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"This is a movie people will be arguing about," said Pauline Kael in a famous 1972 review, "for as long as there are movies." The film was Bernardo Bertolucci's
Last Tango in Paris, which the
New Yorker critic deemed a watershed in film history. The Blu-ray disc of
Last Tango won't settle any longstanding arguments about the film: Is it a masterpiece? A sex film? A bore? Or, in Kael's opinion, "a film that has made the strongest impression on me in almost twenty years of reviewing"? Whatever side you're on,
Last Tango remains an "event" film in the best sense, a bold experiment and a collision of some remarkable talents. Bertolucci was at the height of his ambitions, and Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, as the two strangers who strike up an anonymous sexual relationship that turns emotional, can fairly be said to give everything they've got. (In his autobiography, Brando frankly admitted that the toll of giving his gutsy performance made him decide never to go that deep for a movie again.) The Blu-ray is advertised as an "uncut version," although it does not contain new material; its running time is the same as its initial release (the initially X-rated film has occasionally been available in very slightly shorter versions). The visual presentation is clean without looking immaculate or overly digitized, which is fitting for a film made in 1972, and it is an improvement over previous home-video versions. As a statement,
Last Tango may be murky; but as a journey, it's unforgettable.
--Robert Horton
