Reclaim Video’s 1983 Wishlist

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Reverend

Reclaim Video is coming along nicely. It will be officially opening sometime in the next month or so. What that looks like exactly is not entirely clear just yet, and ww would appreciate any and all ideas. We are discussing memberships that allow for unlimited rentals of VHS, Beta, Laserdiscs, as well as the video game consoles.  We are toying with getting a telepresence robot so I can help manage the space remotely, bringing in curators to run the shop, as well as an entire web-based interface for interacting with the physical space remotely. I am being vague because this is all still amorphous. But one thing I’m sure of is that we do have t-shirts, stickers, guaranteed memberships, and a custom GIF awaiting anyone willing to send us 4 of the following 95 titles from 1983. If you are game, either use the comments to commit to any 4, or send along the videos you want to contribute to jimgroom_at_gmail.com. The films can be in any of the formats noted—namely VHS, Betamax (Beta) or Laserdisc (LD)—and the the closer to 1983 the version, the better!

This is the wishlist we will working through at Reclaim over the next month or so as we start building out the collection in earnest. We’ll come out with other lists for other years as things move along, but the idea of focusing on a particular year will help us be a bit more intentional. What’s more, it offers an interesting perspective on the cultural moment—all those Robert Forster vigilante films 🙂  I’ll blog more about 1983 as we start procuring some of these. You might also me asking, why 1983? Isn’t that kind of a random year given VHS invasion can be traced back to the late 70s. Well, it is random, and it is more closely aligned with the video store I started visiting when I was 12 years-old in 1983 (East Coast Video in Oceanside, Long Island). They still rented VCRs, the tape covers were a deep blue, and it was magical to me. That’s the UR-video rental store that fuels much of what Reclaim Video is for me. But many of you have your own East Coast Video of the mind, along with your own favorites—so feel free to ignore this list, send something else all together, and/or, better yet, start your own damn video store 🙂

Update 4/3/2018: I will be crossing out any titles/formats we receive, and this is the first batch so far 🙂

All the Right Moves on VHS

Tender Mercies on LD

Vigilante on Beta

Bad Boys and Osterman Weekend on VHS

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7 Responses to Reclaim Video’s 1983 Wishlist

  1. Eric Likness says:
    March 25, 2018 at 9:22 am

    No, you are absolutely correct, 1983 IS the year. It’s the year The Right Stuff came out. As for my family, Summer ’84 was when we got our VCR. And we got it more or less, so my Dad could see the Right Stuff. In our little home town of Culpeper, VA, 1983 was the year of independent video stores (we had 2 then). I think that’s the year when prices came down, rentals were really being promoted and sought out by Film Companies publishing and distribution.Eri

    Reply
    • Jim Groom says:
      March 26, 2018 at 2:42 am

      Culpepper, I love Culpepper just because it is the most unlikeliest of movie meccas in the US. And now it is just that, so cool.

      Good to get some confirmation that 1983 is not totally in my head, I always wanted to do a deeper dive into the specifics of VHS history, and I think I may have my excuse now 🙂

      Reply
  2. Geoff Cain says:
    March 25, 2018 at 8:07 pm

    I know you are probably getting a lot of this, but no 1983 video store would be complete without a kung fu movie in the “Foreign Films” section. I would suggest “Shaolin & Wu Tang” directed by Gordon Liu (who also directed the 1980 hit movie “Shaolin vs. Vampire”). If I run into a copy, I would happily donate it.

    Reply
    • Jim Groom says:
      March 26, 2018 at 2:45 am

      Shaolin and Wu Tang would be important for many reasons 🙂 I do think the Honk Kong stuff is important, and my additions will be the 5 Deadly Venoms and Master of the Flying Guillotine. I also need to see if they have VHS or Beta for the Lone Wolf and Cub series? Hmmm, I feel a shopping spree coming on 🙂

      Reply
  3. Jim Groom says:
    March 26, 2018 at 2:48 am

    OK, following confirmed purchased by a generous anonymous donor that may or may not be me—this list may get expensive 🙂
    All the Right Moves (Beta), Bad Boys (VHS), Osterman Weekend (VHS), and Vigilante (Beta). Nice!

    Reply
  4. Grant says:
    March 26, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    http://networkeffects.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mok.gif

    My name is Mok, thanks a lot
    I know you love the thing I got
    You’ve never seen the likes of me
    why I’m the biggest thing since World War III

    http://networkeffects.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/rock-and-rule.gif

    Had two copies of that on Beta … wore them both out!

    Reply

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