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Full specs announced for the BFI's special edition of The Firm, which is being double-billed with Elephant:
There are more differences between the two versions of The Firm than the near-identical running times would imply. Because it was a BBC production designed to fit a specific timeslot, Clarke was contractually obliged to deliver to a certain length, so when the original cut was censored, Clarke filled in the gaps with additional footage. So, for instance, the censored version contains more footage of Bexy's job as an estate agent, to replace a scene in the uncut version where Bexy mock-rapes his wife. This latter scene was described in Richard Kelly's oral memoir Alan Clarke as follows:
When I first read that back in 1998, I assumed I'd never get to see the scene - but, happily, Clarke's original workprint still survived.
The Firm
A film by Alan Clarke
Special Collector's Edition Blu-ray & DVD
Starring Gary Oldman
With Phil Davis and Lesley Manville
This unflinching drama from the controversial director of Scum explores the violent world of a football hooligan. Originally censored prior to its broadcast in 1989, The Firm has now been transferred in High Definition for the very first time, and is presented in two different versions, including a Director's Cut which finally restores previously unseen material. It will be released by the BFI on 23 May 2016 in a Special Collector's Edition Blu-ray and DVD.
In The Firm, Bex Bissell (played, in a bravura performance, by Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), wages bloody war against rival gangs to decide who will lead a national 'firm' into Europe to do battle on an international playing field.
Extensive extras include a newly recorded audio commentary with Gary Oldman, the High Definition premiere of director Alan Clarke's celebrated Elephant (1989) and a new documentary about the making of Elephant and The Firm.
Special features
• All films newly remastered in High Definition
• The Firm (Director's Cut, 68 mins): painstakingly reconstructed from Clarke's personal workprint
• Optional audio commentary with Gary Oldman
• The Firm (Broadcast version, 67 mins)
• Optional audio commentary with actors Lesley Manville, Phil Davis, author David Rolinson and the BFI's Dick Fiddy
• Elephant (1989, 39 mins): Alan Clarke's sparse, shocking drama about The Troubles
• Optional audio commentary with producer Danny Boyle and critic Mark Kermode
• Alan Clarke interview (1989, 10 mins): the director discusses Elephant and The Firm
• Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light (2016, 36 mins): new documentary about the making of Clarke's last films
Blu-ray product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1221 / Cert 18
UK / 1989 / colour / English, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 67 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / BD50 / 25fps / 1080p/50i / LPCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)
DVD product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIV2063 / Cert 18
UK / 1989 / colour / English, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 67 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / DVD9 / PAL / 25fps / Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio (320kbps)
A film by Alan Clarke
Special Collector's Edition Blu-ray & DVD
Starring Gary Oldman
With Phil Davis and Lesley Manville
This unflinching drama from the controversial director of Scum explores the violent world of a football hooligan. Originally censored prior to its broadcast in 1989, The Firm has now been transferred in High Definition for the very first time, and is presented in two different versions, including a Director's Cut which finally restores previously unseen material. It will be released by the BFI on 23 May 2016 in a Special Collector's Edition Blu-ray and DVD.
In The Firm, Bex Bissell (played, in a bravura performance, by Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), wages bloody war against rival gangs to decide who will lead a national 'firm' into Europe to do battle on an international playing field.
Extensive extras include a newly recorded audio commentary with Gary Oldman, the High Definition premiere of director Alan Clarke's celebrated Elephant (1989) and a new documentary about the making of Elephant and The Firm.
Special features
• All films newly remastered in High Definition
• The Firm (Director's Cut, 68 mins): painstakingly reconstructed from Clarke's personal workprint
• Optional audio commentary with Gary Oldman
• The Firm (Broadcast version, 67 mins)
• Optional audio commentary with actors Lesley Manville, Phil Davis, author David Rolinson and the BFI's Dick Fiddy
• Elephant (1989, 39 mins): Alan Clarke's sparse, shocking drama about The Troubles
• Optional audio commentary with producer Danny Boyle and critic Mark Kermode
• Alan Clarke interview (1989, 10 mins): the director discusses Elephant and The Firm
• Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light (2016, 36 mins): new documentary about the making of Clarke's last films
Blu-ray product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1221 / Cert 18
UK / 1989 / colour / English, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 67 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / BD50 / 25fps / 1080p/50i / LPCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit)
DVD product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIV2063 / Cert 18
UK / 1989 / colour / English, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 67 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / DVD9 / PAL / 25fps / Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio (320kbps)
LESLEY MANVILLE: In fact, a scene was cut from the film, which caused a huge battle with the BBC. It's when Bexy has come back home very late from his trip to Birmingham, where they've had a rumble. There were lots of cutaways to me in the house, waiting for him, anxious. And he comes in and wakes me up and starts acting violently, so it looks like he's beating me up and raping me. My hair was being held very tightly, my head was being bashed against the wall, then we fall on the floor and he's pulling up my nightdress. Then we both start to giggle - like it's a joke, a routine we've done before. And you were very thrown by it - it was a way of showing that this woman, this wife and mother, had her violent side. It was a brutal scene, every bit as gruelling as the fights between the men.
DAVID M. THOMPSON: It was me rather than Alan Yentob who felt very strongly about that sex scene, though others were worried. It was an apparent rape of his wife, and then it turned out she got off on it. She was colluding in the violence. And it seemed to me to be really interesting territory but such a dynamite subject, and so under-explored in the film that it would seem gratuitous. With hindsight, I think we'd have gone with it and risked it. But again maybe not. Maybe it should have been in the video.
GARY OLDMAN: I think that scene showed that football was not the only arena for that kind of testosterone, if you like. Alan was making a point that you can't be that character and just go out to football for two hours and just sort of turn it on and off - that it must in some way influence and bleed into your everyday life. All that machismo, there's a certain attractiveness to it, and I think that certain women find it very sexy. But, ultimately, it's a selfish existence and it affects other people around you.
DAVID M. THOMPSON: It was me rather than Alan Yentob who felt very strongly about that sex scene, though others were worried. It was an apparent rape of his wife, and then it turned out she got off on it. She was colluding in the violence. And it seemed to me to be really interesting territory but such a dynamite subject, and so under-explored in the film that it would seem gratuitous. With hindsight, I think we'd have gone with it and risked it. But again maybe not. Maybe it should have been in the video.
GARY OLDMAN: I think that scene showed that football was not the only arena for that kind of testosterone, if you like. Alan was making a point that you can't be that character and just go out to football for two hours and just sort of turn it on and off - that it must in some way influence and bleed into your everyday life. All that machismo, there's a certain attractiveness to it, and I think that certain women find it very sexy. But, ultimately, it's a selfish existence and it affects other people around you.
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