Martin Scorsese’s After Hours Is Getting A Much-Needed Upgrade
Martin Scorsese's After Hours will be available in restored 4K later this summer.
There are very few Martin Scorsese films that aren’t worth seeing. From creating timeless classics like the gangster film Goodfellas to flawed but engaging films like the historical crime drama Gangs of New York, the 80-year-old movie veteran has proven he has the talent to put together an impressive film time and time again. And yet, there are very few people who have heard of his crime comedy After Hours — though the Criterion Collection plans to fix that by releasing a 4K special edition of the forgotten film this July.
This special edition of After Hours includes commentary from Martin Scorsese, along with editor Thelma Schoonmaker, director of photography Michael Ballhaus, actor Griffin Dunne, and producer Amy Robinson. It also includes an interview with Martin Scorsese, a documentary on the making of the film, and a feature about the look of the film from its costume designer and production designer.
The darkly comedic After Hours has a plot that’s hard to summarize, but centers around a word processor (the job, not the computer program) who finds himself getting into increasingly convoluted and dangerous situations after getting stranded on the wrong side of New York City. The movie (which was, oddly enough, originally meant to be directed by Tim Burton instead of Martin Scorsese) has been compared to watching a rat trying to escape a maze, complete with symbolism implying that this is, in fact, an intended interpretation of the film.
The film received great reviews (standing at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes) and earned Martin Scorsese a Best Director Award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. However, it only earned $10 million in theaters — more than twice its $4.5 million budget, but a far cry from what Scorsese was hoping to get after two of his better-known classics — 1980’s Raging Bull and 1982’s The King of Comedy, failed at the box office.
Martin Scorsese created After Hours while taking a hiatus from making another of his classics — The Last Temptation of Christ. Protests from religious groups and a skyrocketing budget convinced Paramount to cancel production of The Last Temptation of Christ, which made Scorsese disillusioned with big studios, leading to him taking a job with the independent film group Double Play Company to make After Hours.
Martin Scorsese, of course, was eventually able to move on from After Hours and direct The Last Temptation of Christ for Universal Pictures, this time keeping the budget at $7 million. Released in 1988, the movie made $33.8 million — though the film’s stigma led to many rental stores refusing to stock it after it came out on VHS and Laserdisc.
While Martin Scorsese’s career had plenty of box office failures, from an artistic standpoint, it has had far more ups than downs — and After Hours is certainly one of the ups. Of course, given that Scorsese has only directed two films that have a “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that’s hardly surprising. His upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon, with its reported four-hour runtime, might prove that he’s able to engage audiences for much longer than the average director — or it might prove that he’s still capable of creating a movie that nobody wants to see.
