Movies You May Have Missed: 11/8/08
There hasn’t been a lot of exciting activity in the Movies You May Have Missed DVD department the last couple of weeks. Eagle-eyed readers will note I skipped the column entirely last Saturday. Transsiberian anyone? No? I didn’t think so.
This week brings Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a good movie but it doesn’t quite meet the under-the-radar qualifications of this column. Of course that doesn’t preclude me from blatantly pointing you to my LiC review here.
Though there isn’t much happening with new movies, last Tuesday brought some exciting news for fans of movie history with the release of a 5-disc collection of Budd Boetticher’s late ’50s westerns starring Randolph Scott. Filmmakers like Martin Scorsese speak of the influence that Boetticher’s stark, low-budget films had on them, but until now so many of the best ones were unavailable on DVD.
The Budd Boetticher Box Set includes The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station. While Sony didn’t pull out all the stops for this release, there are a few extras and just having these movies on DVD is a bonus in and of itself.
The Tall T is introduced by Scorsese, features a commentary track by film professor Jeanine Basinger and includes the TCM documentary on Boetticher called A Man Can Do That. Mr. Scorsese also introduces Ride Lonesome, which has a commentary track by film historian Jeremy Arnold. Comanche Station is introduced by Clint Eastwood and features a commentary track by director Taylor Hackford. Hackford meanwhile provides introductions for Buchanan Rides Alone and Decision at Sundown. All 5 films include the original trailers.
Filed under: DVD
Tags: A Man Can Do That, Buchanan Rides Alone, Budd Boetticher, Clint Eastwood, Comanche Station, Decision at Sundown, Jeanine Basinger, Jeremy Arnold, Martin Scorsese, Ride Lonesome, Taylor Hackford, The Budd Boetticher Box Set, The Tall T
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I love Budd Boetticher.
Fortunately, I already have all of those films of his on DVD from Turner Classic Movies. :-)
Huh. See, here’s another apparent great master that my provincial self has never even heard of. I have so much to learn. My world (and my Netflix queue) just expanded, yet again.
I really should review Hellboy II: The Golden Army one of these days….lol.
THE BUDD BOETTICHER SET is essential. Nice call there Craig!
And yes I did notice that MOVIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED was M.I.A. last week, and was preparing to notify the film authories of this heinous oversight, that cinematic masterwork TRANSSIBERIAN notwithstanding. (LOL, I hated that film!)
But there’s far more than Budd this week, and last night at Kim’s while in Manhattan seeing THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS, I bought the following items, all streeting on Tuesday and all essentail, methinks.
CAMP DE THIAROYE (Ouseme Sembene) I reviewed this film for my e mail network last year after seeing this marvelous print at the Film Forum, and suffice to say that this masterpiece by the greatest African director of all-time rivals his MOOLAADE and XALA. It’s an epic vision of socila unrest and injustice and the ending is overpowering. It’s released on New Yorker. It’s truly essential for all serious cinephiles.
QUO VADIS (Mervyn Le Roy) This is no masterwork, but for all sorts of reasons it still must be in everyone’s collection. Ancient Rome dazzingly envisioned, and Robert Taylor, Deborahh Kerr and Peter Ustinov on display. It’s a lot of fun, and this is a two-disc set. The transfer is gorgeous.
THE BOYS IN THE BAND (Friedkin) Flawed but still an engrossing film, which which one of teh first gay-themed stage plays/films that attracted much attention. Until now not available on DVD. Adapted from the famed off-Broadway play, and about some self-loathing characters. A guilty pleasure, but probably even better than that.
ROD SERLING’S NIGHT GALLERY VOLUME 2 The big question here is: “Why did Universal take their sweet time releasing this?” It’s been FOUR YEARS since Volume 1 came out. But they are notorious for dragging their feet as they have done the same with ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, and have complete ignored BORIS KARLOFF’S THRILLER to this point. The last slight is criminal.
Anyway, season 2 of NIGHT GALLERY is to die for, and, despite the fact that season 1 had that classic pilot with Joan Crawford and Steven Spielberg, the second season has some truly fantastic episodes like THE CATERPILLAR, A FEAR OF SPIDERS, A QUESTION OF FEAR, PICKMAN’S MODEL and COOL AIR(both H. P. Lovecraft), CAMERA OBSCURA (my personal favorite of them all!!!) THE MESSIAH ON MOTT STREET (E.G. Robinson) GREEN FINGERS, and the episode that many consider the very top, THE SINS OF THE FATHERS!!!
Jeff McMahon, where are you?? YOU MUST HAVE THIS SET ASAP!!!!!!!!
and finally, the wonderful animated film KUNG FU PANDA streets this week. Lucille bought it last night as well.
You know what? This was a FANTASTIC week for DVDs.
Don’t feel bad JB. He’s one of those guys who worked in low budget movies so he was overlooked by the establishment until later directors and critics came along and elevated him. Even so, his stuff was not easy to come by, even if you were looking for it.
A fantastic week for catalogue titles for sure Sam, but not so great for the stuff I like to focus on in this column.
Thanks for the tip on Camp de Thiaroye, I’ll keep an eye out for it. You’re my go-to guy for DVD releases.