A DVD for All Seasons: The Best of What's Around

By James A. Crawford

Crimson Staff Writer

It’s very clear; DVD is here to stay, but only recently have studios begun to tap into the format’s true potential. In the past two months, a bevy of releases, primed to exploit the Thanksgiving-Christmas shopping rush, have emerged, raising the bar for the format. Discs now feature deleted scenes, mini-documentaries, cast interviews and immersive environments to navigate through all the bonuses. Frequently, the supplementary material spills onto an extra disc. With so many titles released every week, it’s difficult to weed through and find the gems. Here is a little primer for the holiday season. Prices listed are the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), but often, record stores and online sellers mark down the price by about 25 percent.

Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace

MSRP: $29.99

Number of Discs: 2

Yes, there were many, many things wrong with the first prologue in the Star Wars series. Jar-Jar Binks was an exasperating presence, computer-generated effects gave the film a plastic feel and, in the greatest sacrilege of all, George Lucas turned The Force into a disease. However, it’s hard not to get excited about this release; Episode I represents the first of the Star Wars films to be issued on DVD. Writer-director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, editor Ben Burtt and numerous special effects guys give audio commentary, drawing attention to subtle, easily missed details and providing gloriously esoteric background on even the most simple shots.

The second disc is where the real treasure lies. In a unique twist on the now-standard inclusion of deleted scenes, Industrial Light and Magic—the team responsible for all of Lucas’ special effects—resurrected half-finished scenes and completed them especially for the DVD version. The “behind the scenes” documentary is fairly disappointing, comprised of bland behind the scenes footage and painfully earnest testimonials; thankfully, Ewan MacGregor breaks up the monotony by gushing over his chance to become Obi-Wan Kenobi. A 12-part documentary originally featured on the web works with mini “featurettes” concerning costumes, fight sequences and design to fashion a wholly engrossing record of the process of crafting Episode I, even if the film itself did disappoint.

Shrek

MSRP: $26.99

Number of Discs: 2

Finally, one studio plucked up the courage to stand up to the mouse. As much as Shrek was a satirical take on traditional fairy tales from Mother Goose, it accomplished something few studios have done successfully: It lambasted Disney. That spirit of tongue in cheek delirium has translated into one little joy of a DVD release. But aside from the brilliantly playful, wholly computer-generated film, the DVD details all aspects of the film’s production. We are shown how animators assimilate the actors’ mannerisms into their artwork, but we are also treated to glimpses of the times when things go significantly wrong. On the first day, an over-zealous animator attempted to alter “Donkey” and created a fuzzy shell resembling a Chia-pet.

The infamous Gingerbread Man guides viewers through the special features. A specially animated karaoke sequence is truly delightful—among others, the injured Gingerbread Man, backed up by the Three Blind Mice, wails on a rendition of Boy George’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”. A dubbing featurette detailing the transformation of Shrek into French, Spanish and German language films fleshes out a cheery and thoughtful presentation of a wonderfully mischievous film.

Citizen Kane

MSRP: $29.99

Number of Discs: 2

That film audiences ever got to see Citizen Kane at all is no small wonder in itself. That the film was made by a 24- year old theater phenom, Orson Welles, who had never sat behind a camera in his life, makes it truly miraculous. Welles based his narrative on the life of newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst, who blacklisted Welles for the rest of Hearst’s natural life. The film’s original print was saved from destruction several times and, at Hearst’s threats, Citizen Kane was banned from all but one movie house in North America. Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards but only won one—Best Screenplay—and for years the film sunk into oblivion. Such tales make The Battle for Citizen Kane, the documentary featured on the second disc, thoroughly captivating, but what of the film itself?

The documentary provides the back story to perhaps the single greatest and most revolutionary piece of cinema ever constructed. A political commentary, a compelling and an extraordinary study in cinematography, Citizen Kane, originally veiled in ignominy, was exalted in subsequent years. The American Film Institute named Citizen Kane the number one American Film of all time, and it has long (but deservedly) been the darling of cinema’s intelligentsia. This relatively no frill treatment has restored the picture to an almost resplendent shine. Press photos, original trailers, advertising campaigns and storyboards abound, but the true treat is the audio commentary. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert surprises with adroit and shrewd insight into the film’s technical aspects while Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich fills in historical and personal minutia. This is the Citizen Kane we’ve all been waiting for.

The Godfather DVD Collection

MSRP: $105.90 (Many stores sell for $74.95)

Number of Discs: 5

Whether you want to call it a trilogy, “two sequels and an epilogue” or two brilliant brothers and a bastard child, The Godfather trilogy’s cultural import cannot be overstated. With Nino Rota’s haunting score, Coppola’s deft storytelling, Gordon Willis’ exquisite cinematography and any number of superlative cast performances, the first two films are as close to pitch-perfect filmmaking as any ensemble has ever attempted. However, woe betide the one who actually decides to play the DVD to Part III. If you do, the universe will collapse into a pinpoint of matter so dense that from it no light will escape. The third installment of the Corleone crime family epic should never have been made, and Coppola admits as much on III’s commentary, despite occasionally (but weakly) defending the film.

In the five disc set, each disc has Coppola’s audio commentary (Part II spans two volumes) and the supplementary disc positively brims with additional features. No less than 34 deleted scenes—some of which were inserted into television versions of the films—have found their way off the cutting room floor. Author Mario Puzo comments in his narrative and Coppola’s interviews reveal how frighteningly close The Godfather came to never being made. Add cast biographies, a Corleone family tree, Academy Award acceptance speeches, and a rare audio recording of Rota’s musical musings, and the result is an indispensable set. The trilogy is a little pricey, but with elegant packaging highlighting the aging Corleone patriarchs, this is a cinephile’s dream; truly this is “the reason why DVD was invented.”

Oldies but Goodies

These discs from the past few years still hold their own against the upstart crop.

The Matrix ($18.99) Still the best, the original Matrix DVD essentially cemented the format’s success. From documentaries on “bullet time”—the effects used to suspend the characters in mid air—to hidden features and an immaculate video transfer, this disc set a benchmark for DVDs that few have surpassed.

Men In Black Limited Edition ($35.99) Of the many releases laying claim to the “Limited Edition” nametag, MIB deserves it the most. An amusing little doodle of a movie in its own right, the DVD version affords the opportunity to show that you know better than director Barry Sonnenfeld. Don’t like his version? The answer is simple: Re-edit certain scenes yourself and compare it with the original. It’s cheaper than film school.

Coming Soon

From here, the DVD medium can only get better. Here are a group of promising DVDs scheduled to arrive well in time for the holiday season.

Almost Famous: The Bootleg Cut, Dec. 4 ($26.99) Cameron Crowe’s sweet, semi-autobiographical fable about a teenage writer covering a band for Rolling Stone, features a separate DVD for the extras as well—as a stand alone CD with six Stillwater songs. The original film was already wholly engrossing; the director’s cut—36 minutes longer—will only make burgeoning writers more jealous of Crowe’s life.

Moulin Rouge, Dec. 18 ($22.49) This is the perfect chance to get inside Baz Lurhman’s head. His dizzying post-modern pastiche presents so many cultural allusions and pop-culture homages, that to comprehend them all requires multiple sittings. Now, Lurhman offers two audio commentaries to encompass the full scope of his sumptuous vision, and the second disc allows the viewer to manipulate multiple-camera angle views of the dance sequences.