We've discussed how films like "Alien" and "Blade Runner" take place in a future where there instead of government you have a "corporate state." Ridley Scott even called it "corporate communism" in his commentary for "Blade Runner." But a film where it really stood out was "Outland" which was written and directed by Peter Hyams and starred Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. This was a 1981 sci-fi classic that got a rather poor treatment when released on DVD way back when DVDs were first released. Also Netflix's streaming version is pan and scan as well as poorly encoded.
Well, Warner Brothers decided to release a new version on Bluray and I was able to pick it up this week on sale at Fry's for only $8. It is an excellent widescreen (2:40:1) transfer and remixed with 5.1 sound. Hiyams also provides a recently recorded very interesting commentary for the movie. The film if you've never seen it is essentially a western that takes in a mining community on Jupiter's moon Io. Connery plays the marshall and Boyle the corporate mining boss. Hiyams says he wanted to make a western but no one wanted to finance one back then so he essentially wrote one that takes place in the future. As he says it's more like "Deadwood" than "The Searchers." The film stands up well though Hiyams mentions he tried to get investors interested in doing a new version (rumors abounded a couple years about about this) but no one was interested. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/
