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Welcome to my little corner of the film world. I've been a movie lover all my life, and I enjoy discussing films almost as much as I do watching them. Like music, I have a pretty wide genre bandwidth, but just as I seek passion in music, I look for passion in film. Passion can be a well-written, twisting plot that challenges the viewer to pay attention and rewards them for the effort. Or passion can simply be the difference between a creatively executed slapstick routine and a sophomoric giggle fest. I'm certain that some of my favorite movies will cause others' jaws to drop, while my exclusion of some standard classics from my list will result in an equal reaction. But this is not a review column as much as it is a place to talk about the wealth of great entertainment that we are blessed to have available to us, especially now that DVDs are a way of life. The market is exploding - you can buy a DVD player for under $100, and just about every new computer comes with a combination CD/DVD player. I can vouch for the benefit of a player on a laptop, as this serves me well on business trips. But why anyone would sit in front of a desktop computer to watch a movie is beyond me.
I used to make lists of my favorite records not issued on CD, and while I still have several bobbing around (Roger C. Reale's Radioactive now tops my want list) most of my wishes have come true. Of course, after all these years, just about everything is available. Instead, I now find myself pining for my favorite movies to surface on DVD. While new films are budgeted to include a DVD edition after the initial theatrical run expires, I'm not certain what logic - if there is any - is behind the selection process for older titles. I mean, really, what society demands Caddyshack 2 be made available while Barton Fink waits in the wings? But thanks to the booming sales of DVD players, many more of my favorite titles are seeing the light of day. In the next few months, My Favorite Year, The Grifters and Glengarry Glen Ross will all hit the shelves. Recently such gems as Atlantic City and The Verdict finally found their way into my home. Yes, folks, I am one happy camper! But later in this inaugural column, I'll list ten of my favorite movies that - at this writing - are not on the radar screen for home DVD release.
I never was a purchaser of VHS movies, being perfectly content to tape films off the television or rent them from a store. Of course, with rare exceptions, the only advantage a pre-recorded video had to offer was the lack of commercial interruption, and most pay cable stations and movie channels have learned to screen the film in its entirety. Home taping even gave me the convenience of watching at my own schedule without looking over my shoulder to beat a rental penalty. I can't tell you how many formerly blank videotapes I own, but I would bet that half of them will never see the inside of a video deck again, although I'd be hard pressed to even pick one out for erasure or disposal. I'm like that with albums, too - you never know when you're going to have the urge to pull something off the shelf and enjoy it. I owned a lot of albums, but although the sonic clarity of CDs appealed to me, I thankfully never got swept up in the desire to replace every album in my collection with a CD.
But while music purists can debate endlessly about the warmth and depth of vinyl versus the pristine CD format, I have yet to hear anyone defend VHS in comparison to DVD. Factor in the extra features, commentaries, deleted scenes and other bonus tidbits with no rewinding, scene bookmarks and a crystal clear picture and it's no contest. With movie tickets averaging seven fifty, a couple going to the theatre will plunk down fifteen dollars just to get in. Of course, that doesn't include the refreshments, the travel and parking, the babysitter, or any other tangential cost involved in going out. And while it is still true that there is nothing like seeing a great movie on a huge screen, televisions just get bigger and multiplex theatres just get smaller. I can purchase most DVDs for less than fifteen dollars, and with a moderately priced home entertainment system, I'm not so certain that there's a big difference anymore. Like I said before, I'm a happy camper!
Because of the booming sales of DVD players, many video rental stores are phasing out VHS tapes to stock a larger selection of digital media. Unlike the scam that the record industry doled out to the consumer (and look carefully, folks - they're still doling!), the film rental industry for the most part has kept prices for DVD rentals the same as video rentals. Of course, I hope the movie industry doesn't follow the lead of the greedy record companies and begin to issue several versions of DVDs so we buy the damned things over and over again. I knew that Reservoir Dogs would eventually come out with more than a bare bones release (this summer, along with Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown for the total Tarantino fix), but for seven dollars I was not going to quibble. However, I wisely waited on Bull Durham and The Usual Suspects and was richly rewarded. There are a plethora of sites that run press releases and advance lists, and I have found that the studios themselves are pretty forthcoming with information regarding their upcoming schedule. I'll be dropping some titles and dates as we go forward, but my word of advice is check the horizon before dropping the dollars.
