Get Buying
Your economy needs you
By Andy Klein
I know people who never buy DVDs but only rent. They are probably wise. They can also be a pain in the ass, since that makes them harder to find gifts for. (On the other hand, you can always be certain that, whatever DVD sets you give them, they won’t already have a copy.)
I know other people – I’m one – who need to own the physical object to keep forever and ever. We are pack rats, and you probably shouldn’t feed our jones. (Note to gift-giving friends: Ignore that last bit.)
The great advantage of shopping for DVD packages as gifts is that the range of titles and of price is so huge. For instance, if I had a close friend wise enough to have pulled out of the market before the current plummeting, I would be very happy if he or she were to pony up the $399.98 for the six-season, 33-disc The Sopranos – The Complete Series (or at least the $254.99 it currently costs at Amazon, according to dvdpricesearch.com, a website any video purchaser should have prominently bookmarked). Hint hint.
If I had two such friends, I wouldn’t at all mind receiving Fox’s about-to-be-released (on Dec. 9) Murnau, Borzage, and Fox Box Set for a mere $239.98 (and under $180 online). That’s frankly a bit pricey for 12 films on 12 discs, but the collection includes 10 features from film buff favorite Frank Borzage and two from F.W. Murnau, including the latter’s Sunrise, one of the supreme achievements of the silent era. Fox seems determined never to release Sunrise on a single DVD; this is the second time they’ve made it available only as part of a set.
But I’m not picky: I’d be just as happy with the company’s equivalent big release from last Christmas, Ford At Fox – The Collection (list $299.98), 24 John Ford films and a documentary, on 21 discs.
For all my poorer friends: Don’t despair. There are plenty of less-expensive alternatives you can get for me.
Many of you have yet to embrace Blu-ray discs, the Sony-backed hi-def format that prevailed over HD-DVD earlier this year, following a painful marketing war. One of the biggest hurdles to widespread Blu-ray acceptance is that DVD has gotten too damned good. Nearly everyone could appreciate the jump in quality from VHS to DVD (not to mention DVD’s convenience factors). But if DVD looked twice as good as VHS, then Blu-ray looks maybe 10 to 25 percent better than most DVDs spinning in an upconverting player. (The improvement is most pronounced on nature documentaries.)
For some of us that’s a compelling enough difference, and the number of titles coming out on Blu-ray also makes the format more attractive. Fox has just started rolling out the James Bond series on BD with six individual titles ($35 list). They can also be purchased a little more economically in two three-disc sets for $89.98.
These are the kinds of films that benefit hugely from hi-def. The first set has one Sean Connery entry (Dr. No), one Roger Moore (Live and Let Die), and one Pierce Brosnan (Die Another Day). The second set has two Connerys (From Russia with Love, Thunderball) and one Moore (For Your Eyes Only). Each set puts its three films in a slipcased “book” holder; I prefer the sturdier, more standardized cases on the individual releases.
Disney recently released WALL•E in five different configurations (one for Canada only) – one-, two-, and three-disc DVD versions, and two- and three-disc Blu-rays. Tracking the differences is so complicated that the press release included a four-page comparison chart. What’s curious is that the Blu-rays have way more features than their equivalent DVD packages and are barely more expensive. Frankly, all the Pixar films look dazzling in both formats, and this one is no exception.
Lovers of Westerns will be thrilled with the release of The Budd Boetticher Box Set (list $59.95, available for as little as $40, an incredible bargain), which gathers together five of the revered director’s seven Randolph Scott collaborations from the ’50s (The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, and Comanche Station), all on DVD for the first time. The extras include scholarly commentaries, the documentary A Man Can Do That, and introductions by Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, and Taylor Hackford.
It’s not clear where to draw the line between “box sets” and various multi-disc Special Editions. So we’ll stretch that line a bit to give a shout-out to Paramount’s newest Billy Wilder reissue – Sunset Boulevard: The Centennial Collection (list $24.99). Don’t get it confused with the earlier “Special Edition,” which had a questionable transfer; the new transfer is substantially improved. Plus there are a bunch of new extras, as well as repetition of most of the old disc’s supplements.
I usually don’t care at all about fancy packaging, but I’m tickled by Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition (list $69.99), which comes in a big metal lunchbox-like thing (presumably accounting for the $10 premium over the $60 list prices of earlier MST3K sets). Nestled within are fake lobby cards that show Crow and Tom Servo within the films they are mocking, as well as a nice little Crow figurine.
Four episodes are included – First Spaceship on Venus, Laserblast, Werewolf, and Future War – only the first of which features beloved early host Joel Hodgson rather than almost-as-beloved later host Mike Nelson. The four discs include some informative (and often funny) extras, including a 90-minute “oral history” of the show, spread out over three of the discs, and the 2008 Comic-Con MST3K Reunion Panel (40 minutes), moderated by Patton Oswalt and actually featuring both Hodgson and Nelson on the same stage. (There were rumors.)
If these selections don’t seem
appropriate for the video freak on your gift list, may I suggest checking out several other worthy sets I’ve reviewed separately this year, each just a Google search away. They include Lubitsch Musicals, The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration; and Touch of Evil: 50th Anniversary Edition.
In addition, it would be criminal to overlook I Got the Feelin’: James Brown in the ’60s, which my colleague Chris Morris justifiably praised a few months ago. Now get buying. Your economy needs you.
See complete coverage on Holiday Film Issue:
Published: 11/26/2008
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