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When Ridley Scott's cut of Blade Runner was finally released in 1993,
one had to wonder why the studio hadn't done it right the first time--11 years earlier.
This version is so much better, mostly because of what's been eliminated (the ludicrous
and redundant voice-over narration and the phony happy ending) rather than what's been
added (a bit more character development and a brief unicorn dream). Star Harrison Ford
originally recorded the narration under duress at the insistence of Warner Bros.
executives who thought the story needed further "explanation"; he later
confessed that he thought if he did it badly they wouldn't use it. (Moral: Never
overestimate the taste of movie executives.) The movie's spectacular futuristic vision of
Los Angeles--a perpetually dark and rainy metropolis that's the nightmare antithesis of
"Sunny Southern California"--is still its most seductive feature, an
otherworldly atmosphere in which you can immerse yourself. The movie's shadowy visual
style, along with its classic private-detective/murder-mystery plot line (with Ford on the
trail of a murderous android, or "replicant"), makes Blade Runner one of
the few science fiction pictures to legitimately claim a place in the film noir
tradition. And, as in the best noir, the sleuth discovers a whole lot more (about
himself and the people he encounters) than he anticipates.... With Sean Young, Edward
James Olmos, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, and M. Emmet Walsh. --Jim Emerson --This
text refers to another version of this video.
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After building up the duo's popularity through popular recordings and several
performances on Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd--as
"legendary" Chicago blues brothers Jake and Elwood Blues--took their act to the
big screen in this action-packed hit from 1980. As Jake and Elwood struggle to reunite
their old band and save the Chicago orphanage where they were raised, they wreak enough
good-natured havoc to attract the entire Cook County police force. The result is a
big-budget stunt-fest on a scale rarely attempted before or since, including extended car
chases that result in the wanton destruction of shopping malls and more police cars than
you can count. Along the way there's plenty of music to punctuate the action, including
performances by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, and James Brown that are
guaranteed to knock you out. As played with deadpan wit by Belushi and Aykroyd, the Blues
Brothers are "on a mission from God," and that gives them a kind of reckless
glee that keeps the movie from losing its comedic appeal. Otherwise this might have been
just a bloated marathon of mayhem that quickly wears out its welcome (which is how some
critics described this film and its 1998 sequel). Keep an eye out for Steven Spielberg as
the city clerk who stamps some crucial paperwork near the end of the film. --Jeff
Shannon --This text refers to the VHS standard of this video
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A truly perfect movie, the 1942 Casablanca still wows viewers today,
and for good reason. Its unique story of a love triangle set against terribly high stakes
in the war against a monster is sophisticated instead of outlandish, intriguing instead of
garish. Humphrey Bogart plays the allegedly apolitical club owner in unoccupied French
territory that is nevertheless crawling with Nazis; Ingrid Bergman is the lover who
mysteriously deserted him in Paris; and Paul Heinreid is her heroic, slightly bewildered
husband. Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Conrad Veidt are among what
may be the best supporting cast in the history of Hollywood films. This is certainly among
the most spirited and ennobling movies ever made. The DVD release has theatrical trailers,
a related documentary, optional French soundtrack, and optional English and French
subtitles. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the DVD edition
of this video
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Roman Polanski's brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the
land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the
only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is J.J. Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler
mold, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and
deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a
dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the
black-hole center of this tale of treachery, incest, and political bribery. The crackling,
hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted color
cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski
himself has a brief, memorable cameo as the thug who tangles with Nicholson's nose. One of
the greatest, most completely satisfying crime films of all time. --Anne Hurley
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Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick's cold war
classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect
spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling
Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with "the purity of precious bodily
fluids," mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of
B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so- called
"Doomsday Device," and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S. president
(Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart.
Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr. Strangelove;
George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose presidential
advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about "acceptable losses." With
dialogue ("You can't fight here! This is the war room!") and images (Slim
Pickens's character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of our cultural
vocabulary, Kubrick's film regularly appears on critics' lists of the all-time best. --Jeff
Shannon
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The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
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Ranking No. 21 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest
American films, this 1940 classic is a bit dated in its noble sentimentality, but it
remains a luminous example of Hollywood classicism from the peerless director of mythic
Americana, John Ford. Adapted by Nunnally Johnson from John Steinbeck's classic novel, the
film tells a simple story about Oklahoma farmers leaving the depression-era dustbowl for
the promised land of California, but it's the story's emotional resonance and theme of
human perseverance that makes the movie so richly and timelessly rewarding. It's all about
the humble Joad family's cross-country trek to escape the economic devastation of their
ruined farmland, beginning when Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns from a four-year prison
term to discover that his family home is empty. He's reunited with his family just as
they're setting out for the westbound journey, and thus begins an odyssey of saddening
losses and strengthening hopes. As Ma Joad, Oscar-winner Jane Darwell is the embodiment of
one of America's greatest social tragedies and the "Okie" spirit of pressing
forward against all odds (as she says, "because we're the people"). A
documentary-styled production for which Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland demanded
painstaking authenticity, The Grapes of Wrath is much more than a classy,
old-fashioned history lesson. With dialogue and scenes that rank among the most moving and
memorable ever filmed, it's a classic among classics--simply put, one of the finest films
ever made. --Jeff Shannon
Rated: NR
Starring: Henry Fonda
Director: John Ford
Edition Details:
NTSC format (for use in US and Canada only)
Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Clamshell Packaging
Number of tapes: 1
ASIN: 6301797906
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Citizen Kane (1941)
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Two of the juiciest roles in the American theater fall at the feet of Spencer
Tracy and Fredric March, and both men make a meal of it. Inherit the Wind, based on
the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, is a slightly fictionalized account of the
Scopes Monkey Trial, that galvanizing legal drama of the 1920s. When a young Tennessee
teacher is prosecuted for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school, he receives
unwanted public attention as well as the legal advice of a giant. Tracy plays the role
based on Clarence Darrow, the eloquent defense attorney, and March storms his way through
a part based on Williams Jennings Bryan, the failed presidential candidate (and famed
orator) who prosecuted the case. Gene Kelly plays a character based on the acid-penned
H.L. Mencken, reporting on the trial and caustically commenting on the absurdity of the
human animal. Stanley (Judgment at Nuremberg) Kramer's direction is not especially
subtle, but the verbal fireworks unleashed during the trial sequences are still stirring.
Even the different styles of the actors are intriguing: March is all mannerism and false
padding around the belly, while Tracy does his patented naturalistic grumbling. It would
be nice if this story were a quaint period piece, but its issues and arguments keep
reemerging in the headlines with each new generation. --Robert Horton
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Now perhaps the most beloved American film, It's a Wonderful Life was
largely forgotten for years, due to a copyright quirk. Only in the late 1970s did it find
its audience through repeated TV showings. Frank Capra's masterwork deserves its status as
a feel-good communal event, but it is also one of the most fascinating films in the
American cinema, a multilayered work of Dickensian density. George Bailey (played superbly
by James Stewart) grows up in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming dreams of
adventure and travel, but circumstances conspire to keep him enslaved to his home turf.
Frustrated by his life, and haunted by an impending scandal, George prepares to commit
suicide on Christmas Eve. A heavenly messenger (Henry Travers) arrives to show him a
vision: what the world would have been like if George had never been born. The sequence is
a vivid depiction of the American Dream gone bad, and probably the wildest thing Capra
ever shot (the director's optimistic vision may have darkened during his experiences
making military films in World War II). Capra's triumph is to acknowledge the difficulties
and disappointments of life, while affirming--in the teary-eyed final reel--his cherished
values of friendship and individual achievement. It's a Wonderful Life was not a
big hit on its initial release, and it won no Oscars (Capra and Stewart were nominated);
but it continues to weave a special magic. --Robert Horton
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To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
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Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American
Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented
dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its
historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains
powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice,
integrity, and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important
"message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike,
but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch,
the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his
finest performances with his impassioned defense of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully
accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary
Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational
hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their
mysterious, mostly unseen neighbor Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost
completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed
drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for
some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of
humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's
outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. --Jeff
Shannon
Widescreen
Rated: NR
Edition Details:
NTSC format (for use in US and Canada only)
Black & White, THX, HiFi Sound, Widescreen, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Number of tapes: 1
ASIN: 0783222955
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Many early science fiction films are now, quite inadvertently, (and in most
cases undeservedly) objects of camp attention: we laugh at the silly makeup, tin-can
special effects, and the naive "high-tech" dialogue. Planet of the Apes
is no such film. Its intelligent script, frightening costuming, and savagely effective
conclusion (which needs no big-budget special effects to augment its impact) remain both
potent and relevant. When Colonel George Taylor (the fabulous Charlton Heston) crash lands
his spacecraft on what seems to be an unfamiliar planet, he is captured and held prisoner
by a dominant race of hyperrational, articulate apes. However, the ape community is riven
with internal dissention, centered in no small part on its policy toward humans, who, on
this planet, are treated as mindless animals. Befriended and ultimately assisted by the
more liberal simians, Taylor escapes--only to find a more terrifying obstacle confronting
his return home. Heavy-handed object lessons abound--the ubiquity of generational warfare,
the inflexibility of dogma, the cruelty of prejudice--and the didactic fingerprints of Rod
Serling are very much in evidence here. But director Franklin Schaffner has a dark,
pop-apocalyptic sci-fi vision all his own, and time has not dulled the monumental
emotional impact of the film's climactic payoff shot. If you don't know what I'm talking
about here, you owe it to yourself to check out this stone classic, and even if you do,
see it with fresh eyes; and don't be surprised if you get the chills all over again ...
and again ... and again. --Miles Bethany
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For all the slasher pictures that have ripped off Psycho (and
particularly its classic set piece, the "shower scene"), nothing has ever
matched the impact of the real thing. More than just a first-rate shocker full of thrills
and suspense, Psycho is also an engrossing character study in which director Alfred
Hitchcock skillfully seduces you into identifying with the main characters--then pulls the
rug (or the bathmat) out from under you. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as Norman Bates,
the mama's boy proprietor of the Bates Motel; and so is Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who
makes an impulsive decision and becomes a fugitive from the law, hiding out at Norman's
roadside inn for one fateful night. --Jim Emerson
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Schindler's List (1993)
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Widescreen
Rated:
Not for sale to persons under
age 18.
