The Incredible Shrinking Woman is the newest film the the Shout Select collection, providing some great films to new generations. Ahead of its time, this is a film that gets more poignant with each viewing.
“She was an ordinary housewife who gave so much … and got so little.
Comedy legend Lily Tomlin stars in the effervescent 1981 comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Exposed to a heady mix of household chemicals, Pat Kramer (Tomlin) contracts a strange side effect: She begins to shrink! Baffling doctors, Pat’s diminishing size starts to really bring her down … until her story captures the hearts of the American people and the attention of a sinister group of scientists bent on world domination. Getting out of this predicament while still taking care of her family will be no small feat!
Also starring Charles Grodin (Midnight Run), Ned Beatty (Deliverance, Homicide: Life On The Street), and Tomlin’s fellow Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In alumnus Henry Gibson, and featuring makeup master Rick Baker (King Kong, Star Wars) as Sidney the gorilla, The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a smart little comedy with big laughs.”
The Incredible Shrinking Woman by all merits presents itself as a light hearted comedy with the legendary Lily Tomlin, but today the story seems ahead of its time tackling the themes of consumerism, advertising, and the exploration of the world in which everything we consume is engineered in a certain way that could spell disaster if tweaked in a way to benefit big conglomerate corporations.
Richard Matheson, one of the most influential science fiction writers and social commentators of our generation, writes the novel the movie is based upon. Although the original novel focuses more on suburban America, the status of a man in his household, the film focuses on the housewife, who still attempts to make dinner, mother children, and maintain the sole order in the household despite shrinking every day to a smaller and smaller size. The film creates a world so obsessed with advertising, with products and product placement, that it takes this story and propels it so much further in combating the engineered foods and products that we still ingest into our bodies without the slightest concern for health, or the effect it has on our bodies.
Though this may seem an extreme view on consumerism, the allegory of the story absolutely still rings true to this day, with commercials and advertising taking precedent above all, as Pat Kramer’s incredible shrinking story is cut short by a commercial break, featuring the best and most hilarious product of all time, Galaxy Glue, while the architects of the products plan to use the result of these products to shrink the entire world and leave only the most important and the most wealthy of people normal size to rule the rest.
The cast of the film is exceptional, with Lily Tomlin staring in one of her best roles, playing several characters in the film. Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty, and even the great John Glover, are all exceptional as secondary characters propelling the story of the incredible shrinking woman and what her plight comes to mean to the average consumer who wants to buy more and more products. This is a film that isn’t funny in the traditional sense, but as a commentary poking fun at the base of America, nothing can be as perfectly appropriate for the way society and our culture is headed.
Video
The Incredible Shrinking Woman is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 1.85:1. A disclaimer appears just as you start to watch the film, indicating that the best sources available were used for the transfer of the film. This indicates two things. One, that this is probably the best you’ve seen the film, and two, there are problems inherent in the source material that question the transfer itself. Granted, while the effects of 1981 leave something to be desired, the film requires more than simple camera tricks that can only satisfy so much of a film that portrays a woman who is shrinking at an incredible rate. Grain is a bit excessive, and the effect sequences that employ the dual shots of normal size and Lily Tomlin size can look quite dated. However, this transfer does look good overall, ensuring that this can be one of the best versions of the film you’re able to see.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-Master Audio Mono. There can only be said so much for a mono track, but the screaming children, catchy advertising jingles, and screams of a tiny woman, all pound through the track quite prominently. For what it is, it’s quite impressive.
Special Features
Shout Select has quickly become one of my favorite series, as they try and bring the dedication to extras as the rest of their series, as well as the care and concern for presenting important titles to a new generation of audiences. The Incredible Shrinking Woman is no exception, and on this disc you’re going to see:
- NEW 2017 High-Definition Transfer
- NEW A Conversation With Actress Lily Tomlin And Writer/Executive Producer Jane Wagner
- NEW Interview With Director Joel Schumacher
- NEW Interview With Cinematographer And Visual Effects Supervisor Bruce Logan
- NEW Audio Interview With Composer Suzanne Ciani
- NEW On Location: Now And Then Featurette
- “Edith Ann” Deleted Scene
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Gallery
The Incredible Shrinking Woman takes the story of Richard Matheson and provides entirely new and important new levels to the story. Told in a very black comedy, audiences today can certainly appreciate the attention called to engineered and processed foods which the film speaks against. It’s a hilarious story that seems way ahead of its time. Shout Select continues to provide great selections in its series.
