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blu-ray DVD & Blu-ray

UK DVD & Blu-ray Releases: Monday 28th September 2009

Including The New World (Extended Cut), Ran, The Deer Hunter, Belle Du Jour, An American Werewolf In London and The Prisoner

DVD and Blu-ray Picks 28-09-09

DVD & BLU-RAY PICKS

The New World – Extended Cut (EIV): New Line and UK distributors Entertainment have finally got around to releasing the extended cut of Terrence Malick‘s wonderful 2005 version of the Pocahontas story on DVD and Blu-ray.

The story is set during the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia settlement in the early 1600s, inspired by the historical figures Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Pocahontas (Q’Orianka Kilcher).

The cast also includes Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, whilst other notable contributions come from cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, production designer Jack Fisk, and editor Richard Chew.

Whilst some critical reaction to the film was mixed, it is a stunning technical achievement with a hypnotic quality that lingers longer after the final credits.

Perhaps the sprawling narrative put off some of the pickier critics who seemed determined to shoot Malick down from his lofty perch as American cinema’s mercurial poet-in-residence, but if you go with it, this is a film of many riches.

The performances from Farrell, Plummer and Bale are nicely restrained, whilst Kilcher is terrific, bringing an impressive depth of feeling to her role.

James Horner’s score, alongside some judicious use of Wagner, is probably the greatest he’s ever written with a thrilling use of strings and melody.

When the film premiered in late 2005 in New York and Los Angeles with a running time of somewhere around 2 hour 30 minutes, Malick decided to cut it down by about 15 minutes for the wider release.

I remember going to a BAFTA screening in November 2005 and I caught the longer cut and when I saw the initial DVD release in 2006, it seemed a little cut down, although it isn’t the kind of film where the cuts were immediately apparent.

The ‘Extended Cut’ on the Blu-ray is the same the DVD released at October 14, 2008 which is almost 22 minutes longer than the original extended cut.

This is the kind of film that could have been made to highlight the Blu-ray format because the stunning cinematography )all shot on Steadicam using natural light) is a key element in the film’s power.

The new Blu-ray is a 1080P transfer the sharpens everything up in terms of colour and resolution.

DVD Beaver has posted some screen captures comparing the DVD and Blu-ray versions and they also note that grain is not as prevalent as expected and note that the audio is a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track at 1437 kbps.

The extras on the Blu-ray Disc include:

  • Behind The Story – Making ‘The New World’: A comprehensive 10-part documentary about the making of the film that expands by about 20 minutes on the original making-of doc on the original 2006 DVD release.
  • Theatrical trailers (x2)

Ran (Optimum): Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1985 drama is a loose re-imagining of the legends of the daimyo Mōri Motonari and Shakespeare’s King Lear.

This new Blu-ray release follows an aging Sengoku-era warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai) who decides to abdicate as ruler in favour of his three sons and the subsequent chaos that is unleashed on his kingdom.

Returning to the Shakespearean themes he had previously explored in Throne of Blood, this was Kurosawa’s last major epic and silenced doubters who felt he couldn’t work in colour.

After a glittering career as one of world cinema’s most acclaimed directors, by the late 1970s Kurosawa had been struggling with numerous personal and professional problems which saw him have difficulty in getting financing for his films.

That changed with Kagemusha (1980), the story of a man passed off as a medieval Japanese lord, and it was financed with the help of the director’s most famous admirers, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.

Ran explored similar aspects of medieval Japan but was bigger and more ambitious in scope, to the point that he spent nearly a decade planning it and trying to obtain funding.

With the help of French producer Serge Silberman, he finally managed to get it in production and the result was a stunning epic filled with memorable compositions and haunting performances.

For the Blu-ray Disc the specs and extras include:

  • 1080P Widescreen
  • Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Japanese, English, French, German, Spanish (Castilian) and Italian 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish (Castilian), Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish
  • Art of the Samurai: Interview with J.C. Charbonnier (41mins, NEW)
  • The Epic and the Intimate: Documentary on Kurosawa (50mins, NEW)
  • Interview with Kurosawa by Catherine Cadou (13mins, NEW)
  • AK documentary by Chris Marker (70mins)
  • The Samurai (52mins, NEW)
  • BD-Live (DynamicHD)
  • Booklet: Analysis by David Jenkins, writer and critic for Time Out London magazine (NEW)
  • Excerpts from an interview with Paul Verhoven (NEW)

The Deer Hunter (Optimum): The winner of Best Picture at the 1978 Oscars still remains a powerful and moving drama about the effects of war on a tightly-knit community.

