From Philip Glass's Dracula to Fast Times with The Iron Giant

FSM's 1st Annual DVD Holiday Buyer's Guide, Part One

An Aisle Seat Special By Andy Dursin

Everyone seems to be writing and talking about DVD these days, which is both a good thing for the format and a tough one for consumers in that -- with the format's continued acceptance -- there are more and more DVDs being released each week, and so many titles to choose from that one's funds can be seemingly exhausted before the next round arrives in another seven days.

With the amount of screeners I've been receiving, it only seems fitting that the Aisle Seat is the venue for our first annual DVD Buyer's Guide, where we take a look at each studio and some of their most recent releases, some of which haven't been released yet but will be in time for the holidays.

Taking it by studio and/or genre, let's get started with a handful of releases scheduled for December 21st.

UNIVERSAL: One of DVD's more constant suppliers of Collector's Editions, Universal unrolls several noteworthy releases in time for Christmas, one of which contains content that film music fans will be particularly interested in.

That title would be the "Classic Monsters Collection" Special Edition release of the 1931 Tod Browning- directed DRACULA (***1/2 movie, **** presentation, $29.98), which catapulted Bela Lugosi into the hearts, minds, and fangs of viewers around the world.

While Universal has already released several of their vintage horror chillers on DVD over the last year (some in better looking presentations than others), DRACULA is easily the greatest achievement by the studio and series producer David J.Skal for the bounty of riches it contains for horror fans. No other classic horror film has come close to exploiting the benefits of the DVD format as much as this disc does, for it contains not just the original 1931 film, a documentary, and a commentary track, but it also features the newly recorded Philip Glass score for the '31 version, and the ENTIRE Spanish-language version of DRACULA, shot on the same sets with an entirely different cast and director late at night, that scholars generally feel is a better film than the Browning version!

Although considered a classic because of Lugosi's performance and the art direction, many critics and viewers feel that Browning's film is a bit on the creaky side. After a marvelous opening, the movie becomes a talky, stage-bound affair with most of the action occurring off-camera, with an immobile camera not offering much in the way of cinematic excitement (cinematographer Karl Freund's "inquisitive" camera would be on display in THE MUMMY just a year later).

However, Universal's new DVD not only allows you to watch the picture with its original soundtrack (completely devoid of music except for an opening credits sequence with "Swan Lake" playing under the titles and source music in the opera sequence), but also enables you to hear the movie with Phillip Glass's all-new stereophonic music score, performed by the Kronos String Quartet.

While some purists will undoubtedly object to the notion of music being added to a classic film, Glass's score, while redundant in some parts, was for this reviewer nothing short of extraordinary, for it gives the movie both pacing (via Glass's usual repetitive chord structure) and a shape that it almost completely lacks after the first 15 minutes. Drawing room scenes which come across as inert by themselves now have a subtext in the music, and Glass's score wryly comments on the action and is wisely utilized throughout. I'm not sure how the soundtrack functions away from the film, but in the context of the drama, it more than enhances the movie instead of taking away from it, and as an experiment in revitalizing a somewhat dated classic film, it surprisingly succeeds.

At first viewing (and especially if you are familiar with the film), many viewers will likely find the Glass music to be a bit redundant and excessive (after all, you go from watching a film that had no music to a movie that's scored virtually wall-to-wall with it), but if you can distance yourself from the addition of score and try to watch the picture with the music functioning simply as a regular dramatic underscore, chances are that you'll find the score truly breathes new life into a genre landmark.

Universal's DVD contains a rough-looking print, with frames missing here and there, and hairline scratches abounding from one sequence to the next, but for whatever reason, there's not as much grain here as there was on the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN DVD. So, even though the source materials may be in worse shape, this is a more consistent looking transfer than some of the other Universal efforts, and no one is going to carp about the supplements contained in this disc -- the Spanish version (which runs longer, is generally more explicit, and features sexier women!) features an interview with star Lupita Tovar, the 37- minute documentary touches upon the behind-the-scenes story, and "Hollywood Gothic" author Skal gives a fascinating audio commentary himself during the '31 version to top it all off.

All of this is contained on one DVD, and if you're a fan of classic horror, you're not going to find a better present this holiday season than Universal's DRACULA -- one of my favorite DVD releases of the year.

Also out from the Universal Collector's Series on December 21st are FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (***1/2 movie, *** presentation, $29.98) and AMERICAN PIE (**1/2 movie, *** presentation, $29.98 in both R-rated and Unrated versions), a pair of high school comedies from two different eras.

