The Other [Fox - $14.98] (1972, Robert Mulligan) Starring: Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Martin Udvarnoky, Norma Connolly.
It is safe to say that, among the movies made in that defining cinematic decade of the ‘70s, The Other is one of the best—a near-flawless example of tone and storytelling melded with wonderfully effective material and meaning. In the hands of Academy Award nominee Robert Mulligan (responsible for To Kill a Mockingbird and Summer of ‘42, among many others) and adapted by actor-turned-writer Thomas Tyron from his own best-selling novel, this paranormal period piece about psychologically unsound twins takes elements of The Bad Seed and twists them into an amazing American Gothic. Now out on DVD in a beautifully restored print, this story of an old-fashioned family in the middle of a picturesque, pastoral setting scans the surfaces of normalcy—and locates the ugly underneath. [Amazon]
Talk about perfectly timed… we’re in a vital election year and Warner Home Video has served up the best DVD set of the season. The award-winning Aaron Sorkin drama left the airwaves just this past May and already we’ve got the deluxe treatment on offer. All seven seasons come in a handsome blue box with requisite presidential seal, organized like a nifty set of government files inside—a rare occasion where the bureaucratic aesthetic is pleasing. The bonus documentaries offer a fascinating look behind the scenes, especially the 30-minute short on the live debate between Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). Yeah, the price tag is high, but this is some of the best writing and acting on a US TV drama ever, so it’s worth every penny. Plus, with such lavish packaging, it has “buy me as a present” stamped all over it. This is an essential addition to the DVD collection of anyone who believes in TV as a true art form. [Amazon]
Essential Art House 50 Years of Janus Films [$650.00]
An amazing motherload for classic film fans, this epic coffee table offering celebrates a half century of preservation and presentation by one of the business’ most significant contributors to cinema. Covering groundbreaking masterpieces by such seminal artists as Jean Renoir (The Rules of the Game, Grand Illusion) Federico Fellini (La Strada, The White Shiek), Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Seven Samurai) and François Truffaut (The 400 Blows, Jules et Jim) among many, many others, this linen bound box complete with a 240-page illustrated book, stands as the benchmark in DVD’s brief entertainment tenure. As an overview and a singular achievement, Essential Art House stands as a stunning example of the importance of film as an international forum of expression. [Amazon]
Tim Spalding, the creator of LibraryThing, has unleashed the inner librarian of thousands of users. LibraryThing tracks your books, and lets you tag, rate, and review them; it lets you see others who own that book, people who use similar tags, plus a hundred other features. LibraryThing taps the catalogs of Amazon (all the different flavors), the Library of Congress, and more than 40 world libraries in order to help identify books and open up cataloging data. If you’re the sort of person who compulsively checks out other people’s bookshelves, you can’t miss LibraryThing.
John Lee Hooker: Hooker [Shout! Factory - $59.98 - 4 CDs]
John Lee Hooker was among the most important musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. He took the spare and lonesome sound of pre-World War Two acoustic blues and electrified it for the modern aesthetic, bridging two distinct eras of the genre. Hooker is everything one would want from a box set. It encapsulates a vast swath of musical history, showing both the personal evolution of a legendary musician and the gradual transformations that occurred in the genre. The tracks are impeccably well-chosen and lovingly remastered. The liner notes, with a compelling bio from Ted Drozdowski and highly detailed track listings, are enjoyable and an excellent resource. And, unlike many artists, John Lee Hooker’s music never turned downhill. On too many box sets (or even two-disc compilations), a halving of the act’s material would suffice. But any trimming here would be a crime. [Amazon]
Forget bad dubbing into English. Forget Raymond Burr as a kind of creature feature color commentator. In fact, forget everything you know about the traditional Toho titan and check out this attempt to reclaim his original motion picture majesty. This is the timeless Japanese monster movie classic the way it was meant to be seen. Those used to Perry Mason amongst all the Tokyo destroying mayhem will be happy to see the American version included as well. Toss in a collection of commentaries and bonus features and you’ve got a DVD presentation that forever vanquishes the film’s Saturday afternoon kid vid matinee aura. Godzilla was meant to symbolize nuclear technology run amuck, and with this release, his b-movie babysitting days may finally be over. [Amazon]
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