The Criterion Collection

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

I liked John Ford's RIO GRANDE a bit better than Howard Hawks' RED RIVER, and both of them better than Hawks' RIO BRAVO (and EL DORADO and certainly RIO LOBO). RIO BRAVO is fun, but definitely overlong. The near-remake EL DORADO is just as good and improves on the pacing. RIO LOBO has its moments, but is disappointing both for Hawks and for Wayne.

I'd go along with this...I think. With me, the relative placement of Rio Grande and Red River depends on which one I've seen more recently (at the moment, that would be the Olive BD of Rio Grande).

RIO GRANDE is another great example of Wayne getting a character with more depth and less stereotype star persona, and I think it's the best of Ford's cavalry trilogy, with FORT APACHE a very close second.

Now that I don't agree with. I place them in the same order that they were made: Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande. If pressed, I might agree that Grande has a little more meat to it than Ribbon, but I still enjoy Ribbon more.

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I spent the entire evening watching Ingmar Bergman's Faith Trilogy. If he wasn't my favorite director prior to seeing the three films, he sure is now.

A few years back, a stage production of Through A Glass Darkly was playing down in NYC starring Carey Mulligan and Chris Sarandon, which was simply amazing. Carey Mulligan's performance was hands-down one of the best live performances I've ever seen given by anyone... whether it be a play or concert or whatever. I think it was going on around the same time that Steve McQueen was shooting his film Shame with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in NYC.

Here's the NY Times review of the production.

[Scottie]

Two of the October pre-orders are now live on Amazon.

The Complete Jacques Tati
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

The Vanishing
http://www.amazon.com/Vanishing-Blu-...787187&sr=1-42

[RojD]

Originally Posted by ijustblumyself

All this talk of westers has got me itching to get into the genre. What would the best three Criterion westerns be?
I've been considering Red River and Stagecoach.. Are they just plain fun, or is there a lot beneath the surface that you can dig into?

Out of all the other Westerns in the collection, Jubal, 3:10 to Yuma and Heaven's Gate interest me the most.

Stagecoach is an easy and worthwhile entry. And there's more to it than Ford's technique and John Wayne's debut, so it'll give you something to think about. I think Red River is brilliant: Hawks is good here, and Wayne and Clift pull off very complex characters who, in addition to their own baggage, also have to interact in a father/son relationship. It was a double martini movie for me; I needed to ratchet down the tension.

Delmer Daves was a discovery to me through Jubal and 3:10 to Yuma.....more psychological complexity, sorta like some contemporary melodramas. But if you're gonna limit yourself to only three Westerns as an intro, I'd add Heaven's Gate as the third. It's operatic in its reach, and it rewards several rewatches. But you should think about the Daves.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

A few years back, a stage production of Through A Glass Darkly was playing down in NYC starring Carey Mulligan and Chris Sarandon, which was simply amazing. Carey Mulligan's performance was hands-down one of the best live performances I've ever seen given by anyone... whether it be a play or concert or whatever. I think it was going on around the same time that Steve McQueen was shooting his film Shame with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in NYC.

Here's the NY Times review of the production.

Wow. I would have loved to see that.

I think Carey Mulligan is one of the best modern day actresses going. If her past film performances are any indication of her performance in this play, she must have murdered it.

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Wow. I would have loved to see that.

I think Carey Mulligan is one of the best modern day actresses going. If her past film performances are any indication of her performance in this play, she must have murdered it.

It was a beautiful performance and one that I'll certainly never forget. The range of emotions that she had to go through on stage was devastating to watch. I can't imagine how someone could do that day after day (sometimes twice a day), ya know?

[RojD]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I tried watching Upstream Color on Netflix a couple of months back, and it kept losing me. I finally gave up about a third of the way through it. But I suspect it's just because I was tired that night, or just not in the mood for it. All of the positive comments about it make me inclined to try it again when I'm more focused.

Try to stick this one out to the end. I liked the way a big chunk of it works in pure cinema until, at the end, it throws a bone to us closure-lovers. I found Under the Skin to be a little monotonous (yeah, that was the point....but not, perhaps, the best choice of the point for a film), but my attention never flagged for second in Upstream Color. It's already out in a good blu, so we won't see it on Criterion. But a lot of us Criterion fans would like it, I think.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I wish that Lonely Are the Brave, starring Kirk Douglas, would be released by Criterion. That's an incredible contemporary western of sorts along the lines of The Misfits.

Another "contemporary Western" that's worth hunting down is John Sturges's Bad Day at Black Rock. It's counter-intuitive because it's set post-WWII, but you'd be hard pressed to watch it and not conclude that it's as much a Western as any of the "pure" Western classics.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is underrated. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas are both golden in this movie, and it look beautiful on Blu-ray.

Shane deserves all of the praise that it has received over the decades. It's another Western that is close to perfect. Unfortunately, though, not on Blu-ray. Be a great addition to the Warner Archive Collection, if Warner doesn't want to do it under their main label.

(Criterion released it on laserdisc, back before Warner got its hands on the MGM catalog.)

Another Western I want to put in a good word for (and which Criterion had also released on laserdisc) is Silverado. It has its problems (eg. Rosanna Arquette was force-fit into the role of love interest, and then her part was scaled back to the point where you wonder why she's even in it in the first place) and doesn't have the meat that the best Westerns have. Still, it's got a great and diverse cast, and is just a hell of a lot of fun.

Blu-ray.com says that westerns are "strongly over-represented" in my collection. Common sense is strongly under-represented with that particular observation, though.