Amy Heckerling's 1982 comedy remains one of my personal faves, with its realistic, honest depiction of teens making it through a tumultuous year at a Southern California high school. Adapted by Cameron Crowe from his book, FAST TIMES remains as fresh and funny as it was back in the '80s, thanks to its amazing collection of then up-and-coming stars (Sean Penn's seminal performance as Jeff Spicoli, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, plus Anthony Edwards, Forest Whitaker, and Nicolas Cage in supporting parts), big laughs, non-judgmental character observations, and for a lot of us who grew up in the decade, great period atmosphere (arcades, pizza parlors, bad fashions, and loud music!).

Universal's DVD looks the best the movie ever has, and restores its all-star roster of then-famous songwriters and bands to the soundtrack in their entirety (all preceding video versions replaced about half the songs due to legal matters, though Amy Heckerling admits she doesn't like most of the songs to begin with!). The picture is matted at about 1.85:1 and looks well balanced, and the movie has retained its original mono soundtrack.

On the supplemental side, the DVD offers some fascinating extras for fans, but glaringly omits including any of the film's outtakes and deleted scenes, which found their way into Universal's TV edition over a decade ago and remain incorporated into the movie whenever it shows on the Superstation or in syndication. These 15 minutes contain additional character development and some added laughs, but for whatever reason, they're not on the DVD in any form -- not even in a supplemental chapter.

Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe's enjoyable audio commentary discusses these deleted scenes over the end credits, and one gets the feeling that while Crowe laments their omission from the DVD, Heckerling is happy they aren't restored back into the film (she notes that they're not so much deleted scenes as they were alternate sequences whose dramatic context was incorporated into the movie in other ways).

While it would have been nice to see these sequences on the DVD, the commentary is still informative and will provide plenty of enjoyment for FAST TIMES fans (noting how Leigh's sex scene with Robert Romanus had to be cut in order to obtain an R rating), as will the 40-minute documentary on the making of the film, which principally details the casting of the picture and includes new interviews with Heckerling, casting director Don Phillips, producer Art Linson, along with stars Sean Penn, Robert Romanus, Brian Backer, Judge Reinhold, and Ray Walston.

Film music fans should note that Heckerling briefly discusses how she and the film editor had to plunder through the Universal music vaults for library cues after a "composer" didn't deliver any original compositions and basically "screwed everyone over." Thus, no original score is in the movie because the unnamed musician didn't come through with the promised goods! I sense a great trivia question here -- anyone know who it was?

AMERICAN PIE, last summer's $100 million box-office hit, tries in earnest to be a FAST TIMES for the '90s, but despite containing some raunchy, tasteless gags, the comedy is sporadic at best and soft at the center, coming across as a tepid AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL in its "dramatic" moments.

Still, there was a method to this picture's madness -- the lower you go, the funnier it will seem to the target audience of 18-24 year old guys, and the movie hit the box-office bullseye last summer (this is in contrast to FAST TIMES, which the filmmakers admit tends to be even funnier the older you get!).

Universal has nevertheless produced a fine Collector's Edition DVD of AMERICAN PIE, in both separate R-rated and Unrated editions. The unrated cut contains an extra minute of added -- well, gross-out humor, though it is not as if the extended footage greatly enhances the picture in either a comedic or dramatic context (but there IS slightly more footage of foreign studies girl Nadia).

A commentary track with filmmakers is included along with some brief outtakes (more like bloopers) culled from videotape and a slew of trailers, production notes, and a promotional "Spotlight on Location" segment. Again, if this PIE was tasty for you in theaters, by all means carve yourself a slice of this DVD.

FOR THE KIDS: Studios have, for years, been trying to challenge the superiority of Walt Disney's feature animation unit, and for the most part, have failed to reach the level of technical achievement that Disney has so often surpassed with each successive film they have produced. It's not as if there haven't been some strong challenges, but except for Dreamworks' over-promoted PRINCE OF EGYPT and recent kid-hits THE RUGRATS MOVIE and POKEMON (both of which appealed to very young audiences, as opposed to the more wide-reaching demographic that befits a typical Disney release), Disney hasn't had much reason to worry over the years, though the competition has, in fact, gotten that much closer to topping the Mouse.

Warner Bros. certainly gave it their all last summer with Brad Bird's THE IRON GIANT (***, $24.98, Letterboxed and Pan-and-Scan), launching the picture to solid reviews in a family audience climate that had been dominated by Disney's TARZAN up till that point. Unfortunately, the movie completely tanked at the box-office, leading many of the film's admirers to question Warner's marketing campaign and release date towards the end of the summer season.