There are also discs that are out there that I refuse to buy, partially because I know there's a better version in the pipeline (Pulp Fiction released with no extras which was inexcusable) or perhaps because the studio unwisely issued a flipper disc (Goodfellas, The Wild Bunch, Amadeus). Let me assure you that years ago I thought nothing about getting up every fifteen or twenty minutes to flip an album over, so these are not the ramblings of a lazy man. As much as I consider listening to an album a saintly experience, the fact remains that you can move around freely since you don't have to look at the record (and as a turntable owner and user in 2002, the present tense is perfectly acceptable here). A movie, on the other hand, should totally envelop your senses. Flipping a DVD over halfway through a film - intermission - breaks the mood that has been set and drops you back into reality, hard and cold. Of course, we're talking good movies here...I've seen films where a quick ending would have been an appropriate and welcome mercy killing. Hopefully the studios will re-release all these early turkeys as dual-layer discs so we can maintain the spell until the flick is over.
Let me close out this month's diatribe with those ten films I mentioned earlier. These aren't my ten favorite films, nor are they listed in any specific order, but they are great movies that I would love to enjoy in full digital glory with surround sound washing over me. I am primarily talking Region 1 unavailability here - two of these titles do grace European and South American markets - so you might get lucky enough to find a region-free version if you try hard enough. But with the large film audience we have in North America, there is no excuse for these titles languishing in ether. They're all available on videotape, thank god, but really...who's kidding whom?
High Anxiety
Although rarely mentioned in the same breath as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks' comic homage to Alfred Hitchcock is loaded with sight gags and outlandish performances from frequent collaborators Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman.Once Upon A Time In America
Sergio Leone's masterpiece gangster epic must be seen in its full version (almost four hours) to be appreciated; beware the severely butchered versions widely found in rental shops. I gladly overpaid for a Brazilian disc to enjoy James Woods and Robert DeNiro heading a spectacular cast in a saga that holds its own with The Godfather.Straight Time
Dustin Hoffman's brilliant portrayal of an ex-con trying to go straight flew under most radar screens. Gary Busey, M. Emmet Walsh and Harry Dean Stanton are all at the top of their games in support.Major League
Of course, it's silly in spots. Of course, it's improbable. But anyone who loves the sport will find himself watching this more frequently than any other baseball movie, let alone quoting from it incessantly.
The Last Seduction
John Dahl is a huge talent as a director, but this noir classic was lifted into the stratosphere by Linda Fiorentino's amazing performance. Had it not been deemed ineligible for the Academy Awards because it was first shown on television, an Oscar would sit alongside the other "Best Actress" kudos she won.Ragtime
Like L.A. Confidential, a section of a sprawling book was extracted and expanded into a captivating film. Howard Rollins exploded off the screen as Coalhouse Walker, while an eighty-year old James Cagney came out of retirement to work his magic one final time.White Heat
Speaking of James Cagney, his characterization of percolating psychotic Cody Jarrett is a well-known classic. While I appreciate the Bogart catalogue slowly seeing the light of day, what about Cagney?
The Killers (both versions)
Okay, I'm cheating with two here, but both the Burt Lancaster and John Cassavetes versions are excellent films. The latter even features Ronald Reagan as an asshole (typecasting?) and Lee Marvin uttering what might be the best closing line in a movie, ever.Miller's Crossing
The Coen Brothers have had great success with their films and most are available on DVD. Most of the best gangster films are also available on DVD. Somebody please do the math, as many people consider Miller's Crossing their favorite Coen movie or their favorite gangster flick. Or both.Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder's classic about the failed, desperate writer who intersects with the aging, desperate silent film star. William Holden was a great actor, and this (along with Network) represent his finest moments.
If you'd like to know more about these movies or have questions about upcoming titles, feel free to drop me a line at bholmes_fm@msn.com. See you next month!
(C) 2002 - Bill Holmes