Talk Radio (1988)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer-Talk Radio (1988) Theatrical Trailer-Atlantic City (1980) Theatrical Trailer-Clean (2004/I) Theatrical Trailer-Modigliani (2004) Theatrical Trailer-Tsotsi (2005) Theatrical Trailer-Land of Plenty (2004)
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	104:31
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Oliver Stone
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Eric Bogosian Ellen Greene Leslie Hope John C. McGinley Alec Baldwin John Pankow Michael Wincott Linda Atkinson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	Stewart Copeland

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play written by the multi-talented Eric Bogosian, Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio (1988) is a harrowing vision of a radio host’s downward spiral, at the hands of his audience. The film is also based on the real life murder of radio host Alan Berg.

Bogosian stars as angry shock-jock Barry Champlain, a Jewish radio personality in Dallas, Texas. Champlain’s audience is largely composed of listeners who loathe his antics and somehow revel in their dislike of him. Nevertheless Champlain perversely enjoys the nightly conversations with Neo-Nazis, rapists, stoned youth and lonely grandmothers, feeding his need to be famous and in control. Hate mail and death threats aren’t unusual for Champlain but he begins to become paranoid and disturbed by the amount of hatred he encounters during his show in the midnight hours of the night.

Furthermore, despite Champlain’s forthright opinions which are often offensive to his late night audience of society’s fringe dwellers, his show is about to be "picked up" by a nationwide network of radio stations. However after receiving this supposedly positive news, Champlain refuses to tone down his behaviour to become more acceptable to the wider audience, much to the frustration of his boss Dan (Alec Baldwin). To further complicate matters Champlain sabotages his relationship with Laura (Leslie Hope) who is also his producer by trying to reconnect with his former wife Ellen (Ellen Greene) who he still loves. The film also stars Stone regular John C. McGinley as Stu, Champlain’s right hand man and John Pankow as a studio executive. The great Michael Wincott also provides a memorable performance as Kent and lends his voice to two other characters.

Video

While the film heavily relies on Bogosian’s natural and unpredictable performance, Stone creates a tense environment as his regular cinematographer Robert Richardson envisions the studio as a claustrophobic space, as the radio host becomes consumed with his listeners.

The PAL DVD transfer of Talk Radio is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and it is 16x9 enhanced. Considering the age of the film, the transfer is quite good.

There are no obvious digital artefacts or MPEG compression and only minor film grain. The natural colour scheme is presented well and overall there is nothing to distract the viewer from the film.

There has been an artistic decision to make a flashback segment in the film appear with reduced colour and with a softer much more glazed and romantic look. Otherwise the darker scenes set in the radio station are lit boldly with average black levels.

The film has been encoded at the average high bitrate of 7.45 Mb/s over a dual layer DVD and as a result the transfer remains sharp and defined.

The layer change occurs between chapters 10 and 11 at 57:34.

There are no subtitle streams available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

Being a film set in a radio station, dialogue needs to be clear and defined and the stereo mix certainly delivers. The mix remains clear and audible as the volume of the dialogue and Stewart Copeland’s original score compliment each other.

The stereo mix is centered at the front of the soundstage with limited subwoofer usage. George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone is a key song of the film as it is used in the protagonist’s show and during the opening credits of the film.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

The main menu is a still image accompanied by George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone. The menu provides a play all feature, scene selection options and access to Madman Propaganda and the theatrical trailer for the film.

Theatrical Trailer

Full Frame (2:09)

Madman Propaganda

The R1 includes French and Spanish subtitles and the following additional extras:

• Cast And Filmmakers Notes
• Production Notes

Talk Radio is a disturbing film and remains relevant particularly since freedom of speech is forever a conflicting topic.

Considering the age of the film, the transfer is quite good.

Unfortunately the local release is bare-bones .

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall