Apple Seed (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]
(Mary Pickford, Herbert Standing, Ida Waterman, Conway Tearle, Marcia Manon, et al / 2-Disc Blu-ray / NR / (1918) 2023 / VCI Entertainment)
Overview: On a cross country road trip to rob his home town bank Prince Mccoy finds himself having to rely on the help of an ex convict hitchhiker named Carl Robbins. Along the way the people they meet and the friendships they build begin to heal the ghosts of their pasts. However, they both have one final crossroad to face in the small town of Apple Seed.
Blu-ray Verdict: Prince Mccoy, now a worn down man in his 40s, living far from both the small idyllic east coast town of Apple Seed where he grew up and all the dreams he once had, finds himself suddenly without a home, a girlfriend and as of 4:32 PM, without a living father.
Holding his childhood bank responsible for the foreclosure on their properties and his father’s demise, Prince in a final desperate go-out-on-his-sword move makes the choice to drive across the country to make his small town bank pay.
With a 1967 Mustang, a loaded gun and not much else, Prince has to rely on the help of an eccentric 80-something year old hitchhiker named Carl Robbins he meets on the edge of town. With a bucket list mission of his own drafted out on a napkin, Carl begins to lead Prince on a journey that starts to stray from any conventional route the younger man would have ever taken.
Crossing paths with a struggling singer, a lonely waitress, a teenage runaway and even the love of Prince’s life he once let get away, the road continues to unfold before them as do their own fears and struggles within.
After a late-night brawl with some Midwest bar locals, Carl reveals to his younger companion Prince that he is actually only days removed from a 40-year prison sentence he served for robbing a bank himself. As the pair move closer and closer to Prince’s final destination, having to rely on their feet and even freight trains to get them there, Carl’s past begins to look more and more like Prince’s future.
Facing the teller he robbed, a partner in crime he left near-dying on the street many years ago and finally another man that he left as a young child to a rather lonely world, Carl’s own destiny begins to close in on him as well. The men with two separate destinations that may not be as far apart as they once thought, have one final crossroad to face together in the small town of Apple Seed before their journeys are finished.
Beautifully shot, brilliantly acted, Apple Seed is a story about two men 40 years apart who bond in a most beautiful way. But it’s so much more than that. In fact, it’s not a great movie, cinematically speaking, but a testament to life, and all the things that we could learn if we only opened the door.
The chemistry between Howard and Worth seems like a long time friendship. I don’t know if it is, or was, in this case, but the warmth is there. And since Michael wrote and directed, his dialogue is truly him.
In an ideal world this movie would walk away with the odd award, for it is a real gem. It does not push some ideology or propaganda. It is about lives of ordinary people, and how they still stay humans no matter what. Great acting and playing. Strongly recommended.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary by Director and star, Michael Worth
Alternate longer cut
30-minute-plus Making of Documentary
Short about the Arizona World Premiere
Deleted and extended scenes
Rance Howard memorial video (screened at his memorial at Warner Bros)
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