Watching Journey's End

[too_much_in_the_sun]

 Apologies for being absent lately; this is my very last week of college and I've been... busy. 

You get two posts today, as an apology for none yesterday! Here's the first; the second a little later today.

Journey's End is not an easy film to watch, in the perfectly literal sense that it's difficult to find. It's never been officially released on DVD, though I might risk the eight bucks for this dubious home-made version. Trying to find out who might own a print, and what they might be doing with it, is a rabbit-hole of internet scuttlebutt (this anonymous commenter passes on a rumor that the British Film Institute had a print at one point, but no longer does).

There is one thing: this YouTube video.

"Journey's End (1930) COLIN CLIVE" (Watch on YouTube)

Though it's been reuploaded a couple times by other users, this is probably the best copy of this movie you're going to find. (There's another version that apparently stops halfway through and then restarts, leading to a run-time of almost 3 hours.) The quality is awful and there are a few clear defects in this copy, but it's a testament to the quality of this movie that it's still compelling.

So if you miss watching videos in 480p, you're in the right place.

Comments

[missanthropicprinciple]

This film really needs major restoration. It's such a fine example of an early WWI film. Colin's acting is sublime and powerful. I wish they'd stop remaking it and just fix the original. Incidentally, Melissa (from Tumblr) and I stood outside The Avalon where he performed in the play. http://colincliveforever.tumblr.com/post/176126929179/the-avalon-hollywood-1735-vine-street-los

[too_much_in_the_sun]

! That's marvelous!

And yeah, discovering that there was a reboot last year definitely made it harder to try and search for information about the original. So, uh, for all I know there's a better copy of the film somewhere out there, it's just swamped in posts about the 2017 version.

[missanthropicprinciple]

My digital copy is the same. I tried to see if mine was a higher quality but it's crappy. I remember emailing Criterion Collection explaining how it needed to be restored and it was significant to WWI film history and to me personally as my English great grandfather died on the very morning/location that the play ends (March 21, 1918) but I don't think I ever heard back from them.

Also, if you want Colin Clive files I have compiled a crapload since 2011. I have most of his films on mp4 files and a lot of HD pics/scans. DM me if you need stuff.

[too_much_in_the_sun]

Thanks for the offer! I probably will send you a message in the near-ish future, but after archiving my entire Tumblr, I'm a little short of storage space at the moment.

[missanthropicprinciple]

Totally. Also, I could totally mail you a flashdrive with stuff, oldschool.