Savant's new reviews today are
Savant usually doesn't go in for announcing most upcoming discs, as there's too many to keep track of and I'll just make mistakes. And then there's the titles I hear about from unofficial sources, and must keep mum about.
For instance, for a week I've known something was cooking with the INGMAR BERGMAN box, yet couldn't say anything. The set's been shoved back a couple of months to fix two of the transfers. This is a good thing, I suppose. I was just catching up with the reviews on these, and will now review them separately, putting off covering the affected discs until the new set comes out. HOUR OF THE WOLF and SHAME are simple substitute-the-master fixes, but PERSONA seems to have cropped in a bit, which would require a new transfer and would take months. That one's not being re-done.
Lucas announced his special edition versions of the first three STAR WARS movies, which is five years too late for his loyal fans. I was 25 when these movies originally started coming out, and they were the last big 'youth pictures' that I felt were aimed straight at me & my generation. At the time, I even saw some of the special effects work being done. So I'll be covering them for sure. I'll just have to pretend I'm seeing the originals, through Lucas's 1997 digital screwing-around.
No matter how Lucasfilm presents his franchise, it's altogether possible that time has finally caught up with it. Between the dismal quality of the second trilogy, and the general eclipsing of the STAR WARS craze by the LORD OF THE RINGS phenomenon, for Luke Skywalker and company the parade may have already gone by. I got this feeling last fall when the INDIANA JONES discs came out. Five years ago, the web was visibly shaking with demand for that series as well. Last Xmas it was greeted with a "that's nice" lack of excitement. I got the set, and only watched parts of the films. I sort of got them for my college-age kids. They didn't watch any, preferring to study the LOTR special editions for the umpteenth time. I think Messrs. Lucas and Spielberg outfoxed themselves.
Spring has a bounty of Savantish library faves - some sensations, but lots of the kinds of stuff I love to dissect. Here's a quickie list of stuff that grabbed my attention:
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (silly, but pretty), The Dresser ("Hold That TRAIN!"), Going in Style, The Grapes of Wrath, Umbrellas of Cherbourg (hopefully remastered), A Room With a View (ditto), Sweeney Todd (the full-play version), The Last of Sheila (missing forever), Jack the Giant Killer (comes with a built-in format controversy), I Could Go On Singing (but I died), Helter Skelter (uncut), Three Women (Criterion out of Fox), Helen of Troy (yay, a good old epic), Dracula has Risen from the Grave (so-so), Taste the Blood of Dracula (ehhh), Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (superb), Dawn of the Dead, The Molly Maguires (snooze), Battleground (yay), Walt Disney on the Front Lines & Walt Disney's Tomorrowland (finally), The Good, The Bad & Ugly (oh boy), The Great Escape (more oh boy). MGM just announced a ton of titles formerly released by Anchor Bay; I hope some of them get new transfers: Custer of the West, Duel in the Sun, Hell in the Pacific, The Last Valley (!!!), and Too Late the Hero.
Without dates but keenly awaited are The Legendary Curse of Lemora, Deathdream, The Mill of the Stone Women and (still a hope) Until the End of the World and Eyes without a Face. I've already talked all of those titles into the ground!
Thanks all. See you in a couple of days, Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at February 10, 2004 12:43 PM