SILENT TRIGGER (Russell Mulcahy, 1996)

[Jox]

Shots from DIE HARD


(snaps taken from the new 4K version)

I don't remember if the elevator sequences of SILENT TRIGGER had that much importance in the script versions I have (it was a spec going back to 1987), but Mulcahy certainly made them look very similar...

[savagesketch]

Latest episode of the podcast has arrived, this time chatting SILENT TRIGGER! Major thanks to our very own Jox and Moltisanti for joining me in this discussion! It was a fun one! As always, please continue subscribing and spreading the word!

https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress ... t-trigger/

[Jox]

Glad to have been part of it once again! SILENT TRIGGER should be rehabilitated as a cult classic!

[Jox]

[Jox]

The Japanese Theatrical Program (coupled with THE QUEST)

[Jox]

The Nameless Media "large VHS box" Blu-ray edition

[Jox]

This photograph must be either from deleted footage, or as I think, from between takes or rehearsal since Dolph doesn't wear his rain jacket like he does in the flashback sequences:

[Imalloutofbubblegum]

trying to figure out which blu-ray version to buy, since there is so many releases. Can someone help me out? Does this version contain the superior version?

https://www.amazon.de/Silent-Trigger-Bl ... aycom04-21


ADMIN EDIT:

[Jox]

These are the two editions to get with the best master and supplements courtesy of Subkultur Entertainment:

Limited digipack edition:
https://www.amazon.de/Silent-Trigger-Li ... 00O9O3N8E/



Standard Amaray case edition:
https://www.amazon.de/Silent-Trigger-Bl ... 00PJN5MW4/



I wrote in-depth behind the scenes for the booklet, which are included in English in the ROM part of the disc (which I can send out to you when you buy the BR)

[Imalloutofbubblegum]

Thanks. Very confusing with all the releases plus someone said on the blu-ray forums that the one I posted was the subkultur disc. No one followed up on it though, so I have been holding off.

[Mike Retter]

Hello All

I just wanted to let you all know that Im writing a piece about Silent Trigger for an Australian film magazine called CINEMA NOW ... Its not so much a piece about production background or trivia, but more of an in-depth critique and contextualisation. The form the article takes is actually a "tag-team" style, a style which I believe was first done in chudd.com .. so it has two authors, each in conversation about the film, the other author being Ben Kooyman of the wonderful Australian film website https://downunderflix.com/ ... At CINEMA NOW, we are putting the final touches on this article, which we will publish next year, hopefully in february. Russell Mulcahy means a great deal to us in Australia as a visionary director and visual stylist.

I have intended to express some very subjective feelings and hopefully some legitimately new revelations about this film. I wont spoil them all here, but Im convinced the film is actually a partial remake or homage of a classic film from the late 1940s and I make my case why that may be. Can you guess which film? I also attempt to place Mulcahy in the context of a specific cinematic movement (not just "vulgar auteurist", as stated in CINEMASCOPE magazine, though thats perfectly applicable too) and all will be explained in this edition of the magazine.. But most of all I hope we do this film justice and help with its critical reappraisal.

Trailer for the previous magazine


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-28/ ... le/9807052

[Jox]

Dear Mike, thank you reaching out!

That sounds excellent and I'm very much looking forward to read your piece and a get a hand on your zine. We are lacking in-depth, critical, analytical and non-fan based (which most film "critics" have become with younger generations) film writing these days...

I'm not sure which 1940s film you're referring to, my take was that SILENT TRIGGER was quite reminiscent of French director Marcel Carné's LE JOUR SE LEVE (DAYBREAK, 1939) starring Jean Gabin.

Even though your essay will not be about the behind the scenes, I'd be happy to send you my in-depth liner notes I wrote for the German Blu-ray edition from Subkultur Entertainment for your own interest. There's a short essay in it as well that could be added to your piece if you see it fit.

And I agree Russell Mulcahy is an important director which RAZORBACK and SILENT TRIGGER are perfect examples of (not mentioning the influential mark that he left in the early days of music videos)...

[Mike Retter]

Hi Jox

Thanks for the support. Apart from living upto the film, I actually want to live up to some of the writing in this forum, which is one of the few resources I have found on the topic. Im about to listen to the podcast that was linked here.

Yes, I would very much like to read the English version of the printed booklet, if you would like to email it to me, that would be greatly appreciated. retter2critical@yahoo.com

Thanks again

Mike

[Jox]

Great, thank you! I'll email you ASAP.

[Mike Retter]

"Cinema Now" film journal set to publish SILENT TRIGGER tag-team review and exploration shortly. As a piece piece of writing, it goes overboard in both the contentions made AND sheer subjective-frivolity about the film.

Excerpts:

Ben: When I think of Russell Mulcahy, I think of smoky visuals. I think of dramatic backlighting and shafts of light. I think of killer swine hating on humans and sword-fighting immortals decapitating each other. I think of Christopher Lambert as a Scotsman, Sean Connery as an Egyptian, and some of the best songs from the Queen catalogue. Like most punters, I think of Razorback (1984) and Highlander (1986), and those are certainly jewels in the crown of their director’s CV, and would be in any director’s CV. But Mulcahy’s career trajectory has been defined as much by his failures as it has by those objects of cult adoration, and those failures have in turn yielded interesting, eclectic fruit. A case in point is Silent Trigger (1996).

Mike: Russell Mulcahy continues a grand tradition of "British visual stylists" that began with Alfred Hitchcock's early-aping of German expressionist horror. Hitchcock, an early British cinema Sex Pistols equivalent ushered in a wave of interesting post-punks such as Charles Laughton, Michael Powell, Nick Roag and Peter Yates right through to the 80's TV-commercial directors Adrian Lynne, Ridley and Tony Scott. In fact, Mulcahy was often called "the poor man's Ridley Scott", which is an example of some of the backhanded-compliment maligning he gets. Similar to Yates and the Scott Brothers, who all came from advertising, Mulcahy would enter cinema via the shorter, distilled and highly stylised form of MTV film clips. Mulcahy may have been the first significant MTV director to make the transition that many others like Michael Bay, Spike Jonze and Jonathan Glazer would make.

http://www.pureshitauscinema.com/cinema_now.html