The incredible shrinking man / a Universal International Picture ; screenplay by Richard Matheson ; prduced by Albert Zugsmith ; directed by Jack Arnold.
Edition:
Two-DVD special edition ; DVD edition. Widescreen.
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2021
Description:
2 videodiscs (81 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in.
Based on the novel by Richard Matheson. Originally released as a motion picture in 1957. Wide screen (1.85:1). Special features: New audio commentary with Tom Weaver and David Schecter; new program on the film's special effects by Craig Barron and Ben Burtt; new conversation between Joe Dante and Dana Gould; Auteur on campus: Jack Arnold at Universal (Director's cut) (2021); interview from 2016 with Richard Cristian Matheson; interview with Jack Arnold from 1983; 8mm home-cinema version from 1957; trailer and teaser narrated by Orson Welles; essay by Geoffrey O'Brien. Randy Stuart, Grant Williams, April Kent, Paul Langton.
Summary:
Existentialism goes pop in this benchmark of atomic-age science fiction, a superlative adaptation of a novel by the legendary Richard Matheson that has awed and unnerved generations of viewers with the question, What is humanity's place amid the infinity of the universe? Six months after being exposed to a mysterious radiation cloud, suburban everyman Scott Carey finds himself becoming smaller and smaller and smaller until he's left to fend for himself in a world in which ordinary cats, mousetraps, and spiders pose a mortal threat, all while grappling with a diminishing sense of himself. Directed by the prolific creature-feature impresario Jack Arnold with ingenious optical effects and a transcendent metaphysical ending, The Incredible Shrinking Man gazes with wonder and trepidation into the unknowable vastness of the cosmic void.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.