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vidlib@videolibrarian.com
 Updated June 23, 2009 |
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Dodes’ka-den  Criterion, 140 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95 
Conceived and produced during one of the most turbulent periods of Akira Kurosawa’s legendary career, Dodes’ka-den (1970) was the Japanese master’s first film in color. Set in a rundown slum created on a garbage dump, the episodic film highlights Kurosawa’s sympathy for poor, outcast members of Japanese society, loosely interweaving the stories of a large number of characters, all of whom combat harsh reality through varying degrees of fantasy. Dodes’ka-den’s rambling structure—in striking contrast to the exciting action or potent drama of Kurosawa’s previous black-and-white masterpieces—resulted in the film’s failure at the box-office (in the following year, he attempted suicide), but as a pivotal work in Kurosawa’s creative life, it’s a fascinating, visionary piece. Shooting the film in just 28 days, the great director was attempting to disprove rumors of his mental instability, while also reaffirming his artistic validity after being fired as director of the Japanese sequences of 20th Century Fox’s Pearl Harbor epic Tora! Tora! Tora! While not one of Kurosawa’s classics, Dodes’ka-den remains a vital entry in the director’s filmography. Like several other Criterion Collection DVDs of Kurosawa’s films, this one includes a 36-minute episode of Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create (here devoted to Dodes’ka-den) from Japanese TV’s Toho Masterworks series about Kurosawa’s life and career. An accompanying booklet features an essay by film historian Stephen Prince and an interview with script supervisor Teruyo Nogami. Recommended. (J. Shannon)
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Catlow  Warner, 101 min., PG-13, DVD: $14.98 
Based on a Louis L’Amour novel, the 1971 Western comedy Catlow stars Yul Brynner in the title role as a maverick outlaw who is being chased by two equally determined men: his old friend, Marshal Ben Cowan (Richard Crenna) and a vicious, vengeful killer named Miller (Leonard Nimoy). Catlow’s hot tempered Mexican girlfriend Rosita (Daliah Lavi) and a trusted henchman (Jeff Corey) eventually also turn on the outlaw…just to make things a little tougher. Broadly speaking, Catlow is standard Western stuff, crammed with spectacular scenery, cattle drives, gold trains, rampaging Indians, bruising brawls, and blazing gunfights. But Brynner seems a little uncomfortable, as if not sure whether he’s supposed to be playing Catlow straight or for laughs, although some of his confusion was most likely due to a muddled script and Sam Wanamaker’s uneven direction. A mildly entertaining Western, this is optional. (E. Hulse)
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Cleopatra: 75th Anniversary Edition Universal, 112 min., not rated, DVD: $29.98 
Cecil B. DeMille is the epitome of the classical Hollywood epic director, a filmmaker whose early 1930s pre-code pictures mixed the lavish with the lurid. The Sign of the Cross (1932), a Christians-to-the-lions biblical epic filled with displays of sex, decadence, and barely-clothed flesh, offered a winning formula (sin followed by divine retribution) that DeMille returned to in the even more spectacular Cleopatra (1934). Claudette Colbert stars as the Egyptian Queen who is quite the flirt when Julius Caesar (Warren William) comes to Egypt, although she keeps her power hitched to the winning side when Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) takes his place. Cleopatra’s royal entertainments for Antony look more Goldwyn Follies than ancient Egyptian, with showgirls in revealing costumes prancing through absurd set pieces. The war scenes, however, are magnificent (at least those without the sloppy back projection), combining lavish miniatures with recycled battle scenes from silent epics. Rather sluggish at times and awfully stagy (with Colbert playing Cleo as a seductive gold digger and William turning Julius Caesar into her sugar daddy), Cleopatra makes a mockery of history, but it’s also often oddly fun and remains a distinctive slice of early Hollywood cinema. This 75th anniversary edition features DVD extras including audio commentary by critic/filmmaker F.X. Feeney, three featurettes (on Colbert, DeMille, and “Forbidden Film: The Production Code Era”), and a pack of lobby cards. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
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The Loyal 47 Ronin Animeigo, 166 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.98 
