Richard Gere's Forgotten 'Honorary Consul' Returns on Blu-ray — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Imprint issued an all-region Blu-ray of "The Honorary Consul" (1983) in a "Directed by John Mackenzie" boxed set, marking what the source identifies as the first US physical-media release since the initial VHS pressing.
- The box set packages four Mackenzie features — "The Long Good Friday" (1981), "The Honorary Consul," Cold War thriller "The Fourth Protocol," and the JFK conspiracy film "Ruby" — with new interviews and supplements for each.
- Paramount retitled the film "Beyond the Limit" for US release and marketed it with a poster echoing "Breathless" imagery; the source characterizes the campaign as a bait-and-switch that alienated both Gere's fans and viewers expecting Greene-style political intrigue, dooming its box office.
- Graham Greene, the novel's author, publicly disowned the film largely over Richard Gere's casting, citing his struggles with the half-English, half-Paraguayan accent required for Eduardo Plarr.
- The Blu-ray's supplements include crew interviews and a Matthew Asprey Gear audio commentary documenting not just the production but earlier adaptation attempts, including an Orson Welles and Oja Kodar screenplay titled "The Other Man" whose option lapsed in 1978.
- Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins round out the cast, with the source highlighting the contrast between Caine's warm, dignified consul and Gere's chilly Plarr as the film's dramatic engine.
- Although Greene's novel turned 50 the year before the film, the source notes the movie went largely unappreciated by critics; Quentin Tarantino's recent championing of 1983's "Breathless" is cited as evidence Gere-era reappraisals are now underway.
Why it matters: American viewers have been unable to easily access "The Honorary Consul" since its initial VHS era, so the Imprint box set closes a 40-year availability gap for a Greene adaptation his own publisher disowned. Mackenzie remains a relatively under-served British filmmaker despite "The Long Good Friday," and collecting four of his features in one set materially improves his catalog for cinephiles and home-video collectors at a moment when Gere's 1983 output is being reconsidered.
Ask SkimNews
