Chameleon Road

Studio: Arbelos Movies

Aug 24, 2023
Internet Unique

By Austin Trunick

Doug Road is a lawyer, a surgeon, a TIME Journal reporter and an Ivy League pupil—in fact he’s none of this stuff, however he’s so good at pretending he’s that he’s capable of persuade virtually anybody in any other case (together with himself). A compulsive con man, Road makes use of his allure, quick-study talents and peerless private evaluation expertise to slide from one unbelievable position into one other, staying only one step forward of legislation enforcement in a prison, endless pursuit of happiness.

Chameleon Road (1989) was impressed by the early profession of Detroit-based fraudster William Douglas Road, a personality that wouldn’t be misplaced in certainly one of Elmore Leonard’s Motor Metropolis crime novels. The movie is a type of uncommon instances the place its story appears to have been toned down from actuality to make it really feel extra believable—lots of Road’s real-life exploits and claims (equivalent to to have carried out greater than twenty hysterectomies with none medical coaching, versus simply the one within the movie) are too wild to consider. It’s the type of story that cries out for a cinematic second life, and director/author/star Wendell B. Harris Jr. was precisely the best particular person to appreciate it. Chameleon Road seems to be and feels just like the introduction of a brand new star each on-camera and behind it. The jury at Sundance should have thought in order nicely, awarding it the Grand Prize at their 1990 competition—just for the movie and its multi-hyphenate auteur to all however disappear into the ether afterwards.

“It’s simply individuals expertise. If you understand how to push somebody’s buttons, you understand how to method them.”

Like Road so simply slips into the pores and skin of an lawyer or physician, Harris doesn’t simply play—however inhabits—his model of the Road character. He’s magnetic as an actor, and the way in which the movie performs with the road between fiction and actuality it’s straightforward to know how some early viewers members had hassle separating him from the character at post-screening Q&As. The rhythm of the movie is simply as compelling as its topic and writer; it’s reduce with as a lot (or extra) fashion than the opposite unbiased filmmakers who got here out of the period however went on to extra prolific careers.

Regardless of its adulation at Sundance, Chameleon Road acquired comparatively little play afterwards. Reasonably than distribution offers, Harris was approached about remake rights. The filmmaker relocated to Hollywood, the place he was whisked up in a whirlwind of conferences—this resulted in just a few odd, fruitless writing jobs, however not distribution or a directing gig. Hollywood proved to not be the reply for Harris, and choices afterward have been doubtless restricted. Whenever you borrow some huge cash to make a movie and, regardless of all your greatest efforts, it fails to return its funding—nicely, it’s most likely a lot more durable to independently finance your second characteristic. Despite its boundless promise, Chameleon Road wound up in the end being Harris’ solely characteristic movie (up to now).

A small run of Chameleon Road VHS tapes have been bought in 1992; a DVD was put out by Picture in 2007, however went out of print and shot up in worth. Arbelos Movies’ new Blu-ray version is the most effective—and most accessible—means for audiences to catch the movie in its three-plus decade existence. Restored in 4K from the unique damaging, it seems to be marvelous. The picture options good shade and the good stage of grain you’d anticipate from a low-budget, unbiased characteristic shot on movie. Simply as thrilling are the abundance of bonus supplies, together with two new audio commentaries and plenty of property from Harris’ archive. A number of the greatest are from videotape, equivalent to one of many filmmaker’s early interviews with the real-life Doug Road in jail. (He comes off as moderately cagey, however there’s a pointy intelligence beneath his dodgy solutions that clearly knowledgeable Harris’ efficiency.) We even have numerous nice behind-the-scenes footage, the place we get to see the crew audition actors, rehearse, scout areas, and bitch about discovering buyers. These are adopted by some extraordinarily rough-looking however audible again footage captured on VHS in the course of the filming itself, amounting to fairly just a few deleted scenes and prolonged moments. (Harris mentions writing and taking pictures practically 3 times the quantity of fabric than what was lastly used within the completed movie; that is essentially the most we’ll get to see of what was reduce.) Add in certainly one of Harris’ earlier brief movies, trailers, and a few extra archival footage of nitty-gritty scene and character work, and there’s a lot to undergo on the disc. It’s a superb package deal for an thrilling movie, and really straightforward to suggest—seize it earlier than the provision dries up and Chameleon Road vanishes as soon as once more.

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