Like a lot of viewers, I've just caught up with the movie on DVD, and perhaps because of all the critical acclaim the movie received (calling it one of the best films of the year to one of the decade's best animated movies), I found it to be a solid production but a bit disappointing all things considered.

Bird, who animated the terrific "Family Dog" episode of Steven Spielberg's AMAZING STORIES series, has taken a basic story to adapt into a feature film: a robot presumably produced for warfare befriends a small boy in a seaside Maine town during the 1950s. Recalling a lot of '50s sci-fi flicks in attitude and even appearance, the boy and robot share a bond together (with the boy teaching the Giant about the true nature of guns and war), but the government quickly rushes in and tries to destroy the automaton, thanks to an overzealous, scheming FBI agent who serves as the villain of the piece.

The widescreen animation boasts nicely detailed character design, but since a lot of the backgrounds and peripheral details are surprisingly static, the movie lacks the richness and fluidity of Disney animation. More over, the characters are only somewhat appealing and the story is predictable from every angle, making THE IRON GIANT best served for young children who haven't seen THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (and perhaps are too young for E.T.).

I also was greatly let down by Michael Kamen's score, which could have been one of the movie's strongest assets given how substantial a role the music plays in the film. THE IRON GIANT is scored wall-to-wall with original underscore, but Kamen's music, sadly, is one of his most unthematic and haphazard works, offering up an unmemorable collection of cues that never form a cohesive whole. If there's an emotional connection absent in the film, one can pin some of the blame on Kamen's music for failing to strike a resonant chord.

I may be a bit too critical here, but considering how some critics were forming a crusade about how wonderful this movie was, there's no question that a lot of older viewers will be let down once they have seen the film. That being said, kids will still enjoy the movie and one can easily recommend THE IRON GIANT for youngsters, which was, obviously, the intended audience in the first place.

Warner's DVD contains both the widescreen version of the film and a pan-and-scan version that lobs off nearly a third or more of the picture in every frame. Nearly every shot is severely compromised in the pan- and-scan transfer, so it goes without saying that viewers should stick to the letterboxed version (even if your kids complain!). The Dolby Digital soundtrack is punchy and nicely detailed, and while a surplus of supplements were originally announced for inclusion on the DVD, only a 30-minute WB network "Making Of" TV documentary, trailer, and music video have been included as Bonus Features. Still, for the price, it's a nice package and a good one for the little ones this holiday season.

More elaborately animated and interesting for older viewers is Don Bluth's 1997 production for Fox, ANASTASIA (***1/2, $29.98, Widescreen and pan-and-scan formats), which has also just been released in time for the holidays on DVD.

I didn't get a chance to see this moderate box-office success in theaters, but catching up with it on DVD was a delightful surprise, since the visual design -- often times a realistic rendering of an actual time and place -- is stunning and the story itself compelling enough to captivate older audiences as well as young children.

Based very, very, very loosely on the actual historical incident of the missing, presumed dead young daughter of the slain Russian Czar re-appearing (?) as a confused young woman claiming to be Anastasia some time later, ANASTASIA takes its cue from both children's animated fantasy (with evil monk Rasputin using the forces of darkness to try and kill Anastasia) and the 1956 Yul Brynner-Ingrid Bergman classic (in its fictionalized story of a con man trying to pass off a refugee as the princess) in telling a richly detailed animated story.

At times, the disparity between the wild fantasy elements and the realism of the central story clash, but in attempting to appeal to both adult audiences and young children, Bluth and producer Gary Goldman cannot have it completely both ways. Still, it's a small price to pay for a movie that offers so much in the way of detailed animation and an amiable collection of characters, along with a splendid song score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

Like THE IRON GIANT, ANASTASIA was filmed in Cinemascope and loses so much in its compromised, Pan-and-scan version that it's difficult to imagine why anyone would not want to see the movie letterboxed. The widescreen transfer on the dual-layer DVD is immaculate and the Dolby Digital soundtrack is grand, offering up a robust mix of three-dimensional activity.

Fox also just released the made-for-video sequel BARTOK THE MAGNIFICENT ($24.98, full-frame) with new songs by Flaherty & Ahrens, and the more colorful, cartoonish animation and slapstick gags make it a pleasing production for very young children, perhaps more suitable than ANASTASIA for the 7- and-under set.

NEXT WEEK: Part II, with Disney animation, and new Fox and Warner Bros. releases! Plus a look at THE GREEN MILE and your comments. As usual, feel free to write in to dursina@att.net and we'll see you next time!