Savant's new reviews today are
Kind Hearts and Coronets Criterion
Goyokin Media Blasters Tokyo Shock
and
Ikarie XB 1 Filmexport (Prague, R 0 PAL)
Savant happily writes about Ikarie XB 1 today, a rare Czechoslovakian science fiction film that is probably the most serious space picture before 2001: A Space Odyssey. I've indulged myself by writing up my personal history with the picture, which I hope won't be too annoying. Savant tries to keep DVD Savant about The Movies, which this digression mostly is. The biggest trap in writing about films is falling into the illusion that it's all about me ... I think I've mostly avoided that, even after Major Dundee.
Last minute news relayed by Gary Teetzel: USA Today reports that Classic Media will release a $22 two-disc set, for the first time in the USA, of the complete and uncut 1954 Japanese film Gojira and the revised 1956 U.S. version, Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The announced release date is September 5. Classic Media has a dedicated website for the release. The mention of a 'widescreen format' reportedly applies to other Godzilla releases, as the original is a flat 1:37 picture. If anyone is wondering what the "6 sequels" are that CM is releasing, they should be Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla vs. The Thing, Ghidrah the 3-Headed Monster, Monster Zero, Godzilla's Revenge and The Terror of Mecha-Godzilla.
A while back reader David Valentini wrote in to ask if I had any ideas where copies of the terrific Kevin Brownlow / Andrew Mollo movie It Happened Here could be found; I contacted Milestone's Dennis Doros for David and was informed that Image's disc from 2000 had been out of print for some time. 
When I reviewed a new edition of Brownlow's book How It Happened Here last year, readers interested in the movie couldn't find the DVD either. David wrote back yesterday to say that Dennis had saved his information, and written him back to tell him that the DVD is available again at Amazon and also directly through the Milestone website.
I'll have a review of Peter Watkins' The Gladiators up next time around; this provocative still of a Red Chinese soldier captured in a futuristic computer-controlled "Peace Game" is the new DVD's key art. Project X's previous Punishment Park and Edvard Munch were highly stimulating films, and I hope the line will continue with Watkins pictures I haven't seen (Culloden) as well as ones I have (The War Game).
Good Night, and Good Luck should arrive today, along with some Fox Bible epics, a Billy Wilder comedy and Warners' next massive boxed set, a Busby Berkeley Collection loaded with great-sounding extras. I'll be listening for the mailman today. --- Thanks, Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at March 10, 2006 11:24 AM