Waterworld is the greatest movie I ever saw in a theater.
Before you want to start a flame war, I’m not saying Waterworld is better than your favorite Marvel movie or Casablanca. The film was great for me. What makes it so great? Because in the summer of 1995, I took a date to see Denys Arcand’s Love and Human Remains at the local art house. The movie about a serial killer made things kind of awkward as we didn’t quite connect afterwards. I walked them to their car. I didn’t think we’d see each other again even though we said we’d talk to each other soon. When I was given a sneak preview ticket to Waterworld a few days later, I called them up thinking they might be curious about seeing the most expensive movie ever made. To my relief, they accepted the invitation. After the film as we contemplated a life so wet, they asked to come back to my place let me know that they weren’t looking for coffee and chat. I took a date to Waterworld and got lucky afterward. Isn’t that the whole point of taking a date to a movie? Your results may vary. My date was planning on propositioning me after the last film, but Denys Arcand’s “love” story weirded them out too much to consider hooking up. Waterworld didn’t kill the mood.
The movie opens by taking the Universal globe and showing the artic ice melt away and the continents disappear under the rising oceans. This is an aquatic world and humans merely float on top of it all on a variety of boats. One such person is The Mariner (Bull Durham‘s Kevin Costner). He has a tricked-out trimaran that he can operate all by himself. He’s understands the basic rule of life on the water: big fish eats the little fish. When he realizes a guy has stolen from his ship, he disables the guy’s boat and let him get attacked by outlaws on Jet skis. He arrives at a floating atoll town with the most precious substance in the world: dirt. But there’s not much to buy from a store run by Helen (Big Love‘s Jeanne Tripplehorn) besides a few gallons of water and a tomato planet. Helen wants to get off the atoll since the place is basically falling apart with food and water shortages. She swears mysterious tattoo on the back of a little girl named Enola (Napoleon Dynamite‘s Tina Majorio) is a map to find real land. Everyone thinks that real land after all these centuries is a myth. But one person who does want to find out about the map is the crew of The Deacon’s boat. His spies have found out about the kid. They are sick of rowing around in an old oil tanker. They are running out of boats and atolls to raid. The Deacon (Apocalypse Now‘s Dennis Hopper) wants to solve the map mystery so he can build a resort with a golf course. The Mariner doesn’t care about land. But he does seem to care when Deacon and his men (including Jack Black) attack the atoll.
This is a dripping wet dystopian future. Even after all these years, it’s still an impressive production with massive sets and wardrobe that appears fashioned out of sharkskin. The film has a lot of strange issues like if the Earth has been flooded for centuries, how does Dennis Hopper still have fresh cigarettes to pass out to the Smokers? Can canned meat exist after a century inside a tin? The film was supposed to be made like a Roger Corman low budget production where you don’t think too hard about such things. But with a massive budget and a few big name creative people, the fresh cigarettes don’t seem “authentic” to the apocalypse. But all is forgiven because Dennis Hopper looks so great dropping packs of smokes on his followers. There’s even a fun scene where he attempts to get Enola to light up a butt. He places The Deacon for menacing laughs. Costner might have been the leading man, but Hopper owns the film.
When you buy the boxset, you own three different cuts of Waterworld. First is the Theatrical Cut (2:15:06) like the one that ran in the movie theaters. This has been upgraded to 4K UHD so you get the theater experience at home. TV Cut (2:56:01) was created when the broadcast version was turned into a mini-series. This has been upgraded to 4K UHD so you get the theater experience at home. If you’ve paid all that money, why not show off more of the action? There’s alternate footage to tone down the violence as networks will do. Finally, there’s The Ulysses Cut (2:57:13) that played in Europe. Besides all the extra scenes, we’re given a bit more violence and a tad more skin. Of the three versions, The Ulysses Cut feels the best way to experience the watery epic.
Years after Waterworld came out, Kevin Reynolds came to my film school to present a sneak preview of The Count of Monte Cristo. While we were hanging out in the projection booth, I told him (without any graphic details) about my experience taking a date to see Waterworld. I assured him that his film was worth every penny in the budget. I thanked him. He seemed to appreciate it. I think a director being told, “I took a date to your movie and got lucky afterward” should be sweeter than hearing, “And the Oscar goes to…” Isn’t that the whole point of taking a date to see a movie? That is why Waterworld is the greatest movie I ever saw in a theater.
A few years after thanking Reynolds, Denys Arcand won the Oscar for Best Foreign film. This is further proof that the Oscar voters don’t get why people go to the movies.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The 4K UHD disc has the Theatrical version. This upgrade of resolution will let you really appreciate all that went into this film from production design to the boat action. The other two versions are 1080p on Blu-ray discs. The Audio on the Theatrical version includes Dolby Atmos, 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 stereo audio options The Audio for the TV and Ulysses versions is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 stereo audio options. The aquatic action sounds great. All the versions are subtitled.
Six collector’s postcards
Double-sided fold-out poster
Limited edition 60-page perfect bound book featuring writing on the film by David J. Moore and Daniel Griffith, and archival articles
Maelstrom: The Odyssey of Waterworld (102:22) is a documentary goes deep into what happened during this epic production. Screenwriter Peter Rader shockingly explains this script started as a low budget movie idea. He was promised that he could write a good Mad Max rip-off, he could direct the film. He pitched Mad Max on water. He was told that it wasn’t going to work because the film would cost at least $5 million. He did direct two low budget films after writing the script and explains the connection of producers that got it to director Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner. Reynolds didn’t want to do it for Costner even though they went back to Fandango. How did they reconcile? Reynolds turned the film into an Eco-Fable. The studio wanted the film more Cyberpunk. Peter Rader ended up replaced as screenwriter. They go into how they shot the movie on water. Spielberg warned them to not shoot on water. They didn’t listen and the budget soared to nearly $200 million. Kevin Costner talks through vintage interviews. Kevin Reynolds doesn’t share our conversation at film school when I said the film was worth every penny.
Dances With Waves (9:20) is the archival featurette showing off the behind the scenes action. We learn how this was the most ambitious films in cinematic history. Dennis Hopper shows off his costume. They get into the giant floating set that could get towed out to sea.
Global Warnings (22:21) has film critic Glenn Kenny discuss the subgenre of ecological disaster films. He gets into Shape of Things To Come, When Worlds Collide, On The Beach, Five, World Without End, The Day The Earth Caught Fire, The Birds and more before tying it into Waterworld and even Costner’s The Postman. There are clips to show us how the end of the world will happen Hollywood style.
Image Gallery includes 100s of slides with Production stills, Behind the Scenes: Haiwaii, Behind the Scenes: Los Angeles, Miniatures and Visual Effects, and a promotional still gallery with posters, lobby card, world premiere tickets for Mann’s Chinese Theater, press photos,
Trailer Gallery has the Original Teaser (2:00) that talks about global warming causing the planet to flood, Original Trailer (2:15) and TV Spots (9:06) that were all over TV in the summer of 1995.
Arrow Video presents Waterworld. Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Screenplay by Peter Rader & David Twohy. Starring Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Michael Jeter & Jack Black. Boxset Contents: 3 movies on 3 discs. Rated: PG-13. Release Date: June 27, 2023.
