Coming Soon – The Great Escape, Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits and The War of the Worlds
Article Series by Ray Schillaci
The Criterion Collection is a film enthusiasts dream, providing unique titles usually with the utmost care in their presentation and special features. Criterion purchases non-exclusive rights to distribute films that they consider significant and/or important. I may not always agree with the choice of what Criterion chooses to add to their pristine reputation (i.e. the notorious films of John Waters – Female Trouble, Multiple Maniacs), but I do appreciate the diversity of their titles from little foreign gems like the comedy/drama The Executioner to silent classics as The Passion of Joan of Arc, and great film noir titles Ace in the Hole, The Asphalt Jungle and Kiss Me Deadly.
Popular entertainment is also included in the Collection with The Princess Bride, Michael Bay’s The Rock and a rockin’ collection of Godzilla movies. For the most part, when you purchase a Criterion title it ends up being a far better version than the original studio release. But, there are exceptions now and then.
At first printing, Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill appeared vertically stretched. Criterion corrected this in their second printing and offered to replace the copies. But, their original DVD box set of Terry Gilliam’s director’s cut of Brazil was horrible with black bars not only at the top and bottom, but also on the sides. What a horrible idea for a film of such scope. This was corrected much later, leaving collectors to double dip. Other than the occasional glitch here and there, purchasing a beloved movie from the company is a great addition to anyone’s film library.
This leads me to the title of this article which refers to what I would see flashing on the big screen or announced back in the ’60s, ’70s and even ’80s, and for some reason it was even more exciting hearing it boom from a drive-in movie speaker. Movies that we could not wait to be released. For me, it was the latest monster movie, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Equinox, action/adventures, 007 in Thunderball, The Dirty Dozen or comedies like Blazing Saddles, Start the Revolution Without Me and Animal House. The soon-to-be released film that we had to see was announced with two exciting words, COMING SOON!
This is what I will set out to do every so often when I see a title that is coming to home video or a streaming platform that makes me shiver with an…tici…pation. Yes, I will probably repeat myself at times with my POTW (PIC of the week), but with far more detail unless something better premiers. This week I happened to catch Criterion announcing in May, John Sturges’ classic adventure drama with a star studded cast, The Great Escape, and in June two releases I cannot wait for – 1953’s The War of the Worlds and a dream for any martial arts fan, Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits. All three available on Blu. Criterion has not made the step up to 4K, but they do offer many new releases with a 4K digital restoration on Blu.
The Great Escape is the harrowing tale of allies of war planning on freeing hundreds of prisoners from a German camp during WWII. Director Sturges races our hearts as he did with The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock and Ice Station Zebra. The cast is exceptional with legends of the big screen including Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance and James Coburn. Criterion looks to deliver the kind of presentation you have not witnessed since its release with the inclusion of surround sound.
The Great Escape was released May 20th with a 2-disc set and comes at a price of $27.96. Special features have been announced to include:
• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu
• Two audio commentaries, one from 1991, featuring director John Sturges and composer Elmer Bernstein; the other, from 2003, featuring actors James Coburn, James Garner, and Donald Pleasence
• New interview with critic Michael Sragow
• The Great Escape: Heroes Under Ground, a four-part 2001 documentary about the real-life escape from the Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, including interviews with POWs held there
• The Real Virgil Hilts: A Man Called Jones, a 2001 program on the United States Army Air Forces pilot David Jones, the inspiration for Steve McQueen’s character in the film
• Return to The Great Escape, 1993 program featuring interviews with Coburn, Garner, and actors David McCallum and Jud Taylor
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley
Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits includes his first starring role in 1971’s The Big Boss, ’72’s Fist of Fury, his legendary Enter the Dragon and his final film, Way of the Dragon, even though Enter is listed on IMDB as finished in ’73. This is the entire Bruce Lee collection of feature films he starred in, although a “Bruce Le” starred in Way of the Dragon 2, which has been included as well. But, the movie and its star are a pale sequel to Way of the Dragon and is more aligned with Fist of Fury.
This Criterion release will be available July 14th with a price of $87.46. A reasonable price for everything you get. A 7-disc set that includes the following special features:
• 4K digital restorations of The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Game of Death and Way of the Dragon, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
• New 2K digital restoration of rarely seen 99-minute 1973 theatrical version of Enter the Dragon with uncompressed original monaural soundtrack
• New 2K digital restoration of the 102-minute “special-edition” version of Enter the Dragon
• Alternate audio soundtracks for the films including original English-dubbed and a 5.1 surround soundtrack for the “special-edition” version of Enter the Dragon
• Six audio commentaries: on The Big Boss by Bruce Lee expert Brandon Bentley; on The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Game of Death and The Way of the Dragon by Hong Kong-film expert Mike Leeder; and on the “special edition” version of Enter the Dragon by producer Paul Heller
• High-definition presentation of Game of Death II, 1981 sequel to Game of Death, Game of Death Redux a new presentation of Lee’s original Game of Death footage, produced by Alan Canvan
• New interviews on all five films with Lee biographer Mathew Polly
• New interview with producer Andre Morgan about Golden Harvest, the company behind Hong Kong’s top martial arts stars, including Lee
• New program regarding English-language dubbing with voice performers Michael Kaye (the English-speaking voice of Lee’s Chen Zhen in Fist of Fury) and Vaughan Savidge
• New interview with Grady Hendrix about the “Bruceploitation” subgenre that followed Lee’s death, and a selection of Bruceploitation trailers
• Blood and Steel, 2004 documentary on making of Enter the Dragon
• Multiple programs and documentaries on Lee’s life and philosophies, including Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend (1973) and Bruce Lee: In His Own Words (1998)
• Interviews with Linda Lee Cadwell, Lee’s widow, and many of Lee’s collaborators and admirers, including Jon T. Benn, Rikki Hashimoto, Nora Miao, Robert Wall, Yuen Wah, and Simon Yam and directors Clarence Fok, Sammo Hung, and Wong Jing
• Promotional materials
• New English subtitle translations and subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Jeff Chang
The 1953 The War of the Worlds starring Gene Barry still remains one of the very best alien invasion films ever made. From its fantastic production design to the nail-biting suspense provided by director Byron Haskin, this film is one of the great nostalgic treats from the ’50s and remains entertaining to this day. An alien war machine descends on a rural town making the whole event personal at first, and the ante goes up once the military is brought in and then we are witness to a full scale world invasion with the most unsettling alien life to this day.
This great sci-fi classic will be released July 7th with a price of $27.96 and special features include:
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, created by sound designer Ben Burtt and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2005 featuring filmmaker Joe Dante, film historian Bob Burns, and author Bill Warren
• Movie Archaeologists, a new program on the visual and sound effects in the film featuring Burtt and film historian Craig Barron
• From the Archive, a new program about the film’s restoration featuring Barron, Burtt, and Paramount Pictures archivist Andrea Kalas
• Audio interview with producer George Pal from 1970
• The Sky Is Falling, a 2005 documentary about the making of the film
• The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds from 1938, directed and narrated by Orson Welles
• Radio program from 1940 featuring a discussion between Welles and H. G. Wells, author of the 1897 novel The War of the Worlds
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic J. Hoberman
Just a price note to all. Come July, Barnes and Noble will hold their highly touted Criterion 50% off sale. But, consider B&N tend to jack up Criterion titles, so when seeking a great deal on, say, War of the Worlds on Blu, the price is usually as high as $39.95 giving you a discount of about $20 (supposedly). Of course, check purchasing from Criterion directly, you basically end up saving about $8 or so. Just saying.
Visit Ray’s blog at themonsterinmyhead.com
