Steppenwolf
(DVD) 

Originally produced as a German/Swiss motion picture in 1974.

Special features: Trailer (1 min.).

Director of photography, Tom Pinter ; editor, Irving Lerner ; music composed and conducted by George Gruntz ; art director, Leo Karen ; paintings for the Magic Theatre by Mati Klarwein ; animation design, Jaroslav Bradac ; costumes, Else Heckmann ; special effects, Günther Schaidt.

Max von Sydow, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clementi, Carla Romanelli, Roy Bosier, Alfred Baillou, Niels-Peter Rudolph, Helmut Förnbacher, Charles Regnier, Eduard Linkers, Sylvia Reize, Judith Mellies, Helen Hesse.

Europe, after the Great War. Harry Haller, solitary intellectual, is beset by reflections on his being ill suited for the world of everyday regular people, specifically for frivolous bourgeois society. All his life Harry has feared his dual nature--being both human and beast--so he has decided to die on his 50th birthday, which is soon. The mysterious Hermine, who takes him dancing, introduces him to jazz, to the beautiful and whimsical Maria, and guides him into the hallucinations of the Magic Theater, which seem to take him into Hell. Hermine rescues Harry from his solipsism, but can humor and sin lead to salvation, thus saving modern man? The producers were attempting to make "the first Jungian film," and the requisite special effects, cutting-edge at the time, required seven years of complicated pre-production.

MPAA rating: Rated R.

DVD; Region 1, NTSC; Dolby Digital mono.; full screen presentation, aspect ratio 1.33:1.

In English with optional subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.