Starring: Liam Neeson,
Ralph Fiennes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Edition Details:
NTSC format
(for use in US and Canada only)
Black & White, Widescreen, Color, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, Surround
Sound, Digital Sound, NTSC
Number of tapes: 2
ASIN: 0783211856
Other
Formats: DVD
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Steven Spielberg had a banner year in 1993. He scored one of his biggest
commercial hits that summer with the mega-hit Jurassic Park, but it was the
artistic and critical triumph of Schindler's List that Spielberg called "the
most satisfying experience of my career." Adapted from the best-selling book by
Thomas Keneally and filmed in Poland with an emphasis on absolute authenticity,
Spielberg's masterpiece ranks among the greatest films ever made about the Holocaust
during World War II. It's a film about heroism with an unlikely hero at its
center--Catholic war profiteer Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who risked his life and went
bankrupt to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps.
By employing Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German
army, Schindler ensures their survival against terrifying odds. At the same time, he must
remain solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant (Ben Kingsley) and negotiate business
with a vicious, obstinate Nazi commandant (Ralph Fiennes) who enjoys shooting Jews as
target practice from the balcony of his villa overlooking a prison camp. Schindler's
List gains much of its power not by trying to explain Schindler's motivations, but by
dramatizing the delicate diplomacy and determination with which he carried out his
generous deeds.
As a drinker and womanizer who thought nothing of associating with Nazis,
Schindler was hardly a model of decency; the film is largely about his transformation in
response to the horror around him. Spielberg doesn't flinch from that horror, and the
result is a film that combines remarkable humanity with abhorrent inhumanity--a film that
functions as a powerful history lesson and a testament to the resilience of the human
spirit in the context of a living nightmare. --Jeff Shannon
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Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece
suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In
Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony
Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In
order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in
drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead
singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm
Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player.
(When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant--a spot-on
impersonation.) The script by director Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is beautifully
measured; everything works, like a flawless clock. Aspiring screenwriters would be well
advised to throw away the how-to books and simply study this film. The bulk of the
slapstick is handled by an unhinged Lemmon and the razor-sharp Joe E. Brown, who plays a
horny retiree smitten by Jerry's feminine charms. For all the gags, the film is also
wonderfully romantic, as Wilder indulges in just the right amounts of moonlight and the
lilting melody of "Park Avenue Fantasy." Some Like It Hot is so
delightfully fizzy, it's hard to believe the shooting of the film was a headache, with an
unhappy Monroe on her worst behavior. The results, however, are sublime. --Robert
Horton
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Star Wars.(1978) is currently not being produced.
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When it was released during Hollywood's golden year of 1939, The Wizard of
Oz didn't start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did
respectable business, but it wasn't until its debut on television that this family
favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz's TV broadcasts are now controlled
by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this
lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Young Dorothy Gale
(Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the yellow brick road to
Oz--the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray
Bolger)--have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for
children. As the Wicked Witch who covets Dorothy's enchanted ruby slippers, Margaret
Hamilton has had the singular honor of scaring the wits out of children for more than six
decades. The film's still as fresh, frightening, and funny as it was when first released.
It may take some liberal detours from the original story by L. Frank Baum, but it's loyal
to the Baum legacy while charting its own course as a spectacular film. Shot in glorious
Technicolor, befitting its dynamic production design (Munchkinland alone is a psychedelic
explosion of color and decor), The Wizard of Oz may not appeal to every taste as
the years go by, but it's required viewing for kids of all ages. --Jeff Shannon --This
text refers to another version of this video.
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When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the
proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the maverick
auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the
parameters of the cinema experience. A daring experiment in unconventional narrative
inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," 2001 is a visual tone
poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history
of human evolution. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly tools in the film's
opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship Discovery and metaphysical birth
of the "star child" at film's end, Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise.
In keeping with the director's underlying theme of dehumanization by technology, the
notorious, seemingly omniscient computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and personality than the
human astronauts it supposedly is serving. (The director also leaves the meaning of the
black, rectangular alien monoliths open for discussion.) This theme, in part, is what
makes 2001 a film like no other, though dated now that its postmillennial space
exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the film is timelessly
provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner- and outer-space consciousness. With
spectacular, painstakingly authentic special effects that have stood the test of time,
Kubrick's film is nothing less than a cinematic milestone--puzzling, provocative, and
perfect. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to another version of this video.
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