Mark it down. Do it now!! Nov. 22, if you are a genre fan, you have to have this film as part of your library … that’s all you need to know.
The film in question is writer/director Patrick Read Johnson’s brilliantly-imagined biopic (with lots of enjoyable embellishments), 5-25-77. It will be available on Nov. 22 from MVD Entertainment Group on both DVD and Blu-ray.
Film geeks and genre fans will immediately recognize the significance of the May 25, 1977 date. That’s the day Star Wars made its theatrical debut … and the world changed. Johnson’s 5-25-77 is his labor of love about how that film changed his life … it’s a wonderful tale.
When we say “labor of love,” that is true in every sense of the word. Johnson began work in earnest on his biopic back in 2001 (an encounter with Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz in 1999 set things in motion), which is also significant as in 1968, as just a child, he saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and that set him on a path of being a film geek and filmmaker (Spaced Invaders, Baby’s Day Out, Angus).
With limited funding, he shot most of the raw footage for 5-25-77 over a three-year period beginning in 2004, with Freaks and Geeks TV series’ “Sam Weir” in the lead as “Pat Johnson” (played by John Francis Daley … perhaps best known as Sweets from the Bones TV series).
A rough cut of the film was screened in 2012; again in 2013 … and yet again in 2017. Finally, it is done.
As to the story, which is all pretty much true (artistic license taken, of course), by 1976, Johnson, born and raised in Wadsworth, Illinois, had become something of an amateur filmmaker. This made him both a geek and a high school outsider … and it also drove his mother nuts (played by Collen Camp — The Swinging Cheerleaders, Smile, Valley Girl, etc.). Johnson, it seems, became obsessed with the work of the late Douglas Trumbull.
Out of desperation, as the story goes, she made a cold-call to the then-editor of American Cinematographer, Herb Lightman (played here by Austin Pendleton — What's Up, Doc?, Short Circuit, Starting Over, etc.), and told him of her plight and her son’s obsession … and, he tells her, no problem, send him to L.A.
It was one of those dream trips. He meets Trumbull (Michael Pawlak) in post work on Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, who also just happens to be there (played by Kevin J. Stephens). A dream come true … but it is only just beginning.
Johnson’s next stop is Industrial Light and Magic, where he gets a tour, sees the amazing miniatures from Star Wars and is treated to a rough-cut screening of the film. It is time to go back home …
Once back in Wadsworth, Johnson is an alien. He’s seen the future and he might as well be talking to the apes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. His friends can’t quite grasp what he is going on about (light sabers, Death Star, Darth Vader, etc.) … and being an outsider, those who find him odd treat him with distain. In a way this new-found knowledge is bittersweet.
The movie is finally complete, ironically the late Gary Kurtz was one of the producers … Mark it down, if you have the Star Wars films (not necessarily the stuff that Disney has been churning out of late) in your film library, then 5-25-77 from MVD Entertainment Group on either DVD or Blu-ray on Nov. 22 is a must!! Repeat, A MUST!!!
Bonus goodies include commentary from filmmaker Patrick Read Johnson, who is joined by Seth Gaven, founder of the A.V. Squad and editor of Johnson’s Spaced Invaders, a post-screening Q&A session with Johnson at the 2013 Fantasia Film Festival and extensive photo galleries.
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