A bored, buttoned-up, button-down word processor (Griffin Dunne) sets out on a late-night date. He’s about to become the punch line to a cosmic joke – because different rules apply when it’s After Hours. Co-starring Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, and Teri Garr.

Everyone who has spent any time in New York City undoubtedly has an “only in New York” story, an unbelievable tale that gets more unbelievable step by step, one that is funny because it did not happen to us, and one that, by definition, could only happen in New York. A Gotham lifer like Martin Scorsese probably has a million of them. After Hours is the “only in New York” story taken to its most Kafkaesque extreme.

We cannot talk about After Hours without talking about Scorsese’s career as it stood at the time. In 1984 and 1985, when the film was shot and released, Scorsese was in an uncertain period.  Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy were all behind him, four films alone that outdo the resumes of most directors. In 1983 he had begun work on The Last Temptation of Christ, only to have all his work go up in smoke on Thanksgiving of that year, when the studio shut down production. (It would be another five years before the film would get made.) As his project fell through and the film industry changed around him, Scorsese began to question where he would go from there. When After Hours came to him, he began to think that if he could not put the film together, it might mean the end of his career.

After Hours seems to be the only film Scorsese could have made at that point. The film’s sense of doom and frustration could only come from experience. Though a comedy in the strictest sense of the word, this is one of the darkest, tensest comedies in the history of cinema, a nightmare vision that builds bit by bit. This film is the perfect picture of urban life, where simple day-to-day life is a struggle.

When Paul comes out of his office at the beginning, the look is as though he is leaving a prison. The gates open up and he is given furlough, let loose onto the world. It is not long before he enters another prison: SoHo, the artsy downtown district that – because of rising subway costs, lost money, angry mobs, and countless other travesties both comic and tragic – Paul cannot escape from. Stuck on the same few blocks, the film does a slow boil, ratcheting up the misery with each scene, until all Paul can make of it is that “everyone is trying to kill me!” Encased in paper mache to escape a vigilante mob that thinks he is a thief, Paul ends up back where he began: back at work, to dust himself off and begin again. The ending is quite therapeutic in its way.

After Hours works in a way that few films do. The style of the film creates the same feelings in the fewer that the events of the film create in the main character. This is a brilliant film, one of Scorsese’s best.

Because most of this film takes place at night, picture quality is very important, and this DVD looks great. Presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the image is crisp, and all the colors are well translated.

After Hours offers English and French language tracks, both presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. The sound is sharp, with all of it coming through the front speaker. Overall this is a good presentation.

Commentary by Martin Scorsese, actor Griffin Dunne, producer Amy Robinson, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker: Scorsese talks about the history of the film, how it all came together, and what his career was like at the time. The rest of the contributors chime in at certain points and talk about their experiences.

“Filming For Your Life:” The Making of After Hours: The story of how After Hours went from script to screen, mostly told by Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson.

Deleted Scenes: Seven scenes, each entertaining in their own way, all with a finished look that makes it seem as though they could have easily ended up in the film.

Theatrical Trailer: the original theatrical trailer.