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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Tasty Comedy of Bad Manners" Gets a Mediocre DVD Treatment, April 19, 2004
The 1982 low-budget outré comedy EATING RAOUL from writer/director Paul Bartel, who also stars, is an outrageously funny satire that needles such diverse elements of American culture as the concept of The American Dream, high-society status symbols, overzealous capitalism, racial stereotyping, and sexually deviant subgroups.Paul and Mary Bland (Bartel and Mary Woronov) are a conservative, happily married middle-class couple who share an interest in fine wine, good food, and sexual repression. They also share entrepreneurial dreams of opening their own restaurant for epicures. Unfortunately, the Blands are flat broke. Paul is an unemployed wine connoisseur, and Mary only makes a pittance working as a Nurse's Aide. To make matters worse, the building they want to purchase for their restaurant has also caught the eye of another buyer, so if Paul and Mary don't raise the $20,000 down quickly, they'll watch their hopes and dreams turn to dust. Things actually take a turn for the better one evening when a "swinger" mistakes their apartment for the location of a wife-swapping party and elbows his way inside. Assuming that Paul and Mary are the party's hosts, the horny gent tries to put the make on Mary, and in a passionate, knee-jerk response, Paul beans the guy with a frying pan and kills him. Examining the body, the two discover hundreds of dollars in cash. Surmising that all swingers must carry large sums of money, Paul and Mary employ the personal ads to lure horny men to their apartment, after which they off 'em, take their money, then dispose of the bodies in their apartment building's communal trash compactor. Now their dream finally seems to be within their grasp. Enter the titular Raoul (Robert Beltran, later a regular on TV's STAR TREK: VOYAGER). A two-bit con artist and thief, Raoul stumbles upon the Blands' murder-for-money scheme and demands a piece of the action. Oddly, he doesn't want any of the victims' money; he only wants the cadavers. It seems he knows where he can sell 'em, and he makes so much from each sale, in fact, that he offers to share HIS earnings with the Blands. At first, the arrangement with Raoul works well, and the Blands are pretty close to having that down payment. But when Raoul decides that he also wants a share of MARY, it's up to Paul to devise a way to remove the small-time grifter from the picture without losing his wife or endangering their culinary aspirations. Robert Beltran, in the eponymous role, marks his first major film appearance with EATING RAOUL. Although his part is obviously a satirical caricature of Anglo misperceptions and misconceptions about Hispanic and Latin folks, Beltran creates a remarkable portrait of the sleazy, opportunistic Raoul and avoids delivering a mere parody. Pretty, quirky Mary Woronov--once a favorite of artist/filmmaker Andy Warhol during the 1960s--is a pure delight in the role of Mary Bland. She portrays Mary with just the right mix of restraint and flakiness, being very careful not to take the character too far over the top and risk losing audience sympathy. While not curvaceous or large-bosomed like the stereotypical porn queen, Woronov has a subtle, natural sexuality that makes her few nude scenes in EATING RAOUL very sensuous and erotic. Heterosexual male viewers have no problem understanding why all the men in the film desire Mary. Writer/director Paul Bartel is perfect as the pitiful, lethargic pseudo-intellectual Paul Bland. One would never expect a wimp like Paul Bland to murder somebody, not even in defense of his wife, which makes it all the funnier when Paul develops an indignant pugnacity and DOES start whacking the victims. A talented comic thespian, Bartel pulls this all off with a straight face and avoids pushing it to the point of camp. In addition to the wonderful performances of the three principals, there are also some notable cameo appearances. Comedy writer Buck Henry--known to most viewers as a writer/co-creator of TV's classic sitcom GET SMART--appears as a slimy bank officer appropriately named Mr. Leech. Ed Begley, Jr., shows up as a wannabe hippie; improv great Edie McClurg can be seen hamming it up at a wife-swapping party; prolific character actor Allan Rich has a bit as a gent with a Nazi fetish; and director John Landis makes a very brief (and uncredited) appearance at a sex party. Yes, EATING RAOUL jumps back and forth across the line that divides mainstream comedy from avant-garde satire, especially by the standards of the era in which it was originally released. But it's difficult to dislike this sardonic, satirical, low-budget dark comedy. In spite of the Blands' murderous exploitation of unwary members of the "swinging" subculture, viewers tend to identify with the couple and feel an inexplicable desire to see them realize their epicurial dream. And this emotional ambivalence seems to make the film all the more humorous and enjoyable. In a way, perhaps, it's even cathartic. The Columbia/Tri-Star DVD release of this delightful satire is a bit disappointing. Though offered in an anamorphic widescreen format, the digital transfer has many noticeable flaws. There are a few times when the image warbles or shakes (especially perceptible on a sizable HDTV monitor), and throughout the movie there are spots where the image seems excessively blurry. There are also numerous scratches, hairs, and filmic artifacts. Considering that EATING RAOUL has attained the status of cult classic, the flick deserves a higher-quality DVD release. Also, it would've been nice if the disc had included some bonus material, like maybe a commentary track featuring Mary Woronov and Robert Beltran. The bottom line: The film EATING RAOUL deserves 5 stars; the DVD treatment only 3. The 4-star rating, then, is the average of the two. Longtime fans of the flick will want a copy for their DVD collections, as the disc IS better than the previously released VHS versions. But uninitiated viewers should wait for a higher-quality DVD release.
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