks. but i have yet to see any modern copy that is not "degraded". I wonder if a real dvd quality exists for this film...

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