Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Michael G

  
  Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession is a pretty damn good documentary about one of the first and possibly the best (from the sound of it if nothing else) cable movie channels ever. Z Channel not only played an incredibly wide selection of great movies that were swept under the rug by… More
  Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession is a pretty damn good documentary about one of the first and possibly the best (from the sound of it if nothing else) cable movie channels ever. Z Channel not only played an incredibly wide selection of great movies that were swept under the rug by studios for what was considered disappointing box office performances, but it also helped institute what we know today as the director's cut. That being said, Z Channel - A Magnificent Obsession is about the channel itself and its founder/programming director, Jerry Harvey. This documentary basically has one of a few things going on at any given time. There's either 1) a clip from any given movie that played on Z's eclectic rotation, 2) an interview with a director whose career was either jump started or saved by Harvey or 3) an interview with one of Harvey's close friends/exes/employees talking about how brilliant and/or fucking insane he was. This documentary also really makes you appreciative and grateful considering most of us wouldn't have heard of the movies we love today, let alone would have been able to see them if not for Harvey's work at Z Channel. This documentary is a must for any serious or even fair weather film buff who can even appreciate something different. Watching this movie also opens an incredibly huge can of worms by adding almost 2 dozen movies to my must-see list. It's like Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey Through American Movies all over again...

• Tim S

  
  Engaging and entertaining doc that is a must for film nerds. (Although, I really wish QT would calm the fuck down when being interviewed.) It's really interesting after watching this and reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls at the same time makes me want to reconsider my career… More
  Engaging and entertaining doc that is a must for film nerds. (Although, I really wish QT would calm the fuck down when being interviewed.) It's really interesting after watching this and reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls at the same time makes me want to reconsider my career path. It's a shame that this channel isn't still around and the wreckage that this man left behind. Good thing the last name of the director of this doc was Cassavettes who was able to tell a great story.

• El Hombre I

  
  Z Channel: A Magnicent Obsession is a film buffs delight, but it also should interest the casual movie-goer searching for a guide to movies not that familiar but worth seeing. Directed by Xan Cassavetes, daughter of maverick filmmaker John Cassavetes. This well-crafted documentary… More
  Z Channel: A Magnicent Obsession is a film buffs delight, but it also should interest the casual movie-goer searching for a guide to movies not that familiar but worth seeing. Directed by Xan Cassavetes, daughter of maverick filmmaker John Cassavetes. This well-crafted documentary puts together a fitting tribute to Jerry Harvey, who was head of programming at Z Channel, an independent groundbreaking Pay TV station founded in 1974 (before there were video stores or HBO). Films shown were as diverse as Heaven's Gate, Fitzcarraldo, The Leopard, Andrei Rublev, Das Boot, The 400 Blows, The Wild Bunch, Salvador, Once Upon A Time In America, 1900 and many others that would have been overlooked and most likely forgotten if it were not for Z Channel. Many of these films bombed in the theater because they were cut up by hack editors hired by the studio, but Jerry was able to get them shown in their uncut version, and this later led to films re-released as director's cut. It was through such a cross-section of art films and commercial ones, European, Asian and American, that Z station built a loyal and broad audience. A host of film people are interviewed such as James Woods, Jacqueline Bisset, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Altman and Jim Jarmush who speak of Jerry's contributions and his love for film. <a href="http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/?action=view¤t=title.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/title.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

• Gordon A

  
  Excellent documentary for movie buffs, charting the life of an LA pay channel that dared to be different and its parallel with the tragic life of its key programmer, which suffuses the film with a melancholy air.

• Emily B

  
  If only the Z channel was still around today! Extremely interesting documentary, a must for film buffs everywhere.