Dream Special Editions

by Slarek [7 March 2004]


Recently Warner announced a 2-disk special edition of Akira Kurosawa's magnificent adaptation of King Lear, Ran (roughly translates as a state of chaos during war time), which relocated the play to feudal Japan and gave it a sweep and epic scale that no previous film adaptation had even come close to realising. It will have only one extra, but a significant one.

Making-of documentaries are a common extra on DVDs, but all to often consist solely of the EPK, the electronic press kit passed on to those interested in writing about or even showing the film on its initial release. These are usually about ten minutes in length and consist brief footage of the film-makers at work, often on just one scene, intercut with the lead actors telling you about their role in somewhat predictable fashion ("Dave's the kind of guy who..." and "I approached this role..."), the director, producer and even writer giving you a brief outline of the story, their approach to it and what attracted them to the project, and everyone saying how great it is to work with each other. Some retrospective documentaries have a bit more depth, and now and then one comes along that breaks through the mutual backslapping and gets to the grit of things, the one included on the Salvador special edition DVD being a personal favourite.

But there are a few films, usually by internationally renowned directors, whose production has been documented in more considerable detail, the resulting documentary work sometimes becoming as acclaimed as the main feature. Such is the case with Ran, the making on which was followed by the remarkable Chris Marker (whose legendary short La Jetée was famously remade by Terry Gilliam as 12 Monkeys) - the result was A.K., a typically individualistic but always fascinating meditation on the film-making process, and a valuable record of a true master at work. This is no mere extra - Warner's release is effectively a two-film set, and if the technical specifications are up to scratch, is to be loudly applauded. But its announcement has prompted more than just a few enthusiastic smiles here at Outsider - we decided to list a small number of similarly packaged special editions that we'd love to see released.


Apocalypse Now - The Definitive Box Set

The original cut of Apocalypse Now is now a deleted title, eclipsed by Francis Coppola's recent recut of the film, Apocalypse Now Redux. Redux has a fine transfer, very good 5.1 sound, but for my money the extra scenes, though fascinating in themselves, sometimes distill the narrative purity of a very great original. So this new box set should include both the original cut and Redux, both with new transfers and DTS sound remixes and a commentary from Coppola on Redux. A second one with cast and crew would be nice, too. A third disk would contain all of the extras from the French 2-disk release (all subtitled) and any other appropriate materials that must be sitting in Zeotrope's vaults. On the final disk should be Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola and George Hickenlooper's extraordinary documentary on the making and near self destruction of the film, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, which absolutely every fan of Coppola's masterpiece should own.


Fitzcarraldo - 2 Disk Special Edition

Anchor Bay have already done a decent job of Werner Herzog's majestic study of one man's obsessive pursuit of a seemingly insane dream: to bring grand opera to the Amazon and in the process drag a huge boat over a mountain - it's a very reasonable print, and Herzog's commentary is a good one. But take a leaf from Warner's book and re-release the disk, but this time with Les Blank's superb documentary on its making, Burden of Dreams on the second disk. Here is a film whose making was itself a story of epic madness - Herzog may well be the only filmmaker alive who in order to show a create the image of a huge boat being dragged over a mountain would actually drag a huge boat over a mountain. An absolute must, even if you've never seen Herzog's work (and you should). While they're at it, Anchor Bay could add Blank's earlier short, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, in which Herzog keeps an absurb bet he made with Thin Blue Line director Errol Morris.


Short Cuts - 2 Disk Special Edition

Robert Altman's extraordinary 3-hour plus adaptation of various interconnected stories by Raymond Carver is still waiting any sort of DVD release (why??), so whoever has the rights, why not go the extra mile and buy up John Dorr and Mike E. Kaplan's hugely enjoyable and informative documentary on the making of the film, Luck, Trust and Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country? An Altman commentary would also be nice, though not essential - he doesn't talk much on The Player, but when he does it's worth listening to. With such an almighty cast, it surely would be worth assembling a few of them for a cast commentary, too. Oh, and make sure there's a 5.1 soundtrack for that final earthquake.
The Dream Comes True (14 Nov 2004): Astonishingly, this special edition has not only come true, but been surpassed by the ever-wonderful Criterion, who have delievered all that we wanted here except for the commentary, but there are a lot of extras to make up for that. A new transfer, a 5.1 soundtrack and an isolated music track make up disk one, and disk two sports the following extras: Luck Trust and Ketchup; a new videotaped coversation between Robert Altman and Tim Robbins; To Write and Keep Kind, a PBS documentary on the life of Raymond Carver; asegment from BBC television’s Moving Pictures tracing the development of the screenplay; a one-hour 1983 audio interview with Carver, conducted for the American Audio Prose Library; original demo recordings of the Doc Pomus–Mac Rebennack songs, performed by Dr. John; deleted scenes; inside the marketing of Short Cuts; Short Cuts, the companion book of Raymond Carver short stories, reprinted exclusively for this release by arrangement with Vintage Books; An essay by film critic Michael Wilmington.

 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 4 disk special edition

OK, I've put this one in for Camus, never having been a huge fan of the film myself, but do feel his complaint is a reasonable one - as with Apocalypse Now Redux, Spielberg's recut/new scenes Special Edition became the standard edition and the only one available on almost every format, then in 1997 Spielberg re-edited the film again in what has been dubbed a 'final' version, finally burying the orginal we all saw on its first run at the cinema. But despite Spielberg's own obvious dissatisfaction with the original cut, for us it remains the better one, without the over-stylised new scenes and cranked-up sentiment. So a box set with the original cut, the Special Edition cut and the 'final' cut would be ideal, plus the feature-length documentary and deleted scenes included on the present release. I, for one, could pass on a Spielberg commentary, but make the box big enough and you can include a copy of Bob Balaban's excellent Close Encounters ofthe Third Kind Diary, a hugely entertaining and informative document on the film's production, told by one of the insiders.


So there you have it. Distributors take note - stuff like this would surely sell, and documentaries rarely cost as much to buy as the features, so it'll be worth your while. I, in the meantime, will just sit here and dream. If you have any other suggestions to add to this list, send them in and I'll consider them for inclusion. Who knows, maybe one or two will even come true...