Color, 1978, 108 mins. 36 secs.
Directed by Jack Nicholson
Starring Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi, Veronica Cartwright, Danny DeVito, Ed Begley Jr.
Cinématographe (UHD & Blu-ray) (US R0/A 4K/HD), Paramount (DVD) (US R1 NTSC) / WS (1.85:1) (16:9)

Seven years after his often Goin' Southoverlooked campus drama Drive, He Said, Jack Nicholson jumped back in the director's sGoin' Southeat for the second of three times with one of his sweetest and goofiest films: Goin' South, an oddball western romantic comedy in which he also stars. This was a regular fixture on daytime broadcast and cable TV well into the '90s, but since then it was been lost in the shuffle for a long time unless you went out of your way to snag the old Paramount DVD or pay for a streaming version. In 2024, Vinegar Syndrome offshoot Cinématographe finally gave the film the upgrade it desperately needed with a beautiful 4K restoration from the negative presented on UHD and Blu-ray in the usual hefty deluxe package.

Habitual criminal Henry Lloyd Moon (Nicholson) is sentenced to hang for his non-violent crimes in a small Texas town with one escape clause: the noose can be dodged if a woman agrees to marry and reform him. The mild-mannered Julia Tate (Steenburgen) agrees to take him on, Goin' Southplanning to use him to work a gold mine hidden on her land. Their union turns into Goin' Southa turbulent one, complicated by the interference of the law and Henry's old partners in crime who all threaten to undermine Julia's plans for financial stability.

An amiable little goof of a film, this plays like a laid-back response to the slew of violent revisionist westerns that had been populating movie screens for around a decade by the time this came out. The main draw here is the insane cast including Steenburgen in charming debut (which she followed with an Oscar-winning turn in Melvin and Howard), John Belushi hot off his scene-stealing role in National Lampoon's Animal House, and reliable ringers like Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Ed Begley Jr., Tracey Walter, Veronica Cartwright, Luana Anders, Lin Shaye, and Anne Ramsey, among many others. In short, it's a character actor's paradise and the kind of low-stakes hangout film you can put on during a slow afternoon to Goin' Southenjoy.

Goin' SouthNever given a special edition of any kind until the Cinématographe release, Goin' South sparkles here with the UHD in particular looking great with fine film grain reproduction and excellent detail for the clothing and landscape details. The great Néstor Almendros (Days of Heaven) really pulls out all the stops here with a diverse combination of lighting schemes, all while retaining that '70s dusty western look. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 English mono track sounds excellent even if it doesn't have to do much heavy lifting, and optional English SDH subtitles are provided. Film critic Simon Abrams provides a new audio commentary providing a thorough history of the film's creation as well as insights into its place in Nicholson's Goin' Southfilmography and its tactics as a twisted marriage farce. In "Néstor Almendros: A Man with Goin' Southa Camera" (17m14s) a new video essay by historian Samm Deighan surveying the cinematographer's work with filmmakers like Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, and Barbet Schroeder, as well as the "Vermeer technique" he used in this film. In the second video essay, "Jack of Three Trades: In Focus on Nicholson the Director" (23m11s), Daniel Kremer hones in on this film as a middle entry in the trilogy of Nicholson-directed features and an extension of the actor-director's laid-back dreamer personality, including perspectives here from two-time collaborator Henry Jaglom. The set also comes with an insert booklet featuring new essays by Nicholson biographer Marc Eliot and critic Chris Shields.

Reviewed on August 15, 2024