Next week, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment launches a pair of seaworthy celluloid titles, filmed nearly 40 years apart but set in roughly the same eras. They’re our …
DVD picks of the week
The big screen remains the best venue for Peter Weir’s 2003 epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, but Fox’s widescreen edition adroitly adapts to home-theater viewing as well. (The title is also available in a full-screen version, $29.98 each.)
As he did in “Gladiator,” Russell Crowe projects a larger-than-life quality rare among contemporary thespians as Capt. “Lucky” Jack Aubrey, who’s determined to destroy a superior French warship sailing in South American waters in 1805.
Combining elements from several of author Patrick O’Brian’s popular nautical novels, Mr. Weir and co-screenwriter John Collee ably capture the claustrophobia, hardships and heroism of those who dwell within the vessel’s “wooden world.”
Minor characters suffer a mite, but the filmmakers succeed in delineating the deep bond between Captain Aubrey and his best shipboard bud, Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), while the loud, bloody naval engagements emerge as both tense and stirring.
Those looking for DVD extras will have to splash out for the title’s pricier double-disc special edition ($39.98), but the rewards are ample, particularly the documentaries “The Hundred Days,” a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the elaborate production, and “In the Wake of O’Brian,” devoted to auteur Weir’s prodigious research for the project.
In our second pick, Alexander Mackendrick’s 1965 fable A High Wind in Jamaica, children bound for England in the mid-19th century find themselves inadvertently trapped aboard a pirate ship run by Chavez (Anthony Quinn) and Zac (James Coburn). Both tykes and privateers try to make the best of the awkward situation, with surprising — and ultimately harsh — results.
“A High Wind in Jamaica” is a wonderfully textured journey, superbly acted by Mr. Quinn, Mr. Coburn and Deborah Baxter as the oldest (roughly 12) of the children, that does justice to Richard Hughes’ morally complex source novel. Though free of extras, the disc offers both full-screen and wide-screen options.
For a maritime movie marathon, Fox also introduces 1961’s The Pirates of Tortuga. It’s not in the same league as its digital companions but is a fun, old-school, Saturday-matinee swashbuckler in its own right and tagged, like “A High Wind,” at $14.95.
Collectors’ corner
MGM Home Entertainment packs much mirth into its handsomely designed six-DVD The Pink Panther Film Collection ($69.95). The set assembles five Blake Edwards comedies starring Peter Sellers as bumbling French detective Inspector Clouseau and adds a sixth disc:
• The Pink Panther, 1964, the first Sellers “Panther” film, with an audio commentary by Mr. Edwards.
• A Shot in the Dark, also from 1964 and arguably the series’ funniest entry.
• The Pink Panther Strikes Again, 1976, with Herbert Lom as the insane chief-inspector-turned-villain.
• Revenge of the Pink Panther, 1978, featuring Dyan Cannon as Simone Legree.
• Trail of the Pink Panther, 1982, an awkward affair, with Sellers appearing posthumously.
• The Pink Panther Story, a sixth disc containing a behind-the-scenes documentary and six original “Pink Panther” cartoons.
Sellers aficionados, take note: Return of the Pink Panther (1975) is not part of the package, but it has been available since 2001 from Artisan Entertainment ($9.98 DVD).
More for collectors
Warner Home Video counters the “Panther” line with the decidedly lower-brow but undeniably popular Police Academy: The Complete Collection ($59.98). The seven-disc set collects the entire septet: Police Academy: 20th Anniversary Special Edition through the (thus far) final entry, 1994’s Police Academy: Mission to Moscow.
Columbia/TriStar, meanwhile, takes an unusual tack with its new three-disc special edition of the Jodie Foster vehicle Panic Room ($39.95). Disc 1 offers the film with three separate filmmaker and cast commentary tracks, while the second and third discs take viewers through every phase of the production process.
Video verite
In semidocumentary developments, falling somewhere between fact and fiction, are “found footage” maven Peter Delpeut’s The Forbidden Quest, which employs a fictional wraparound to showcase actual vintage footage of early Arctic expeditions, and his surreal Lyrical Nitrate, a feature-length montage of deteriorating silent-film clips discovered in an Amsterdam movie theater. Zeitgeist Video (zeitgeistvideo.com) packages both eerily hypnotic works in a new single DVD ($29.98).
The ’A’ list
Two disparate films with an Asian flavor debut this week: Quentin Tarantino’s martial-arts homage Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Miramax Home Entertainment, $29.99) and the acclaimed anime feature Tokyo Godfathers (Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment, $26.95), both with behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Phan mail
Dear Phantom: Now that old television series are the DVD boxed-set rage, are there plans for releasing some of my favorites: “The Waltons,” “The Wild, Wild West,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Hill Street Blues”?
— John Hambel, via e-mail
No plans have been announced as yet for the latter three series, but The Waltons: The Complete First Season ($49.95) will be released May 11.
Send your video comments and queries to Phantom of the Movies, The Washington Times, 3600 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002 or e-mail us at: phanmedia@aol.com. Check out our Web site at www.videoscopemag.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.