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This, as you can probably tell by now, is the most random Classic Corner ever. I usually try to do these in themes but I decided to throw that idea out the window. All I want to do with this section is make people realize how wonderful classic film is. It doesn't matter what genre the film falls in, classics are classics and are movies that anybody can enjoy. And as you can see by the eclectic mix above, I enjoy a lot! So lets get started!
First up is a title that came out over the summer of 2007 and is a sure thing for my year-end Best of DVD list. The Sergio Leone Anthology collects classic spaghetti westerns of director Sergio Leone on one set; and what a set it is. You get eight discs total, two discs for each movie. The first disc of each film contains the film with extensive commentary tracks, and the second disc of each film contains tons of extras to enjoy.
Disc 1 and 2 belong to Fistful of Dollars, the film that started the careers of both Leone and his main actor, Clint Eastwood. Fistful of Dollars is an Italian remake of the Japanese film, Yojimbo, by director Akira Kurosawa. The film tells the story of a loner who stumbles into a town that is being fought over by two violent families. The loner, who supposedly has no name even though everybody calls him Joe, decides to play both families in an attempt to get rich. Fistful is a classic western. It has great dialogue, great cinematography and is pure enjoyment. Eastwood plays the strong silent type to perfection. And Leone gives viewers a glimpse of what's to come in the series.
Disc 3 and 4 pick up the story of the Man with No Name, this time called Manco, in my personal favorite, For a Few Dollars More. This time Eastwood's character is a bounty-killer in search of the villainous Indio. Only he's not the only bounty-killer looking for Indio. Lee Van Cleef plays Col. Douglas Mortimer, a mysterious man with a score to settle. For a Few Dollars More ups the ante set by Fistful. Everything is made grander by ten times. The film also sets the scale for the grandest of them all.
In The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (GB&U), The Man with No Name returns on Disc 5 and 6, with the name Blondie this time, in the greatest western epic ever. Eastwood's character is a fortune seeker in search of buried Confederate treasure. He's joined in his search again by Van Cleef, and by newcomer Eli Wallach. When I say this movie is epic, I mean it is epic. It is a perfect movie in every sense of the word. It belongs in the category of movies like Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Psycho and even Star Wars as perfect movies in their genres. GB&U is a flawless movie. The direction is superb, the acting is tops and the cinematography is some of the most gorgeous footage on film. GB&U is truly Leone's masterpiece and perfectly completed his Dollars Trilogy.
Finally, disc 7 and 8 belong to a very obscure title. Duck, You Sucker was release in the U.S. as Fistful of Dynamite to capitalize on the success of the Dollars Trilogy. The film is nothing like those films. Duck, You Sucker takes place during the Mexican Revolution. It stars James Coburn as a displaced Irish revolutionary out to help with the Mexican's cause, and Rod Steiger as a Mexican bandit out to help himself become rich. This is a wonderful film that really needs to be seen, and MGM gives us the works treatment. The print of the film has been remastered and recut to how it was originally intended. Both Coburn and Steiger are wonderful in their parts, with Steiger taking center stage as the hot-tempered bandit who gets suckered into helping with the Revolution.
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It's a brilliant film that finally gets a treatment it so richly deserves.
Overall, this set is the best DVD set of the year in this writer's opinion. It also may top the list on my Top 10 DVD releases of 2007. It puts on display the genius of Sergio Leone and his actors. Leone made a star of Eastwood, and Eastwood so appreciated what he learned from Leone that he dedicated the film Unforgiven to Leone (also to director Don Siegel). Now hopefully more people will catch on and check out Leone's very small list of films (Leone only had seven directing credits, plus a couple non-credited ones).
On the complete flip side of the film genres, we have Walt Disney's masterpiece, The Jungle Book. My brother loves this movie so much that when he got married, he and his wife had a picture slideshow at the reception, and my brother had his pictures put on screen with the background music being the song "The Bearnessecities" from this movie. That is the impact this movie had on my brother and I as kids. We would watch it over and over again. It was definitely top on the list of videos we had as kids. Now that I'm older, it's still a ton of fun, but there's more to it.
The Jungle Book was the last movie Walt Disney worked on first-hand. It's an adaptation of the classics book by Rudyard Kipling. It tells the story of Mowgli, a boy that is found in the jungle by a pack of wolves. The wolves raise him as their own cub until situations force the man-cub back to the land of men. Mowgli, along with Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear, journeys to his new home in the Man-village. Along the way they avoid traps from the likes of King Louie, an orangutan, Kaa, a python, and the devious Shere Kahn the Tiger. Shere Kahn is the reason Mowgli must go the man village because the Tiger has vowed to kill Mowgli.
It all sounds very scary, but it really is far from it. There are some scary parts but this is a Disney cartoon after all, so it can't be too scary. The Jungle Book is filled with wonderful songs that stay with you long after you have watched it. Disney mainstay Phil Harris provides the voice of Baloo and helps to create one of the most memorable characters in Disney history. So much so that a lot of us will remember the afternoon cartoon show "Tailspin" which focused on Baloo and feature many other Jungle Book characters.
The thing that I love about this DVD is how beautiful the animation looks. If you don't have any of the Disney Platinum Series DVDs I encourage you to get some. The films are painstakingly remastered to picture-perfect quality. The Jungle Book looks brilliant in this DVD transfer and will also make my top 10 DVD's of 2007. The special features are also very neat including a documentary on Walt Disney bringing Kipling's classic to life, and a featurette called, "Meet the Lost Character: Rocky Rhino."
The Jungle Book is a fun release no matter what your age. For us adults, it floods our minds with memories of watching with Grandma, Mom and my siblings (those are my memories). For new viewers, it will grab on to you from the first chime of the now classic music and will not let go even after the final credits. Check out this Disney Platinum release, you won't be disappointed.
That's it for this edition of The Classic Corner. Coming soon I'll have a review of Criterion's newest Akira Kurosawa release, Drunken Angel. Until then, enjoy the classics!
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