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by Nick Redman
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| Since their inception, DVDs have been primarily focused on features. Recently, television is becoming equally in demand by DVD customers. Supplementary materials for television programming have also expanded, in some cases, equaling that found on feature films. Here are some recent releases that may be of particular interest to directors. |
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Francis Coppola's One From the Heart (1982) and Michael Sarne's Myra Breckinridge (1970) probably don't have much in common except they each marked the end of their respective eras. Coppola's $6 million "little" film that swelled to $28 million by the time it was in theaters, effectively closed the period when the "auteur" was king, and Mike Sarne's disastrous adaptation of Gore Vidal's notorious bestseller paved the way for smaller, more personal features as the studios sought to find a way out of the financial quagmire brought on by the bloated excess of the '60s. Now both directors offer their thoughts on these experiences in commentaries that are by turns, self-effacing, humorous, bittersweet and elegiac. American Zoetrope's new DVD division has issued a two-disc set of One From the Heart which contains, along with the commentary, a number of extras, including a new documentary, that attempt to place the film in the context of its time as well as catalogue the myriad difficulties involved with its production. Zoetrope was totally undone by Heart's failure, and Coppola himself seemed unbearably saddened that his "chocolate factory" had been taken away. A set-bound "musical" with an engaging song score by Tom Waits, performed by the composer and Crystal Gayle is one of the film's high points and the music is isolated for better appreciation on its own track. Also included are some of the songs presented in "demo" form. On Fox Home Entertainment's DVD of Myra Breckinridge, two versions of the film appear; the theatrical release and a "special edition." Sarne talks over the latter, and Raquel Welch has her own commentary on the theatrical. Miss Welch is charming, attentive and wryly ironic regarding the film and her role in it. Regarding it as a big mistake, she nevertheless finds some moments of merit and occasionally is acerbic about the people and things she does not fondly remember. Mike Sarne is wackily engaging, and seems to be watching a completely different film to the rest of us. Steven Smith's Backstory episode on the movie is included as an extra and phlegmatically details the production's absurdities.
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Lee Tamahori's biting drama Once Were Warriors (1994) has just been reissued by New Line Entertainment with a very interesting talk by the director. A spousal-abuse drama set in contemporary New Zealand among the Maori community, the story, based on a novel by Alan Duff boasts some colorful characters and an unusual milieu. Tamahori's insightful comments on the Maori world in general and its history, is an exceptionally handy guide to the story's ritualistic depiction of tribal motifs. At the center of it all is a marvelous actress called Rena Owen, who is not easy to forget in her movie debut as the put-upon mother of five dealing with poverty and a two fisted brute of a husband. Complex and multifaceted, Once Were Warriors offers no easy answers and is all the more real because of it.
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A pair of Western epics ripe for revisitation have just been spiffily upgraded in new two-disc incarnations, and director Lawrence Kasdan's Wyatt Earp (1994) and director Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo] (1966) are prime additions to anyone's collection. Kasdan's underrated "biopic" of the famous lawman is worthy of reconsideration, and Warners' DVD offers a new documentary with Kasdan talking in-camera, as well as a television special on the making of the film, dating from its theatrical release. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has director and film critic Richard Schickel picking up the baton for the late Sergio Leone, usefully delineating the film's history on MGM's newly "expanded" version. Incorporating scenes not hitherto available with English dialogue, Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and others actually went back in and redubbed some lines. The effect is to finally have the film as complete as it ever was in its European engagements. A documentary featuring all the principals is included and a peppy sidebar piece on the composer Ennio Morricone, whose groundbreaking "bells and whistles" score defined the sound of the "spaghetti Western," is enigmatically hosted by music critic Jon Burlingame.
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Believe it or not, director Robert Clouse's Enter the Dragon (1973) has passed its 30th anniversary and Warners is celebrating (a year late) with a two-disc set that commemorates the brief life and times of the most famous person ever to ply the trade of martial arts, Bruce Lee. Chock-full of tasty extras, Dragon roars with the spirit of Lee, whose legacy is plangently observed in John Little's feature documentary, Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey, and Fred Weintraub, the film's co-producer, explores it still further in Bruce Lee: The Curse of the Dragon. Paul Heller, the movie's other producer, gamely tackles the commentary chores. Thirty years on, the film isn't any better, but it is incredible watching the indefatigable Bruce Lee chopping and hacking his way through the entire population of an island; the actor's own mysterious, unexplained death merely months ahead of him.
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When it comes to "chopping and hacking," few are better at this occupation than members of the warring Japanese Yakuza clans, and we have Home Vision Entertainment to thank for making available, in lovely new transfers, several rare and exceptional examples of the genre. In association with the American Cinematheque, Home Vision proudly presents, Seijun Suzuki's Underworld Beauty (1959), Kanto Wanderer (1963) and Tattooed Life (1965); Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower (1964); Kinji Fukasaku's Blackmail Is My Life (1968) and If You Were Young: Rage (1970) and Yasuharu Hasebe's Bloody Territories (1969) and Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (1970). Cult items in the best sense of the word, and made timely by the homaging of them by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2, the work of directors like Suzuki, and especially Fukasaku, have had trouble finding a mainstream audience. Fukasaku is best known for his Battle Royale, which brought him plenty of Western attention and Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower is a classic of its kind. Suzuki and Shinoda's work is more traditionally confined to the "authentic" world of the Yakuza, while Fukasaku and Hasebe deal in the chaotic world of Japanese youth in violent conflict with the emerging technology of modern Japan still governed by ancient criminal codes. Shinoda and Fukasaku are interviewed on their respective discs, and all of these releases contain jazzy liner notes by underground critics; Chris D of the American Cinematheque, Patrick Macias, Tom Mes and Richard Kadrey. Not for the undiscerning, this glimpse into a dark nether world of crime, greed, sex, avarice and voracious murder treats the viewer to a dazzling display of stylish visual delights — soft and colorful as a pillow, as brutally unforgiving as a jackhammer.
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