To Live and Die in L.A.
William Friedkin's 1985 To Live and Die in L.A. is an oft-requested title around here, and the good news is that a DVD appears inevitable. There's a good chance it will be a special edition as well.
The Vestron Video VHS edition of To Live and Die in L.A. is out of print, and has been so for some time. Fans can easily get a copy on eBay, where they close anywhere from $7.50 to $30.00, depending on condition. A Laserdisc was also released in 1986 by Image, and while that fetches a few more bucks at auction (up to $75.00 or so), the 1.33:1 pan-and-scan transfer means it ain't definitive — and in fact, we don't think there has ever been a widescreen home-video release of To Live and Die in L.A., at least not in the U.S. (it was shown theatrically at 1.85:1).
To Live and Die in L.A. was produced by New Century Productions, with the 1985 theatrical distribution handled by MGM/UA and the home video rights going to the now-defunct Vestron. Vestron went bankrupt in the early '90s, sending their video holdings to (follow the bouncing ball) Credit Lyonnaise. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment bought a portion of the Vestron library in 1997, and Artisan (then Live) obtained a share around the same time. In 1999 PolyGram sold their holdings to Universal, who proceeded to sell the majority to MGM in what amounted to a three-way deal.
Okay — that's more than anybody wanted to know (and we're sure we glossed over some of the finer details). But essentially that leaves MGM and Artisan — and quite a few Artisan titles have found their way to MGM recently (including Platoon) due to a transfer of rights. Our best information is that To Live and Die in L.A. is currently under MGM's control. Such Vestron titles as The Abominable Dr. Phibes and The Amityville Horror have already been released on DVD by the studio, while the Vestron property The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was slated to be released in early 2001, but has since been delayed until a special edition can be put together.
Those familiar with MGM and their DVD marketing plan know that they aren't shy about going digital — a few hundred of their films are slated to be released on DVD in 2001 alone, and with the largest proprietary film library in the world (more than 4,000 titles) it seems likely that they will keep up the pace well into the foreseeable future. Of course, this means that they have been releasing a lot of catalog titles sans features — a boon to some, annoying to others — which puts To Live and Die in L.A. on the DVD radar by default. On the other hand, if Artisan does control the film, it seems likely that they will release a DVD as soon as possible (although we suspect that, if Artisan had the film, we'd have a DVD by now).
In any event, we are guessing (and this is just guessing) that To Live and Die in L.A. will be something special, primarily because William Friedkin has had an active role in some recent DVD releases, with commentaries on both Exorcist special editions as well as the Rules of Engagement disc. Reportedly, he also publicly commented in 1999 that he would have some sort of involvement with To Live and Die in L.A., whenever it should arrive. But Mr. Friedkin most recently has been involved with shooting The Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro (and not far from DVD Journal headquarters in Portland, Ore., in fact), and his involvement with that eventual DVD seems assured. Will he fit a To Live and Die in L.A. disc into his schedule before much longer? Or will MGM just put out a bare-bones version?
Actually, we have better question: What's up with Fox's French Connection DVD? We had been expecting an announcement for the first or second quarter of 2001. Fox could be waiting for Friedkin to record a French Connection track — if that's the case, a special edition of To Live and Die in L.A. could take that much longer.
Back to the Missing in Action index
Netflix is the easiest way to rent DVDs!