Blu-ray Release: Kansas City

Blu-ray Release Date: March 3, 2019
Price: Blu-ray $27.71
Studio: Arrow/MVD

Returning to the city of his birth for inspiration, legendary maverick director Robert Altman (3 Women) helms an evocative, bullet-riddled tribute to the music and movies of his youth in the music-filled 1996 drama Kansas City, a Depression-era gangster flick as only he could make one.

Blondie O’Hara (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Heart of Midnight) resorts to desperate measures when her low-level hood husband Johnny (Dermot Mulroney, The Grey) gets caught trying to steal from Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte), a local crime boss operating out of jazz haunt The Hey-Hey Club. Out on a limb, Blondie kidnaps laudanum-addled socialite Carolyn (Miranda Richardson, Churchill), hoping her influential politician husband can pull the right strings and get Johnny out of Seldom Seen’s clutches.

Now making its Blu-ray debut, Kansas City was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and featuring a remarkable soundtrack performed live by some of the best players in contemporary jazz.

Here’s what Arrow’s Blu-ray includes:

• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
• Original 2.0 and 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by director Robert Altman
• Newly filmed appreciation by critic Geoff Andrew
• Gare, Trains et Deraillement, a 2007 visual essay by French critic Luc Lagier, plus short introduction to the film narrated by Lagier
• Robert Altman Goes to the Heart of America and Kansas City: The Music, two 1996 promotional featurettes including interviews with cast and crew
• Electronic press kit interviews with Altman, Leigh, Richardson, Belafonte and musician Joshua Redman, plus behind-the-scenes footage
• Four theatrical trailers
• TV spots
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jennifer Dionisio
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Dr Nicolas Pillai, original press kit notes and an excerpt from Altman on Altman