Mike from Flash-Bang recently asked if I would interview Richard Stanley at Optimum Releasing's London offices in support of their release of the film on DVD and Blu-ray. I liked Hardware, so jumped at the chance. Having never done a face to face interview before, I was nervous about the whole thing. It was at this point that I realised that I had "forgotten" Richard Stanley and his subsequent career after Dust Devil. I had watched Dust Devil but didn't feel satisfied by the version that I saw. Through reading film magazines, I knew that there had been studio interference in the release of the movie and that was that. A 5-disc version was released in the US but it never blipped on my radar, strangely.
Back in 1990 I went to a screening of Hardware and it impressed me, largely because it was not a rip-off of The Terminator as the publicity implied in it's overt tagline. Instead it was a thought provoking movie that is as relevant now as it was then. However, the VHS copy was horrible. I remember the beginning sequence in the wastelnad as being orange not red. Of course I could have been rather drunk whilst watching it but the memory remains. As no decent copy had been released in the UK up until now, I had forgotten about this classic.
So, I did some research for the interview. In particular I must thank "Between Death and the Devil" for such a wealth of interesting information. Richard's MySpace page is also a treasure trove of interesting, insightful blogs.
This all made me feel as if I'd missed out on something all these years. I can't turn back the clock but I've decided to catch up by ordering the Limited 5-disc version of Dust Devil which, as I've read, contains a wealth of fascinating material.
Richard Stanley was a pleasure to interview but 15 minutes just wasn't enough. He's an extremely amiable and mesmerising person to talk to and has a lot to say on my favourite subjects.
The interview feature is here.
Other interviews and resources worth checking out if you have an interest in the career of this remarkably creative director are below;
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