Tuesday, August 21, 2007

New Kubrick collection sounds pretty damn good



From Amazon, This is the first of Warner Home Video's new Director Series DVD sets. Included are brand new versions of:

2001: A Space Odyssey - Special Edition (2-disc)

A Clockwork Orange: Special Edition (2-disc)

Eyes Wide Shut: Special Edition (2-disc)

Full Metal Jacket: Deluxe Edition

The Shining: Special Edition (2-disc)

All titles have been restored and remastered and will offer both archive and new bonus features. The documentary "Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures" will also be included in this set. Apparently missing from this set, but also being released in new versions individually on October 23, are Lolita and Barry Lyndon. Eyes Wide Shut will include both the rated and unrated versions. No new release of Dr. Strangelove is planned, nor will it be included in this set either. All titles contained in the boxed set with the exception of "Full Metal Jacket" will be available separately, including the documentary.

All of the included films will have commentary, although "Eyes Wide Shut" will have only scene-specific commentary. The following are the extras included for each film:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - A film full of technical details about space travel before we'd even been to the moon coupled with much to think about in the realm of what it means to be human. Disc 2 will have the following extra features:

Channel 4 documentary: 2001: The Making of a Myth
Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001
Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001
2001: A Space Odyssey - A Look Behind the Future
2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork
Look: Stanley Kubrick!
Audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Difficult to sit through, Malcolm McDowell gets the role of a lifetime as a sociopathic youth in futuristic society who agrees to go through "aversion therapy" in order to be cured. His character is simultaneously repulsive, interesting, and sympathetic. It's hard to believe what you're watching, it's harder to believe what you're thinking about what you're watching. Disc two will have the following features:
Channel 4 documentary: Still Tickin': The Return of Clockwork Orange
New featurette: Making A Clockwork Orange
Career profile: O Lucky Malcolm!
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Shining (1980) - A psychological thriller has a family acting as caretakers for an old hotel that is totally isolated in the winter. Jack Nicholson's character is fighting his own demons before cabin fever ever sets in and the hotel begins to "speak" to him. Is he really possessed or is the hotel just bringing out what was really in him all along? Disc two includes the following features:
Documentary: "The Making of the Shining"
Three new featurettes: "View from The Overlook: Crafting the Shining",
"The Visions of Stanley Kubrick", and "Wendy Carlos, Composer"
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Full Metal Jacket (1987) - The film seems to be in two distinct parts, but actually one half is just a reflection of the other under different circumstances. The film is all about how humans handle duress - during wartime where life and death is at stake, and during training where extreme beratement and social isolation can cause people to snap too, even though they are physically "safe". This DVD will not be available separately. The extra features included are a new featurette and a theatrical trailer.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Disc two will have the following features:
Documentary: The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut
Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick
Kubrick's 1998 D.W Griffith Award acceptance speech
Interview gallery with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

All of the information I show on the extra features came from a press release from Warner Home Video, and they do look fabulous. The one thing I dislike is the fact that Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick's finest film IMHO, gets the boot in this set.

1 comment:

Octopunk said...

Good stuff. I like that there's no description for Eyes Wide Shut. It would go like this: Tom Cruise gets to go on a Tom Cruise Fantasy Camp trip in which every woman in the world wants to do him. See also Leelee Sobieski in her underwear and a big circle of hot chicks in masks.

I've only seen Full Metal Jacket once. I'm a little leery of seeing it again because the Chainsaw movies have made me afraid of R. Lee Emery.

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