I had a discussion with a friend a long time back about what it means to be a "fan" of a genre. According to her, you can't consider yourself a fan of a genre unless you're happily willing to indulge in the worst examples the genre has to offer. After mulling that over, I realized that by that argument, the genre I would come closest to being a fan of is Westerns. I don't like all Westerns (I tend not to enjoy "Spaghetti Westerns" much, for example), but I'm more willing to watch bottom of the barrel Westerns than I am, say, bottom of the barrel SF films or bottom of the barrel crime films.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

It was a beautiful performance and one that I'll certainly never forget. The range of emotions that she had to go through on stage was devastating to watch. I can't imagine how someone could do that day after day (sometimes twice a day), ya know?

Definitely. It must have been emotionally draining for her, as well.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by ijustblumyself

All this talk of westers has got me itching to get into the genre. What would the best three Criterion westerns be?
I've been considering Red River and Stagecoach.. Are they just plain fun, or is there a lot beneath the surface that you can dig into?

Out of all the other Westerns in the collection, Jubal, 3:10 to Yuma and Heaven's Gate interest me the most.

Criterion doesn't actually have much in the way of Westerns (yet). My pick for best three would be Red River, Stagecoach, and Jubal, in that order.

I confess to never having seen Heaven's Gate. I'm not really a fan of the Cimino films I've seen. 3:10 to Yuma is solid (I've yet to see an Anthony Mann Western I haven't liked), but as heretical as it may seem, I actually prefer James Mangold's remake.

On edit: Ack! I wrote "Anthony Mann" instead of "Delmer Daves". Oh, well. The parenthetical comment applies equally to either director.

[smoss469]

I've seen so many rave reviews for John Cassavetes: Five Films that I'm taking a chance on it as a blind buy. The sale, plus a 15% off online code from a nice fellow poster brought the price down to about $55 shipped to my door.

Here's hoping it doesn't disappoint!

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by smoss469

I've seen so many rave reviews for John Cassavetes: Five Films that I'm taking a chance on it as a blind buy. The sale, plus a 15% off online code from a nice fellow poster brought the price down to about $55 shipped to my door.

Here's hoping it doesn't disappoint!

It's a fantastic set. All the films are great!

[CRSearle]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Shane deserves all of the praise that it has received over the decades. It's another Western that is close to perfect. Unfortunately, though, not on Blu-ray. Be a great addition to the Warner Archive Collection, if Warner doesn't want to do it under their main label.

Warner actually put Shane out last August.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Shane-Blu-ray/42624/

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by CRSearle

Warner actually put Shane out last August.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Shane-Blu-ray/42624/

Yep, and it looks amazing.

[Polaroid]

Boyhood is such a flawed film, great concept and idea but let down by so many things...

...not fussed if this went in collection, for me would be a waste as other films are more deserving!

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

Well, I finally pulled the trigger as the 15% off code I had was about to expire soon. Instead of ordering one giant box set as I planned, I went with the Three Colors Trilogy (blind buy) and two classic Eurocrime films from RARO. The Demy set will have to wait until the next sale.

[Show spoiler]

BN will probably have another coupon next Thursday. Get the Demy set! Do it!

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

I am going to start Thai genre with Heavens Gate personally, seems more my taste,

There was a Thai version of Heaven's Gate?

(And I can guarantee, if you're going to teach some new kid about "What's this whole Western thing, anyway, isn't it just a lotta Lone Ranger crap?" Heaven's Gate is NOT the first pick to do it with.
That's like using One From the Heart to teach a kid about musicals, instead of Singin' in the Rain. We repeat, there's a reason why Unforgiven is on the AFI 100, and Cimino isn't.)

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by jayembee

It was mentioned in the press sheet for the October announcements posted by pro-bassoonist here

It's at the beginning of the quoted press sheet.

That's pretty much a bunch of sh!t since there won't be any way to get the plastic case other than re-buying the film or paying an overpriced amount for a case from Criterion directly at some point. While the digipacks are nice and all, I would rather have had the plastic cases since they take up less shelf space.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Another "contemporary Western" that's worth hunting down is John Sturges's Bad Day at Black Rock. It's counter-intuitive because it's set post-WWII, but you'd be hard pressed to watch it and not conclude that it's as much a Western as any of the "pure" Western classics.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is underrated. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas are both golden in this movie, and it look beautiful on Blu-ray.

Shane deserves all of the praise that it has received over the decades. It's another Western that is close to perfect. Unfortunately, though, not on Blu-ray. Be a great addition to the Warner Archive Collection, if Warner doesn't want to do it under their main label.

Originally Posted by CRSearle

Warner actually put Shane out last August.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Shane-Blu-ray/42624/

That was a bit of bad editing on my part. The bolded part above was actually from the post by The Great Owl that I was quoting. Sorry.

The "Unfortunately, though, not on Blu-ray. Be a great addition to the Warner Archive Collection, if Warner doesn't want to do it under their main label." was intended to refer to Bad Day at Black Rock.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by EricJ

There was a Thai version of Heaven's Gate?

(And I can guarantee, if you're going to teach some new kid about "What's this whole Western thing, anyway, isn't it just a lotta Lone Ranger crap?" Heaven's Gate is NOT the first pick to do it with.
That's like using One From the Heart to teach a kid about musicals, instead of Singin' in the Rain. We repeat, there's a reason why Unforgiven is on the AFI 100, and Cimino isn't.)

I gotta admit a "thai western" sounds really intriguing.