Kunio Watanabe’s 1958 costume drama The Loyal 47 Ronin (aka Chushingura) is an opulent but enervated retelling of a well-known story of loyalty and revenge. The eponymous figures are the former samurai of Lord Asano, who was forced to commit seppuku following his sword-swinging assault on the corrupt and insulting Lord Kira. The 47 men, reduced in rank from samurai to ronin, peacefully agree to leave Lord Asano’s estate; however, Asano’s chief retainer, Oishi, clearly does not believe in forgiving and forgetting, eventually mounting an elaborate attack on Kira. The film is visually stunning, sporting richly detailed costumes and art direction that beautifully evoke the privileged world of 18th-century Japanese aristocracy, but the characters are little more than half-dimensional figures cloaked in elaborate kimonos. Perhaps Watanabe intentionally sought to go in the opposite direction of Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1941 feature The 47 Ronin, which covered the same territory with more emphasis on cerebral passion than showmanship (Mizoguchi’s film was considered a flop in its time, but the passage of years has elevated it to classic status). DVD extras include an image gallery, program notes, and cast and crew bios. A strong optional purchase. (P. Hall)
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She Fell Among Thieves Acorn, 78 min., not rated, DVD: $24.99 
Based on a 1935 adventure novel by Dornford Yates, the 1978 BBC telefilm She Fell Among Thieves was the premiere entry in the PBS-aired Mystery series. Malcolm McDowell stars as a very proper Englishman named Richard Chandos, who is drawn into a mystery involving an aging femme fatale called Vanity Fair (Eileen Atkins) while traveling through the Pyrenees. Along with a group of wicked assistants, Vanity Fair is set on manipulating her beautiful but unwilling stepdaughter into a forced marriage in order to secure a fortune for herself. After accidentally stumbling onto the plot, Chandos is enlisted by a British agent (Michael Jayston) to help derail the scheme and rescue the damsel in distress (naturally, romance follows). An extremely old-fashioned tale redolent of the era of decaying British imperialism, She Fell Among Thieves suffers from ridiculously arch performances (Atkins positively exudes malevolent hauteur, while McDowell exhibits a snobbish sense of natural superiority), with much of the action consisting of people in tweeds and tuxedos scampering up and down the hills surrounding Vanity Fair’s mountain redoubt. Granted, the film does retain a certain moldy charm, but three decades later this feels more like a campy curiosity than an entertaining mystery. Optional. (F. Swietek)
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John Steinbeck’s East of Eden Acorn, 3 discs, 382 min., not rated, DVD: $59.99 
Broadcast on ABC in 1981, this six-hours-plus miniseries features author John Steinbeck’s name as part of the title—presumably to differentiate it from the far better known 1955 feature film with James Dean. But what really distinguishes this version of East of Eden is its scope: Elia Kazan’s Hollywood blockbuster dealt only with the second half of the 1952 novel—focusing on the last generation in a familial saga that spans the post-Civil War era to World War I—while the TV production covers the entire story. As a result, the plot’s lynchpin doesn’t revolve around young Cal Trask—the Dean character, played by Sam Bottoms here—but rather his father Adam (Sam’s older brother, Timothy Bottoms, following in Raymond Massey’s footsteps from the movie). And the script is far more explicit in expressing Steinbeck’s biblical theme of the eternal battle between good and evil, placing far greater emphasis on the plot thread concerning Cathy (Jane Seymour), the she-devil who brings misery and destruction to two generations of Trasks (as well as others). While it would be ridiculous to claim that the prosaic storytelling here matches Kazan’s operatically flamboyant approach, or that the Bottoms brothers can efface memories of Dean and Massey, Seymour etches a far fuller portrait of the scheming anti-heroine than the Oscar-winning Jo Van Fleet was able to in the truncated role presented in the feature film. A more accurate reflection of Steinbeck’s book, DVD extras here include a revealing interview with Seymour, a text bio of Steinbeck, and cast filmographies. Recommended. (F. Swietek)
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Cheers: The Final Season, The Eleventh Season Paramount, 4 discs, 648 min., not rated, DVD: $39.98 
