3 Penny Opera

Criterion
directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst
starring Rudolf Forster, Carola Neher, Reinhold Schünzel, Fritz Rasp & Valeska Gert

G.W. Pabst’s adaptation of the classic Brecht/Weill musical-cum-opera was made in 1931, and his original German version preserves the grunginess and low-brow humor of the original; in a coup, Criterion has also included the French version Pabst made on the same sets with different actors: that version is less dirty, more elegant, so to speak, and so provides a fascinating counterpoint. Both versions have been cleaned up to Criterion standards.

Extras: new documentary about the film and the Brecht/Weill original; archival footage and interviews; commentary; presentation on differences between the German and French versions.

Babel - Special Edition

Paramount
directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam & Rinko Kikuchi

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s pretentious parable for our confused modern times is skillfully-shot and acted (especially by Rinko Kikuchi as the Japanese teenager, who received a justly-earned Oscar nomination), but the film strains to build a coherent or logical theme aside from “We have to learn to understand each other.” Like Iñárritu’s “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams,” it’s Guillermo Arriaga’s script that’s a bit of a miscalculation.

Extras: two-disc special edition contains a full-length (86 minutes) documentary shot on location during filming, “Common Ground: Under Construction Notes.”

Cruising

Warner Bros
directed by William Friedkin
starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen, Richard Cox & Don Scardino

William Friedkin’s fiasco has been rescued by DVD–the director himself returned to his 1980 serial-killer movie with a twist (cop Al Pacino goes undercover into Village leather bars to flush him out, so to speak), tightening and fixing it to spruce it up. Even so, the movie remains risible, but it has an undeniable time-capsule quality of the naïve pre-AIDS era. And Friedkin’s directing and Pacino’s acting are as intense as ever, even on this misbegotten adventure.

Extras: Friedkin commentary; two behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Cujo – 25th Anniversary Edition

LionsGate
directed by Lewis Teague
starring Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro & Daniel Hugh Kelly

Lewis Teague’s effective—if rather erratic and superficial—thriller is based on Stephen King’s bottom-of-the-barrel novel about a rabid, murderous dog. Since the actual attack sequences starring the canine are so briskly and excitingly done, it only underlines how uninvolving and cliché-ridden the remainder of the film is. Still, “Cujo” has its adherents, and there are a few real scares–especially if you’re a dog lover–so this will be of interest to horror-movie aficionados.

Extras: Teague commentary; “Dog Days,” a full-length retrospective documentary.

3:10 to Yuma

Sony
directed by Delmer Daves
starring Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr & Leora Dana

Compared to the loud, overblown 2007 remake, the original 1957 western is a model of subtlety. The bad guy played by Glenn Ford and the good guy played by Van Heflin are much simpler folk, which suits this modest showdown between the men. Of course, today, Hollywood wants things Bigger and Bigger, so the new version with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale has countless explosions, gunfights (with, miraculously, hardly anyone getting shot), and ludicrous subplots (the shortcut through the injun’ area is particularly foolish), along with a different ending that makes mincemeat of the previous two hours. The original’s director Delmer Daves has it all over the remake’s director, mediocre James Mangold, for style, technique and sheer inventiveness. As always, less is more.

Extras: teaser trailer for remake.

The Graduate

MGM
directed by Mike Nichols
starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, Murray Hamilton, William Daniels & Buck Henry

For its 40th anniversary, MGM has finally given Mike Nichols’ 1967 classic generation-gap comedy the DVD release it deserves, beginning with a new anamorphic transfer. “The Graduate” remains that rare specimen of American cinema: an adult comedy unafraid to explode taboos and expose hypocrisies in our society. Blessed with seminal performances from Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, Murray Hamilton, William Daniels and Buck Henry, “The Graduate” would be memorable even if it were merely funny; that Nichols turned it into an instant classic (the Simon and Garfunkel songs–tough but bittersweet–are another stroke of genius) makes it enduring and essential.

Extras: commentary by Nichols and Steven Soderbergh; commentary by Hoffman and Bancroft; interview with Hoffman; CD with four Simon and Garfunkel songs.

The Jungle Book

Buena Vista
directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
starring Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders & Bruce Reitherman

Disney’s classic 1967 animated film receives a 40th anniversary release as a two-disc set loaded with special features. Based on the Rudyard Kipling tales, “The Jungle Book” is one of the most visually dazzling of all the classic Disney animated films–before they went digital and Pixar-ed everything–and even if it doesn’t hit people with the same sentimental, emotional attachment as a “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White” or “Dumbo,” it’s a wonderful achievement in its own right.

Extras: new music video; deleted songs; making-of featurette; various games for the kiddies.

The Last Cigarette

New Yorker
directed by Kevin Rafferty, François Keraudren

Kevin Rafferty–who made the classic documentary about the absurdity of the arms race, 1982's “The Atomic Cafe”–made another doc about the absurdity of the cigarette industry in 1987. It’s still effective in its humorous–but shocked–look at how pervasive tobacco has been in this country, how it was made “respectable” by Hollywood, and how both the tobacco lobby and the anti-tobacco faction have used spurious arguments to make their points. Brilliantly interweaving film clips, commercials, even bits of impassioned discussion, Rafferty plumbs the depths of a subject that’s still part of our ongoing debate.

Extras: none.

Martha Graham – Dance on Film

Criterion
directed by Robert Cohan
starring Martha Graham

The seminal dancer and choreographer was also a pioneer in committing dance to film, and this two-disc release brings together two of her acclaimed full-length ballets–of Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and of “Night Journey”–along with a full-length PBS documentary about her life and work, “Martha Graham: A Dancer Revealed,” and various other materials that give a good–if necessarily incomplete–overview of one of the most important American ambassadors for dance in the 20th century.

Extras: interviews, archival footage, documentary excerpt with Copland.

Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland Collection

Warner Bros
directed by Mickey Rooney
starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney

Another superb Warner Bros. boxed set, this five-disc compilation brings together the films that starred a young Mickey Rooney and a slightly older Judy Garland in their salad days: “Babes in Arms,” “Strike Up the Band,” “Babes on Broadway” and “Girl Crazy.”

Extras: Mickey Rooney introductions; commentaries; radio shows; vintage shorts and cartoons; bonus disc with Mickey Rooney special and Judy Garland Songbook; portfolio with rare photos, promotional materials.

Saturday Night Fever

Paramount
directed by John Badham
starring John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller and Joseph Cali

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Paramount has upgraded its earlier anniversary release of the movie that made John Travolta a star (and a first-time Best Actor Oscar nominee) and turned the Bee Gees into mega-superstars by adding a few more bells and whistles to the DVD package. John Badham’s movie remains–for better or worse–a grubby character study of some extremely unlikable characters, but it always perks up on the dance floor, where both Travolta and the brothers Gibb shine brightest.

Extras: Badham commentary; retrospective featurettes.

Wall Street

Fox
directed by Oliver Stone
starring Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah

Oliver Stone’s exploration of corporate greed in Reagan’s America may have seemed far-fetched back in 1987 (even though the stock market tanked that fall), but now it seems positively quaint. Michael Douglas won the Oscar as Gordon Gekko, the greediest but most compelling and charismatic of the late-80s robber barons, for his convincing display of hubris. Surprisingly sappy–even for the often sentimental Stone–“Wall Street” nevertheless coasts by on Douglas’s charm and its microscopic view of a side of America rarely seen.

Extras: Two-disc 20th anniversary edition includes commentary by Stone, introduction by Stone, deleted scenes with optional commentary; making-of featurette; new “Greed Is Good” documentary.


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