Jacknife

Details

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This special limited edition J-card MediaBook slipcase (designed by Adam Maida) is limited to 3,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them. (Note: this Limited Edition includes a 40 page booklet)

Note: this release is available to be purchased on its own, or in the following two bundles:

• Limited Edition Slipcase + the hardcover book Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia by Illeana Douglas (book details can be seen below) + This Is Cinématographe: A Journal of American Cinema - Summer 2026. Limited to 100 units.
• Limited Edition Slipcase + This Is Cinématographe: A Journal of American Cinema - Summer 2026

Taking its name from the Lumière Brothers invention of the same name, Cinématographe is a new sub-label from Vinegar Syndrome that seeks to fill gaps in the canon of American cinema. Offering a mix of auteur driven studio films produced during the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and 70s all the way through the indie boom of the 1980s and 90s, Cinématographe will explore the wide breadth of American moviemaking, spanning numerous genres and scales of production. Curated and produced by Vinegar Syndrome's Justin LaLiberty, each limited edition release will be housed in a specially designed, cloth-bound, media book with embossed foil titles and custom molded disc trays accompanied by a slipcase featuring newly commissioned art and an individually numbered J-card.

Megs (Robert De Niro, The Deer Hunter) and Dave (Ed Harris, The Right Stuff) are two Vietnam veterans coping with their own mental-health issues post-war. When it becomes clear that Dave is struggling with alcoholism, Megs attempts to help him come to terms with his past as a soldier while, at the same time, falling in love with Dave’s sister, Martha (Kathy Baker, The Right Stuff). While Dave is at odds with the love shared between Megs and Martha, he comes to realize that they all need each other.

Adapted for the screen by Stephen Metcalfe, from his own play Strange Snow, Jacknife marks the first American feature film for noted British director David Jones (84 Charing Cross Road). Shot almost entirely on location in Connecticut by British cinematographer Brian West (84 Charing Cross Road, Wake in Fright) and featuring a trio of exemplary performances from its three lead actors, including Ed Harris’s Golden Globe®-nominated turn, Jacknife is a long-overlooked entry in post-Vietnam war cinema of the 1980s. Cinématographe is proud to bring David Hugh Jones’s intimate drama to Blu-ray for the first time in the world, in a brand new restoration.

directed by: David Jones
starring: Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, Kathy Baker
1989 / 102 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• New audio commentary with film historians Daniel Kremer and Bill Ackerman
• Understanding the Pain - a new video interview with actor Ed Harris
• Be Really Truthful - a new video interview with actress Kathy Baker
• Knowing Them at the Beginning - a new video interview with producer Carol Baum
• Filming In Connecticut - a new video interview with actress and writer Illeana Douglas, author of Connecticut In the Movies
• New text essays by film critics Murtada Elfadi, Glenn Kenny and Dan Mecca
• English SDH subtitles

Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia - Hardcover Book

By Illeana Douglas

Illeana Douglas has long been known for shining new light on forgotten films. Now the celebrated actress and film historian turns her focus to a heretofore unrecognized brand: the Connecticut movie! Told from the passionate perspective of the author who grew up here, and filled with behind-the-scenes stories as well as her own personal snapshots of the places where these films were made, Illeana takes the reader on a cinematic road trip through Hollywood history and Connecticut geography, bringing the breezy, intimate, knowledgeable writing style acclaimed by reviewers of her first book, I Blame Dennis Hopper (2015).

Illeana defines how the perception of on-screen Connecticut, originally created in Hollywood, has shifted more than that of any other New England state over the decade and offers some surprising conclusions about just what it means to be a “Connecticut movie.” Films from Hollywood’s Golden Age, such as Theodora Goes Wild, Bringing Up Baby, and Christmas in Connecticut, presented Connecticut as an antidote to the metropolis—a place where you could find your true self. The slogan “Come to Peaceful Connecticut” not only led to Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, but to an exodus of urban moviegoers seeking their dream houses. In post-war America, Gentleman’s Agreement challenged Connecticut’s well-cultivated image, as did the suburban malaise of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, and contemporary takes on dark suburbia like The Swimmer, The Ice Storm, and Revolutionary Road. From Sherlock Holmes to Mystic Pizza to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; from horror in The Stepford Wives to historical in Amistad; picturesque in Parrish, to perverse in The Secret Life of An American Wife, the Constitution State has been the background for surprisingly over 200 feature films, yet these cinematic contributions have long gone unrecognized; until now. Connecticut in the Movies is not only a keepsake for denizens of the state, but a valuable resource for film buffs everywhere.

352 pages
9" x 11.5"