Written and directed by Michael Cimino, it focuses on a trio of Russian American steel worker friends in Clairton, Pennsylvania and their infantry service in the Vietnam War.

Starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, George Dzundza and Chuck Aspegren, all of whom are terrific, it met with instant acclaim, winning five Oscars and establishing itself as a classic of the 1970s.

However, the film has always had a noisy band of critics from the ludicrous gang of socialist delegates at the 1979 Berlin film festival who protested against the screening of the film – feeling obliged to voice their solidarity with the “heroic people of Vietnam”.

After Cimino’s epic fall from grace with Heaven’s Gate (1980), the knives came out as revisionists attacked the film: the Russian roulette sequence was historically inaccurate; the lead characters were too old; and of course the hoary old critique – beloved of contrarians apparently grasping at profundity – that it was somehow racist in its depiction of the North Vietnamese.

Some of these criticisms can be refuted by the fact that it is a work of imagination, not documentary, and that it isn’t actually about the politics of the Vietnam War.

Given the lies and political deceptions that created and prolonged the conflict, it is perhaps understandable that justifiable anger would spill out into discourse about the first major film to feature it as a backdrop.

But it isn’t a defence of US involvement in South East Asis and, if anything, is something of a cautionary tale of how innocence and idealism – very American virtues after World War II – can be devoured by the horrors of war.

If a film like The Green Berets (1968) was a deluded depiction of what some Americans actually thought was going on in Vietnam, The Deer Hunter represents the painful cultural hangover the nation felt at losing their first war.

Over thirty years on from its release, there is still a powerful sense of existential dread within the film which has probably been felt by any community scarred by sending its people off to war, be it Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Rather than being a sentimental celebration of fallen soldiers, it remains a haunting portrayal of patriotic ignorance being slowly crushed by the reality of armed conflict.

With a running time just over three hours, it is a slow and meditative epic filled with memorable images that were superbly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond and the Blu-ray does real justice to his visuals.

Some of the extras have appeared on previous versions by Warner and Optimum but for the Blu-ray Disc some new ones have been added.

The most interesting of these is a French documentary about the Vietnam War called ‘Unknown Images’ which is gives valuable context to what they describe as an ‘abominable war’.

The specs and full list of extras include:

  • 1080P Widescreen
  • English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese
  • Audio commentary by director Michael Cimino
  • Realising the Deer Hunter: Interview with Michael Cimino (23 mins)
  • Shooting the Deer Hunter: Interview with Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (15 mins)
  • Playing The Deer Hunter: Interview with John Savage (15 mins)
  • Unknown Images: Documentary on the Vietnam War (47 mins, NEW)
  • Introduction by Mickey Rourke (2 ½ mins, NEW)
  • Trailer
  • BD-Live (DynamicHD)
  • Booklet: Analysis by Ryan Gilbey, film critic of the New Statesman (NEW)

An American Werewolf in London (Universal): A fully remastered re-release on Blu-ray for John Landis’ 1981 werewolf horror is most welcome, especially as it has a new set of extras including a feature-length documentary ‘Beware the Moon’ and a featurette ‘I Walked With a Werewolf’.

The plot involves two US tourists named David and Jack (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne) who are attacked by a werewolf on the Yorkshire Moors. Jack dies but David survives and is taken to London where he falls in love with a nurse (Jenny Agutter). However, after dark dreams and visions he slowly realises he has become a creature of the night, wreaking havoc on the British capital.

Interestingly 1981 was the year of two other werewolf films (The Howling and Wolfen) but this one has accumulated a particular cult following due to its killer blend of scary horror (watch out for the curtains) and humour which is often at its best when you are least expecting it.

The other aspect of the film that is notable is the groundbreaking use of makeup and visual effects by Rick Baker. The famous transformation sequence was actually a major factor in makeup and industry technological contributions being recognized at the Academy Awards in 1981 as Baker won the first ever Oscar to be awarded to a special effects artist.

Landis has been effusive about the quality of the transfer to Blu-ray as he revealed in this interview with /Film at FrightFest last month in London:

DVD Beaver has posted some screen shots from the disc and they say fans of the movie ‘should be very happy with this transfer.

