Next week's release of Angels and Demons brings to mind another movie similarly derided by the religious establishment: Ken Russell's The Devils. It's still not available on Region 1 DVD. There's a bootleg DVD floating around featuring the 111-minute uncut version, but I never trust picture quality on these, much less support them (it just delays or prevents a decent version).
Gorgeous French poster for The Devils taken from The Auteurs (go there for a larger version & the American Disclaimer version).
There was allegedly a DVD transfer made, a gold master struck, and a release date set, but it was then pulled from release. I first saw the film on a battered old VHS copy projected in a cathedral-like lecture hall during my Anthropology of Religion class in college. My professor, Bruce Grindal, said it is a movie that has always been impossible to find on home video. He added that all sorts of religious institutions and censor groups have helped prevent its availability since its release nearly 4 decades ago.
The movie concerns itself with the Loudun Possessions of 1634, considered the largest mass possession in history. Godless heathen that I am, I don't believe any of the possession malarkey and expect this was a Crucible-like situation where the clergy and the nuns came to blows. Significant artistic license was taken in the portrayals of Cardinal Richlieu and Louis XIII, but what really gave the church and censor boards fits was the infamous Rape of Christ scene. Full of nudity and violence, it's the kind of thing that might still cause trouble with the MPAA.
In a recent Home Theater Forum chat (3/24/09) conducted by The Digital Bits, Warner Bros. had the following to say:
"[MichaelStreeter] Hi, congratulations - I love the WBArchives idea and it's really exciting. Any chance we'll see Brewster McCloud, The Devils or The Power on DVD?
[warnerbros] How did we know someone would ask about the THE DEVILS :) All three titles are under consideration and are in various stage of approval. Cross fingers!"
It appears to be more a matter of "when" rather than "if" at this point. I'm most interested in whether they're planning to release it as an Archive title or an extras-laden standard release.
The trailer is viewable on YouTube here (embedding disabled to frustrate me). Below I have embedded the 6 parts of Hell on Earth: The Desecration & Resurrection of "The Devils", a 2004 UK TV documentary that ran on Channel 4. Nudity and foul language are included, so even the doc is NSFW.
It digs into the production and decades of controversy surrounding The Devils better than anyone has written about it in just 50 minutes, give or take. The presence of this doc would be the reason to buy and not rent the theoretical DVD from Warner.