There’s a commercial currently playing on TV in which a guy is so excited about all the cool electronic gadgets and gizmos he’s bought himself for Christmas that he soon realizes he forgot to buy any gifts for his wife and kids. It’s an amusing ad, yet it also demonstrates the extent to which people are getting excited about all the technological advances that, while clearly not essential to our livelihood, certainly make it a lot more fun. This holiday season, you can expect the stockings that are hung with care to be overflowing with CDs, videos, Game Boys, and, for the “all work and no play” types, a Palm Pilot or two.
And then there are the DVDs. With this movie-watching medium exploding like few entertainment consumer products before it, it’s guaranteed that Santa Claus and his minions will be hauling thousands of shiny discs all over the country (I asked the Big Red One to bring my daughter the Shrek DVD, but shhh, don’t tell her).
With so many titles presently on the market, consumers shouldn’t have any problem finding the right flicks for family and friends. But just in case there’s any hemming and hawing out there, here are some choice recommendations (all released during the past year) in various price ranges and, just as importantly, different genres.
Movies Only (No Extra Features)
While DVDs are known as much for their bonus features as for their top-notch sound and picture quality, there are admittedly many movie buffs who couldn’t care less about audio commentaries, poster galleries or behind-the-scenes shenanigans. For those folks, I suggest the following discs, which contain nothing more than the movie and maybe a trailer or two.
The Age of Innocence (1993) With the release of Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York delayed until next year, fans of the accomplished director can reacquaint themselves with a film that remains one of his best — and most unorthodox — outings. A raging bull in a china shop is the image that many people had when they first heard that Scorsese was tackling Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about love and deceit among the gentry of 1870s New York. But Scorsese ended up fashioning a lovely and rich drama that’s the cinematic equivalent of a good read: subtle, literate, and full of wondrous sights. And in a way, this love story about a man (Daniel Day-Lewis) enamored with a progressive woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) while courting her naive cousin (Winona Ryder) relies heavily on one of the director’s most common themes: that of an individual who’s unable to satisfactorily express his innermost longings and desires.
Places In the Heart (1984) Set in Depression-era Texas, writer-director Robert Benton’s lovely movie tells the story of a young mother (Sally Field) trying to ward off poverty after the tragic death of her husband; among the few people willing to give her a hand are a blind man (John Malkovich) who becomes her boarder and a field worker (Danny Glover) who’s constantly having to deal with the rampant racism of the time and place. Although Benton loosely based this on his own family history, this is more than just a rose-colored romp through nostalgia. Instead, the film is hard-hitting on many fronts (nothing is ever easy for Field’s character), and the miraculous ending says more about the power of faith and forgiveness than just about any other picture that comes to mind. Both Field’s performance and Benton’s screenplay earned well-deserved Oscars.
Extra Features Only (No Movie)
The Matrix Revisited (2001) With practically every DVD-equipped household already possessing a copy of The Matrix (it’s one of the all-time top-selling DVDs), and with the first sequel still a couple of summers away, Warner Home Entertainment has decided to temper appetites by releasing a special disc that’s full of interesting features: a lengthy look at the making of the first film, behind-the-scenes footage of the sequel, an exploration of the upcoming Matrix animated work, and, most amusingly, a short piece on some of the rabid fans who worship the 1999 original (including a lady who believes the “vibes” emitted from the movie directly resulted in her promotion at work!).
Box Sets
The Dirty Harry Collection (1971-1988) Left-wing critics condemned the character for his fascistic methods, while right-wingers viewed him as being too liberal with the law. With such controversy swirling around him, is it any wonder that Inspector Harry Callahan became the definitive Clint Eastwood character? The original Dirty Harry (1971) remains one of the best cop thrillers of the past three decades, while Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976) proved to be above-average sequels. Alas, the series then collided with the 80s, and 1983’s Sudden Impact (featuring the classic line, “Go ahead, make my day”) and 1988’s The Dead Pool largely replaced the urban grittiness with the trendy slickness. Still, this is one heckuva red-meat set, guaranteed to make anyone’s Christmas day. The Dirty Harry DVD contains several extras, including a 30th anniversary documentary, Dirty Harry: The Original, and a 1971 behind-the-scenes feature, Dirty Harry’s Way; Magnum Force and The Enforcer also include original documentaries. Incidentally, coinciding with the release of this set (but sold separately) is Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows, a 90-minute feature that provides an overview of the professional and personal lives of this laconic, iconic filmmaker.
