Directors on Disk

Citizen Kane still towers god-like above the competition — and Warner's new two-DVD set of the film inspires our awe all over again. It's not just the movie itself, which continues to mesmerize and rivet us with ease, but the whole aura of the production and Orson Welles' singular achievement at such a young age.

Citizen Kane may have been an ultimate millstone, as well as a milestone, for the director, but what an act to follow — Warner's new transfer is sharp and deep, offering shadow detail in the expressive photography by Gregg Toland not seen in the home before. The movie sparkles anew, inviting respect from all quarters. Two audio commentaries are added, one by film critic Roger Ebert, which takes a quasi-scholarly tack, the other by director Peter Bogdanovich, colored whimsically by his own memories of Welles, and his obvious affection and admiration for the great man. The second disc in the package contains the fine Oscar-nominated documentary, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, that illuminated the trials and tribulations not just of the production, but of Welles and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, on whom the story was loosely based. Hearst's fury was quite a match for Welles' audacity, and the ensuing confrontation hurt Welles and cost his career dearly. Made in 1995 by Thomas Lennon and Michael Epstein, the doc is a model example of narrative drama culled from archive sources.

Ron Howard's live-action retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss fable has just been released on Special Edition DVD, just in time for the season. There are numerous short mini-docs covering such areas as "Who School" (rehearsing extras, primarily Cirque de Soleil performers, to represent the fictional Seuss characters), makeup application and design (behind the scenes with Rick Baker) and several on the visual effects of the film. Also included are another short of the production "On Location," a "Gag Reel" and "Deleted Scenes." While Howard is in many of the short films, offering insight into the production, it would have been nice to include an audio commentary by Howard or even a more-detailed explanation of the deleted scenes. Still, there's a lot to watch on this Universal DVD.

MGM/UA has released Salvador, Oliver Stone's gripping drama of the early '80s conflict south of the border. This little-seen film is well worth re-appraising and the new DVD presentation does it retroactive justice. Complete with a candid commentary by Stone himself, in which he unflinchingly delineates the problems associated with 'guerilla' filmmaking and problems both with and amongst his lead actors. The audio track fairly crackles with the static of pungent memory. Stone is a good teacher though, and you feel he would make a terrific professor one day. The detailed documentary, Into the Valley of Death by Charles Kiselyak, is an exemplary addition to the feature. It covers a lot of ground both in front of and behind the scenes, and delves deep into the era's politics. Unusually intelligent and probing, Kiselyak's film is exactly what is required for Salvador — it combines startling home movies of the time shot by Richard Boyle (the lead character) with Stone's footage of preparation and location scouting. This stuff is the gold of behind-the-scenes filming and so few studios allow its inclusion on DVD. Kudos to Kiselyak for making the best doc for a studio film this year.

Action star Arnold Schwarzenegger had read an early draft of the screenplay for Total Recall, adapted from the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Gary Goldman, and wanted to do it badly. However, the rights were owned by Dino De Laurentiis who was planning to make the film with Patrick Swayze in the lead. According to the Schwarzenegger and director Paul Verhoeven's audio commentary on this home version of the DVD, when De Laurentiis went into bankruptcy just before the cameras rolled, Schwarzenegger quickly called Carolco's Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna telling them they should purchase the project. He then called Verhoeven, whom he'd met several weeks before. Schwarzenegger had been impressed with Verhoeven's Robocop and was eager to work with him . In a matter of hours, the transfer to Carolco was made and Verhoeven was aboard. The story centers on a construction worker (Schwarzenegger) who is haunted by vivid nightmares of an incident on Mars, a place he's never been to, or so he thinks. He learns his mind has been wiped clean and someone has gone to great lengths to give him a new identity. His quest for the truth on Mars is the stuff of classic action. The Artisan Special Limited Edition DVD is jampacked with extras, including the excellent commentary by Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger. The film is one of the final pre–CGI science fiction films, and included in this package is a documentary, Imagining Total Recall, which covers all aspects of the production in depth. Also included in this superior presentation are storyboard comparisons, photo gallery, conceptual art gallery, a "Mars: Fact and Fiction" featurette and much more. It even comes packed in a round Mars shaped tin.

World Cinema Roundup

Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer perhaps isn't on the tip of everyone's tongue these days, but it hasn't been long since he was considered one of the craft's greatest practitioners. Now, thanks to The Criterion Collection, several of his movies live again in stellar, stark, black-and-white relief. Dreyer is a handsome box set that houses three of the director's later works — in fact, the three that encompass the last 21 years of his filmmaking life. Day of Wrath (1943), a venomous 17th-century passion play set inside a world of small-town paranoia, is perhaps the best known. Ordet (1955), a blistering family drama that details the emotional havoc an entire spectrum of religious fervor can wring on any group, was much misunderstood and reviled on its initial release — and slowly across time has gained a cautious respect. Rounding out the trio is Gertrud (1964), the director'slast effort, which was greeted by uproar and outrage on its first showings and was disparagingly referred to as a "series of photographed sofa conversations."

A little closer to home, The Tailor of Panama (2001), directed by John Boorman from Columbia/Tri-Star, is an engaging adaptation of a John Le Carre novel. Stars Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush enjoy the twisting, turning mendacity — and Boorman's gift for delineating foreign climes as if he knows them inside out brings Panama to vivid life. The DVD includes a trademark self-effacing commentary from the director and a very surprising alternate ending to the film. In the same part of the world, New Line's Blow (2001) chronicles drug runner George Jung's sorry life and crimes. Well played by Johnny Depp, Jung's interaction and ultimate downfall at the hands of Pablo Escobar is grim entertainment. New Line's super DVD, the first in its "infinifilm" series, is packed with extras and the documentary Lost Paradise by Susan Ricketts strives to be a lot more wide reaching and complicated than the standard making of — it's a cause-and-effect history of Colombian drugs. Also of note is director Ted Demme's and George Jung's shared audio commentary.

Anchor Bay Entertainment brings us the British cult item The Wicker Man (1973) — which comes packaged in a wooden box. Directed by Robin Hardy, starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, this tale of pagan sacrifice on a remote Scottish Isle boasts an amazing reputation among its avid followers. Anchor Bay serves it well with a presentation of the film's much discussed uncut version and a terrific documentary, The Wicker Man Enigma which details all of the many production woes. Ending where we kind of began, Criterion's new DVD of Haxan (1922), directed by Denmark's Benjamin Christensen, is another rare treasure. Talked about but hardly seen, Haxan (pronounced Hek-Sen) is an unbelievably strange "drama-documentary" on the history of witchcraft. The director himself plays the devil, and his inter-title narration is from the devil's point of view.

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