WHAT'S IN STORE: Hal (Christopher Plummer, left) and Oliver (Ewan McGregor) spend some quality time together before tragedy strikes in Beginners.
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Blu-ray extras include an interview with Rodriguez; deleted scenes; the featurette Spy Kids: Passing the Torch; and a look at the film's spy gadgets.
Movie: *1/2
TWELVE ANGRY MEN (1957). Francis Ford Coppola's first movie as a director was a nudie flick called The Bellboy and the Playgirls; James Cameron's was the low-budget sequel Piranha Part Two: The Spawning. Sidney Lumet, on the other hand, didn't mess around: After several years cutting his teeth on television productions, he made his motion picture debut with Twelve Angry Men, a masterpiece that earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and — yep — Best Director. The great Lumet (who passed away earlier this year) later helmed such gems as Dog Day Afternoon, Network and The Verdict, yet this arguably remains his most compelling work, a sweaty, sustained drama that milks its claustrophobic setting for all it's worth. Adapted by Reginald Rose from his own teleplay, this finds practically the entire story unfolding in a hot New York City jury room in which 12 people must decide the fate of a Puerto Rican teenager accused of stabbing his father to death. Eleven jurors are convinced he's guilty; only one (Henry Fonda) believes there's room for doubt, and it's his Herculean task to convince the others to re-examine the evidence before sending the boy to the gas chamber. Fonda (who co-produced the film with Rose) is quietly authoritative as always, and he's backed by a superb cast of character actors, many of whom went on to stellar careers (among them Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden and Jack Klugman). The movie's examination of this nation's jury system is double-edged, portraying it as inefficient when tainted by bigotry and ignorance and admirable when ruled by a cool-headed examination of the evidence.
DVD extras in Criterion's two-disc set include the long-lost 1954 TV version of Twelve Angry Men (from the anthology series Studio One), which won Emmy Awards for Rose, director Franklin J. Schaffner and star Robert Cummings; 1956's Tragedy in a Temporary Town, a teleplay (from the anthology series The Alcoa Hour) directed by Lumet, written by Rose, and starring Lloyd Bridges and Jack Warden; a production history of Twelve Angry Men, from teleplay to motion picture; and archival interviews with Lumet.
Movie: ****
WEST SIDE STORY (1961). Produced in the middle of that period when Hollywood was smitten with expensive and extravagant (some would say overblown) adaptations of Broadway musical smashes, this tuneful takeoff on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet proved to be especially popular, emerging as a box office behemoth and Oscar darling. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer play the star-crossed lovers Maria and Tony, whose love is threatened by the fact that he's affiliated with the Caucasian street gang the Jets and she's the sister of Bernardo (George Chakiris), the leader of the rival Puerto Rican outfit the Sharks. Wood and Beymer are bland as the central lovebirds (although Wood at least had the distinction of being excellent in her other 1961 release, Splendor in the Grass), and the frequently leaden dialogue is clearly perfunctory rather than inspired. But the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim score contains some classic songs still suitable for humming (particularly the lovely "Tonight" and the witty "America"), most of the intricately choreographed dances still impress, and there are fine contributions by Chakiris, Russ Tamblyn (as Jets leader Riff) and especially Rita Moreno, terrific as Bernardo's feisty girlfriend Anita. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, this won all of them except for Best Adapted Screenplay; its victories included Best Picture, Best Director (shared by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins) and the supporting awards for Moreno and Chakiris. As the cherry on top, Robbins also won a special Oscar for his choreography.
Blu-ray extras include song-specific commentary by Sondheim; Pow! The Dances of West Side Story, an in-movie viewing mode featuring cast members, choreographers and others analyzing and illuminating the dance sequences; a new retrospective on the film and its impact; Music Machine, which allows viewers to jump straight to selected songs; and a storyboard-to-film comparison montage.
Movie: ***
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