Last call for Cheers, which after 11 seasons probably overstayed its welcome. Still, one of television’s very best workplace comedies deserved closure, and its final episode reuniting titular bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson) with former barmaid Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) was one of the most hyped “Must-See” events of its time. Although Cheers’ place in the television pantheon is secure, this final 1992-93 season was more lukewarm beer than sparkling champagne. One knock against Cheers is that its core characters actually devolved over the course of its run: Sam became dumber, Cliff (John Ratzenberger) grew more annoying and pathetic, and Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) turned into a material girl ditz. But as with any long-running series, these exceedingly likable characters were old friends who remained good company, and even though few of the last 28 episodes compiled here would rank among Cheers’ finest hours, some recapture the old buzz. Harry Anderson returns as con man Harry the Hat to help Sam in his final round of practical jokes against a rival bar. In other memorable pieces, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) goes out on a ledge after wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) announces she’s leaving him; Norm (George Wendt) lands his dream job as a taster at a brewery; and Woody (Woody Harrelson) runs for city council. Recommended for completists; a strong optional purchase elsewhere. (D. Liebenson)
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Danton  Criterion, 2 discs, 136 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $39.95 
When Danton was released to mostly widespread acclaim in 1983, a number of French critics took issue with the historical inaccuracies regarding the ideological clash between the hearty, good-natured man-of-the-people Georges Danton (Gerard Depardieu) and cold-hearted revolutionary extremist Maximilien Robespierre (Wojciech Pszoniak), former cohorts who found themselves at opposite political extremes at the height of the French Revolution. Moreover, complained the contrarian critics, Polish director Andrzej Wajda was making deliberate parallels between la revolution and the Polish Solidarity movement that was being suppressed by the Polish government just as Wajda was seeking financing for this production (ultimately filmed in France at authentic locations). Of course, Wajda’s political parallels were deliberate, but regardless of inaccuracies (with Wajda taking a rather idealized, pro-Danton stance), the depiction of Danton vs. Robespierre in the years 1793-94 remains powerful viewing, filled with fire and passion and brilliantly performed by a first-rate French and Polish cast. Lacking the budget to make a full-blown epic, Wajda focused on the battle of wills that defined Robespierre and his rival, which ends with Danton martyred on the guillotine and Robespierre tormented by his own inflexible ideology. Criterion’s two-disc DVD release includes a superb Polish “making-of” documentary from 1983, new video interviews (with Wajda, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, and Polish film critic Jerzy Plazewski), and an accompanying booklet. Highly recommended. (J. Shannon)
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Falling Down Warner, 112 min., R, DVD: $19.98, Blu-ray: $34.99 
“I’m the bad guy?” Michael Douglas’ character incredulously asks after terrorizing his way across the |
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The Real Ghostbusters, Volume 1 Time Life, 5 discs, 665 min., not rated, DVD: $39.95 
Two years after Ivan Reitman’s live-action Ghostbusters movie, the animated The Real Ghostbusters series made its 1986 debut. Airing for six years on ABC and in syndication, the episodes revolve around four paranormal investigators who battle poltergeists, phantoms, spirits, demons, and the like: Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore (voiced by a pre-talk show Arsenio Hall). Operating out of a Gotham firehouse, the quartet (who do not resemble Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, et al—in a DVD extra, character designer Gabi Payne explains that he was supposed to avoid direct likenesses) are often joined on their ghostbusting missions by sidekicks, including secretary Janine Melnitz and the gooey green Slimer (voiced by Frank Welker of Scooby-Doo fame), who often join. During the 17 episodes from the 1986-87 first season and 13 syndicated installments collected here, the team takes on a breakdancing troll, a polka dot-shirted genie, and the same blue-haired bogeyman who tormented Egon as a child. Not much in the way of educational value here, to be sure, but The Real Ghostbusters does offer goofy, sometimes surrealistic fun for most ages (although tiny tots might find some of the creatures too scary). DVD extras include a “making-of” featurette, episode introductions, and five visual commentaries in which the producers, writers, and storyboard artists appear onscreen above the image. Adult viewers may be surprised to find that the writers took some of their plot ideas from the works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Wolfe (as in the episode “Look Homeward, Ray”). Fun trivia note: story editor J. Michael Straczynski went on to create Babylon 5. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)
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