The Woody Allen Collection, Set 3 (1982-1987) Well, two out of three ain’t bad. The first boxed set of Allen features, released in the summer of 2000, featured eight titles from his classic 70s era (Annie Hall, Manhattan, etc.). The second batch, released this past summer, included one great work, 1989’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, and five duds on the order of September and Another Woman. And now we get the third collection, which was released earlier this month and matches the initial set in terms of quality. Sure, 1982’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy is ever-so-slight, but 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters, an Oscar winner for Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest and Allen’s original screenplay, is rightly considered one of Allen’s greatest pictures, and I also adore 1985’s The Purple Rose of Cairo, a magical movie about movies. Rounding out the set are the technical marvel Zelig (1983), the boisterously funny Broadway Danny Rose (1984) and the underrated period piece Radio Days (1987). The only extras are the trailers; some viewers doubtless would have enjoyed audio commentaries by Allen, but given the autobiographical nature of most of his films, wouldn’t that be kinda redundant?
Loaded DVDs
And now, the Main Attraction. If box sets are out of your price range but you still want to give the very best that the format can offer, look no further than the bread-and-butter of the DVD universe: discs that are overflowing with supplemental material. Barring some year-end releases that I haven’t yet had time to peruse (including the aforementioned Shrek), here are my Top 10 suggestions for gift DVDs that would look mighty pretty with a red ribbon wrapped around ’em.
Carrie (1976) Special edition DVDs were released simultaneously for two of Brian De Palma’s best films, Carrie and Dressed to Kill. Both are keepers, though I’ll give Carrie the edge because its documentary includes the interesting tidbit that the auditions for Carrie and Star Wars were held at the same time, with De Palma checking out many of the actors that George Lucas passed over. Plus, at a time when everyone’s talking about the faithfulness of the screen adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, this contains a comparison to Stephen King’s original novel, allowing us to absorb the changes that helped make this one of the few movies better than the source material.
Citizen Kane (1941) Considering this Orson Welles masterpiece is generally regarded as the greatest film ever made, it’s only fitting it should receive a stellar DVD presentation. This one goes the extra mile by also including the 1995 documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane. Among the many extras, there’s an especially engaging audio commentary by film critic Roger Ebert.
Die Hard (1988) Still the prototype of the modern action yarn, this Bruce Willis hit is made even more irresistible via this two-disc special edition. For budding filmmakers, this includes a feature called The Cutting Room, which allows viewers to edit select scenes however they see fit.
Do the Right Thing (1989) Criterion, quite simply the best DVD producer on the scene, released some superb packages over the past year, including ones for Spartacus, Black Narcissus and Fiend Without a Face. The best of the bunch, though, was the deluxe edition for Spike Lee’s landmark film about racial strife on a hot New York day. Tantalizing extras include Lee’s own behind-the-scenes material, as well as footage of Lee and his cast holding a press conference during the film’s Cannes premiere.
Forrest Gump (1994) The folks in Paramount’s home entertainment division proved they’re no dummies by loading up the double discs for the DVD debut of one of the most beloved (and, in some grumpy circles, most reviled) movies of modern times. This one’s worth it just to see the two deleted scenes that find Forrest in the same frame with, respectively, Martin Luther King and the senior George Bush.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) In addition to the wealth of material found on this two-disc pack (including some archival newsreel footage), this one gets points for featuring the best outer packaging I saw this past year.
Notorious (1946) Criterion again, this time doing a bang-up job with one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films. Somebody launched a full-out assault on the Hollywood vaults in creating this package — after all, how many other 2001 DVDs include a letter to the studio from J. Edgar Hoover, in which he expresses his concerns regarding the movie’s potential portrayal of US government agencies?
Requiem for a Dream (2000) The best picture of 2000 is rightly accorded one of the best DVD presentations of 2001. The quality starts with the on-screen menu, made to look like a promo for a TV infomercial (a recurring plot point in the movie). You also get deleted scenes and an interview with star Ellen Burstyn.
Superman (1978) This phenomenal release includes (among its infinite number of extras) a feature that I wish would become a standard on DVDs: a Screen Test section in which we see various actresses (including Anne Archer, Stockard Channing and Lesley Ann Warren) audition for the role of Lois Lane (ultimately won — and deservedly so, based on this footage — by Margot Kidder).
Thirteen Days (2000) New Line Home Entertainment debuted its infinifilm line (basically, DVDs with even more bells and whistles than usual) with this dramatization of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the result is almost peerless — a DVD that provides a moviegoing experience, a filmmaking workshop, and a history lesson all in one sitting (make that two or three sittings, given the amount of supplements crammed onto this disc). For those viewers who want as many opportunities as possible to fidget with the remote control’s function buttons, this is the one to beat. *
This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2001.