The specs and extras on the Blu-ray Disc are:

  • 1080P Widescreen
  • English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Spanish 5.1 DTS Surround
  • French (European), German and Italian 2.0 Mono DTS
  • Subtitles: English SDH, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, Canadian French, Greek
  • I Walked With A Werewolf (New) (HD) – Make-up effects artist Rick Baker tells of his life-long love of the Wolfman, how he would go on to create the creature in An American Werewolf in London, and how he was able to pour his passion into the upcoming Wolfman feature.
  • Beware The Moon (New) – In this feature-length documentary, filmmaker Paul Davis guides us through a never-before-seen, in-depth look at the Making of An American Werewolf in London, with the help of director John Landis and make-up artist Rick Bake
  • Making An American Werewolf in London, An Original Featurette
  • An Interview With John Landis
  • Make-up Artist Rick Baker On An American Werewolf in London
  • Casting of the Hand
  • Outtakes
  • Storyboards
  • Photograph Montage
  • Feature Commentary with Cast Members David Naughton & Griffin Dunne

Belle De Jour (Optimum): Another classic gets re-rleased by Optimum this week and this 1967 drama from director Luis Bunuel still exudes a classy eroticism.

Catherine Deneuve plays a frigid housewife whose sexual fantasies come true when she opts to become the high class call girl of the title during the day and a loyal housewife at night.

From the famous opening scene to the later stages, Bunuel creates a telling portrait of a suffocating bourgeois life (aided by the magnificent cinematography by Sacha Vierny) but also subverts many of the audience assumptions in the surrealist fashion distinctive of his other work.

Deneuve gives an immaculate performance in what is probably her most iconic role, her icy beauty sometimes overshadowing the subtleties of what is arguably her finest performance.

It is a film that repays repeated viewings, not only for the little enigmas that are peppered throughout (such as that mysterious box) but for the questions it raises about desire and fantasy which retain a lasting power.

The Blu-ray transfer is impressive and the specs and extra features are:

  • 1080P Widescreen
  • French 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
  • The Last Script (1hr 34 mins, NEW)
  • Commentary from Spanish Cinema expert: Professor William Evans
  • Story of a Film documentary (29 mins)
  • Theatrical trailer
  • A Story of Perversion or Emancipation: Interview with a sex therapist (28 mins, NEW) (HD)
  • BD Live (DynamicHD)
  • Booklet: Analysis of the movie by Derek Malcolm, film critic of the Guardian for 35 years and now critic of the London Evening Standard (NEW)

The Prisoner (Network): Network have announced the release of the complete series of The Prisoner on Blu-ray Disc. This iconic cult series starring Patrick McGoohan as a former spy taken prisoner in a mysterious village, marks Network’s first foray into the Blu-ray market.

The 6-disc limited edition box set is priced at £59.99 RRP and this is the first Blu-ray version of the series anywhere in the world and is the only home entertainment edition of the series to be officially endorsed by McGoohan.

Containing all seventeen episodes, extras on the set are as follows:

  • “Don’t Knock Yourself Out” a feature-length documentary which is the most comprehensive look at the production of ‘The Prisoner’, told by those involved in its creation
  • Restored original edit of ‘Arrival’ with an optional music-only soundtrack featuring Wilfred Josephs’ complete and abandoned score
  • Production Crew audio commentaries on seven episodes
  • Trailers for all episodes
  • Archive textless material, including the title sequence with clean themes by Ron Grainer, Wilfred Josephs and Robert Farnon
  • Commercial Break Bumpers
  • Behind-the-Scenes footage including much previously unseen
  • Script and Production Documentation PDFs
  • Image Galleries with Music Suites
  • Exclusive book on the making of the series by TV historian Andrew Pixley
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mixes on all episodes + the original Mono

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ALSO OUT

Amsterdamned (Nouveaux)
Blood (O Sangue) (Second Run DVD)
Death Note: The Complete Series (Manga)
Dying Breed (DNC Entertainment)
Everlasting Moments (Icon)
Fighting (Universal)
Fireflies in the Garden (Universal)
Friday (Director’s Cut) (EIV)
Fringe Season 1 (Warner)
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (EIV)
Gigantic (Universal)
Gossip Girl Complete Season 2 (Warner)
Kitaro (Manga)
Menace II Society (Director’s Cut) (EIV)
Negima Series 2 Part 2 (Manga)
Observe and Report (Warner)
Robot Chicken Season 2 (Revolver)
Robot Chicken Seasons 1-3 (Revolver)
Swing Vote (Anchor Bay)
Swoon (Palisades Tartan)
Telstar (Momentum)
The Simpsons Season 12 (Fox)
The Two Ronnies Series 6 (2 Entertain)
Tony Manero (Network)
Tormented (Pathe)
Wasting Away (Kaleidoscope)

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