John Ostrander: Suicide Squad The Movie Redux, Redux
Completing the trifecta of John Ostrander related items suitable for putting under the Christmas tree, today we have the Suicide Squad movie now out on DVD, Blu-Ray, and assorted other platforms that I don’t understand. The movie came out in August and now, just in time for Christmas, it’s out for your home theater.
This may be a trickier recommendation than my previous two because, although the movie did very well in the theaters, not everyone was a fan. In fact, some hated it. Me, I loved it – but I admit to a slight bias.
The version I got was the extended version with the bells and whistles – extended scenes and bonus features (which I’ll get to in a minute). I’m not always crazy about extended scenes or deleted scenes; more often than not I can see why they were cut. Although there was a scene in The Godfather between Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his son (Al Pacino) in a hospital corridor set early in the film where Michael angrily tells his father “I will never be like you! Never!” I still can’t believe they cut it.
However, I like the extended scenes in the Squad. I think they filled out the story, added characterization, and explained one or two things. It doesn’t take care of all the flaws. For example, (SPOILER ALERT) after the climax Deadshot rightly asks Amanda Waller, “How come you aren’t dead?” It’s not answered and it’s a fair question; acknowledging a flaw doesn’t correct it.
The plot is a little too “save the world” for my taste; when I wrote it, the Squad didn’t really do that. There are other flaws as well, all of which I admit, but I had a good time every time I watch it and I did again. The good very much outweighs the bad so far as I’m concerned. I love the character interactions and Amanda Waller is so Amanda Waller for me. They had read and knew the source material and made a fine adaptation of it. I’m gratified.
And there’s a bunch a special features and, if you’re a fan of mine, you might be interested that I’m in some of them. I sat down and did a video interview and parts of it were incorporated into the special features. If you’ve read/heard interviews with me in the past, you’ve probably heard the stories I tell here. Not everyone who watches this will have heard them, though. I suppose I should find a new way of telling these stories but it’s practiced and professional the way they are now and, I think, moderately entertaining. So now I have my name not only up on a building in the movie, I’ve told my story in the background feature.
It is odd to watch myself in the video. I always have a disconnect between myself on the screen and my own self-image. Do I really sound/look like that? I guess so. I look presentable and sound reasonable and that’s not always the case, so I’m content.
Should you buy the home version if you were not crazy about the film in the first place just to see me blather? No, absolutely not. If you didn’t like it before, even the addition of extended scenes and (ahem) me will not improve that for you. However, according to Amazon, the Blu-ray is among their best sellers in action/adventure so I guess there are plenty of folks who are enjoying it.
A second Squad movie has been announced as in development but with no release date yet set or any other particulars so far as I know. I’m looking forward to it.
Now, if we can just convince Warners to make a movie of Tom Mandrake’s and my version of The Spectre. Heck, I’d pay to see that one!
In the meantime, Happy Holidays to you all. Whether you buy a John Ostrander related item or not.
Ho Ho Ho.
You wrote, “… Amanda Waller is so Amanda Waller for me.” That was one of my two main problems with the movie–no, no she isn’t, to this fan. (It feels arrogant to say that to her creator, but it’s the truth.)
I read every single issue you and your wife worked on. I don’t remember a single instance in which Waller cold-bloodedly gunned down her own staff, to keep a secret that could never be kept in the first place, and walked away without a moment of guilt or regret. She was cold, yes. Mass-murdering psychopath, no.
Perhaps I’m remembering wrong.
@ John Ostrander, Hohoho back at you. I enjoy reading your work, Sir. The underbelly of comicdom ain’t always my cuppa…but, I suppose I can accurately recall the time when I saw comics growing up before my very 19 – year-old-eyes…circa 1970 and beyond, say, to 1973. That was the year I separated from the Air Force. I resumed my reading passion in the late 1980s. By then, comics had really grown up, at least from my perspective. In ’89, I re-found Hawkman, my childhood hero, courtesy of Truman, Alcatena et al (I picked up the trilogy)…My first and so far only fan letter was published in the first issue of HawkWorld. Okay, enough gushing. I’d read somewhere that 1961’s Katar Hol was “edgy”. I haven’t read enough of Fox’s 1940s Hawkman to speak with authority as to “edgy”. As to the ’60s, I prefer the Fox/Kubert rendition, edgy or not. I wasn’t sophisticated enough to really perceive the subtle sexual tension in those stories, even after Anderson took the wheel. As an almost-ten-year-old in 1961, I was hooked on the dynamic between Katar and Shayera (and does her name have two syllables, or three ?)., and could nearly perceive the almost-subtle aim of the persistent Mavis…I just remembered that I’d also caught up with the Hols in the mid-80s, briefly…then HawkWorld, then damn, the end of the series…then their conversion to Protestantism…oh, well. Skipping ahead, ignoring assorted iterations between then and now, excepting two recorded deaths of the Hols, DC is yet again bent on killing off Katar. Shayera bit the dust, as I recall, in The Savage (!?) Hawkman, yet another short lived series…is it my imagination, or is this current series, The Death of Hawkman, a riff on the Arthurian story? Just a thought…Be that as it may, what grabbed my attention in 1961 was that these two lovebirds loved their job, and each other, more so the latter. They fought for each other, not with. I’ll step down from the pulpit, now. Could you see your way clear to find a writer that could treat these people with dignity, in these tumultuous times? Thanks. Had to get that off my chest .