Naked Lunch – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: Canada/UK/Japan, 1991
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: David Cronenberg
Cast: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, Nicholas Campbell, Michael Zelniker, Robert A. Silverman, Joseph Scoren

Release Date: April 17th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 115 Minutes 3 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 English, LPCM Stereo English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £34.99 (UK)

"Former junkie William Lee (Peter Weller, Robocop) makes ends meet as an exterminator. But when he and his wife Joan (Judy Davis, Barton Fink) discover the hallucinatory properties of the powder he uses to kill bugs, they become hooked, and their world is changed forever. Insects speak, typewriters mutate and talk, interdimensional beings reveal themselves, identities fracture and blur; nothing and no one is quite what it seems. When Bill, under the influence of drugs, or the bugs that have begun talking to him, shoots his wife, he flees to Interzone, at once a place and a state of mind, where things only get stranger." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "Naked Lunch has been exclusively restored by Turbine in partnership with Arrow Films.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K at Difuze, Toronto, Canada. The film conformed, graded and restored in 4K in standard dynamic range, HDR10 and Dolby Vision at LSP Medien, Uelzen, Germany.

The transfer was supervised by director of photography Peter Suschitzky at Silver Salt Restoration, London, UK, and the restoration was approved by director David Cronenberg."

Naked Lunch comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD

Disc Size: 92.6 GB

Feature: 78.8 GB

The source used for this transfer looks exceptional. When compared to previous home video releases, this is by far and away the best Naked Lunch has ever looked. Color saturation, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic. Also, this is a solid encode, and it is one of the best-looking 4K UHDs that I have seen to date.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 English, LPCM Stereo English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English and a LPCM stereo mix in English. It should be noted that there is some dialog in Arabic. Both audio tracks sound excellent. Dialog always comes through clearly; everything sounds balanced, and range-wise, things sound phenomenal. That said, the DTS-HD 5.1 track does a great job expanding the stereo source. Included are removable English SDH.

Extras:

Extras for this release include image galleries: promotional stills and posters (6 images), and stills from the set courtesy of Chris Rodley (74 images), a theatrical trailer (1 minute 36 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), concept art gallery, a collection of drawings and maquettes for the creatures of Naked Lunch by Stephan Dupuis (2 minutes 51 seconds, DTS-HD stereo with music from Naked Lunch playing in the background), archival making of documentary titled Naked Making Lunch, directed by Chris Rodley presented in a new scan from the director’s personal 16mm print (54 minutes 40 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an audio interview with Chris Rodley discussing his connection to David Cronenberg and the process of making Naked Making Lunch (44 minutes 31 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), a visual essay by film critic David Cairns titled A Ticket to Interzone (28 minutes 31 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with David Huckvale who discusses composer Howard Shore’s score (31 minutes 27 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with writer and film critic Tony Rayns who discusses William S. Burroughs (60 minutes 29 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with composer Howard Shore titled A Ballad for Burroughs (17 minutes 9 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with special effects artist Chris Walas titled Naked Flesh (18 minutes 36 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (11 minutes 1 second, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actor Peter Weller titled Exterminate All Rational Thought (61 minutes 53 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with producer Jeremy Thomas titled Naked Attraction (15 minutes 32 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an archival audio commentary with director David Cronenberg, an audio commentary with film historian Jack Sargeant and screenwriter Graham Duff, reversible cover art, a double-sided poster, six postcard-sized reproduction lobby cards, William Lee business card, Dr. A. Benway business card, Arrow steam-ship company limited passage ticket, and a 80-page perfect bound book with cast & crew information, Introduction From Everything is Permitted: The Making of Naked Lunch written by David Cronenberg, an essay titled Naked Lunch written by Vanessa Morgan, an essay titled After Naked Lunch Toward Naked Lunch written by Jack Sargeant, an essay titled Dead Ringers Do Naked Lunch: David Cronenberg on William Burroughs written by Karen Jaehne, an extract from Cronenberg on Cronenberg written by Chris Rodley, and information about the restoration.

Summary:

William S. Burroughs was an author who is most known for his non-linear style. Naked Lunch was the first time he used this style of storytelling. Though there had been adaptations of William S. Burroughs before David Cronenberg adapted Naked Lunch, no adaptation comes as close to capturing the essence as David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Naked Lunch. One would be hard-pressed to name two creative talents more perfect for each other than William S. Burroughs and David Cronenberg.

The narrative revolves around Bill Lee, a bug exterminator whose wife gets hooked on the spray he uses to kill bugs. After accidentally killing his wife, he embarks on a hallucinatory journey in which he encounters interdimensional beings and becomes entangled in a secret government plot.

Even if you are not that familiar with the literary works of William S. Burroughs, it is easy to see from that synopsis that Naked Lunch is going to be a twisted ride in which you will see things that you never thought would ever appear in a film. Sure, the cinema of David Cronenberg is filled with elements that are equally disturbing. And yet, the way that David Cronenberg molds Naked Lunch into a cohesive narrative without losing any of the source's potency is an extraordinary feat.

When it comes to the look and sound of Naked Lunch, you know a filmmaker like David Cronenberg is going to deliver and then some. And though he always excels in these two areas, getting the right cast can sometimes be tricky. Fortunately, when it comes to casting, David Cronenberg has assembled a remarkable cast who are all excellent in the roles, especially Peter Weller (RoboCop) in the role of Bill Lee. Not only is he portraying the protagonist, but this character is a facsimile of William S. Burroughs.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Naked Lunch is how David Cronenberg takes the core elements of the source novel, elements from other stories written by William S. Burroughs, and elements from William S. Burroughs. David Cronenberg’s films are known for their grotesque and mind-bending imagery, and there is not a shortage of these types of elements in Naked Lunch, like bugs that talk out of their asses and mutant typewriters. Ultimately, Naked Lunch is a perfect fusion of William S. Burroughs and body horror.

Naked Lunch gets a definitive release from Arrow Video that comes with an exceptional audio/video presentation and a wealth of informative extras, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer