Top 10 DVDs of 2006

by Brian Eggert

2006 was an impressive year for DVD. Several of my all-time favorite films finally received an appropriate DVD treatment. Many classics already on DVD received new and improved special editions, complete with enhanced transfers and features. Of discs released in 2006, I purchased around fifty. I won’t list every last one, but I will look closely at what I consider to be the top 10 (there’s also an “honorable mention” section at the bottom).

There are a few criteria by which I label these discs “the best.” I scrutinize the film itself (the more I enjoy a film, the greater the DVD's impact), its audio and video presentation, the DVD’s special features, and of course the packaging of the disc (which may seem superficial, but great packaging or cover art speaks to the quality of the disc’s production).

In the past, DVDs released by The Criterion Collection and Warner Brothers Home Video (particularly Warner’s attention to their classics—1930-50’s films) have dominated my DVD purchases. Both companies excel in making their DVDs the best they can possibly be. By producing new documentaries for the DVD, hiring top directors and film historians to record commentary tracks, using original art or forgotten posters for the DVD’s cover art, rediscovering old newsreels and behind-the-scenes footage, and generally finding every possible bit of information available on a film and placing on a DVD, these two companies have proved year after year that a well-produced DVD can be better than film school.

The Criterion Collection has been hailed by film historians, critics, and especially film directors (such as David Cronenberg, Wes Anderson, and Terry Gilliam) for its unsurpassed attention to detail in DVD production. Criterion is a private company, consisting of around forty people, that seeks out the rights to classic or important cinema. Once they have the rights, they search for the best film elements—they’re known for rediscovering the film negatives of lost films or negatives that allow for advanced restorations of otherwise unfavorable prints. They’ve also pioneered new digital processes for video and audio restoration, making even the most damaged filmic treasures from the 1930’s and ‘40’s look better than some modern cinema.

Criterion has introduced the world to lost or little-known films that are now considered some of the best ever produced. In 2006, thanks to Criterion theaters saw a print of the 1969 French film Army of Shadows, directed by France’s king of cool Jean-Pierre Melville, which centers on the French resistance during WWII (the Criterion DVD is slated for May, 2007). This masterpiece was never released in America and was barely seen in France upon its original release; virtually no film historian saw Army of Shadows before Criterion gathered the print together, restored it, and then released it in American theaters. It’s now being called the best foreign film of the year, regardless of the fact that it was made in 1969. With this kind of historic cinematic contribution, not only on DVD but in the theater, Criterion has proved their expertise and importance to enlightening cinephiles year after year. It’s fitting then that several of my Best DVDs of 2006 were produced by The Criterion Collection.

 

1. Seven Samurai (Criterion Collection)

Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese masterpiece Seven Samurai has garnered praise from most film historians and critics and one of the best films of all time. In 1998, when Criterion first started putting out DVDs, Seven Samurai was their second release (after Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion, another of my all-time favorites). Criterion’s 1998 disc for Seven Samurai offered few special features, a moderate transfer, and a very friendly 1950’s subtitle translation. It was a disc that fans were pleased with, but we always wished for more…

Criterion’s new 3-disc edition of the film revisits the classic in an all new light, revamping the video, audio, and most importantly the subtitle translation. In a manner some don’t realize, the translator writing subtitles directs whatever film he or she interprets. Word choice is such a subtle art when translating, so that if a translator uses the wrong word, the result is not entirely accurate to the original dialogue. Some words don’t translate from other languages at all; the translator is left to improvise in these situations. The selection made by the translator often determines how the viewer literally and emotionally reads the film. If a French person watching Gone with the Wind read, in French, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a hoot,” the result just wouldn’t be the same. The new translation for Seven Samurai wipes away the nostalgic heartiness of the 1950’s translation and shocks the viewer with the film’s actual gritty humor and swearing, both only alluded to in the previous translation for censorship reasons. The result is a surprising and vast improvement, adding an edge to an already perfect and multi-layered classic.

There’s also a plethora of features to enjoy here, including three major documentaries. The best of them is a two-hour video interview between director Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima, discussing Seven Samurai and Kurosawa’s other masterpieces. For those of you unfamiliar with samurai history and ritual, the DVD contains an hour documentary called Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, which not only helps explain the cultural significance of the film, but also teaches a brief history of samurai code.

For one of the most historically and filmically significant pictures ever made, Criterion put in everything they had, as they've worked on this release for over two years. The result is a perfect DVD for an even better motion picture.

 

2. The Complete Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) (Criterion Collection)

The title of the film is actually Mr. Arkadin (or Confidential Report, depending on the version you watch); the “The Complete” is part of the Criterion boxed set title. Originally written and directed by Orson Welles in 1955, Mr. Arkadin was taken away from Welles by the film’s producers, as they didn’t agree with Welles’s creative genius (The man made Citizen Kane, The Lady from Shanghai, and The Magnificent Ambersons by 1955, all masterpieces. And yet they didn’t trust him with their money… Insanity!). As a result, the film was originally pieced together by editors working under the guiles of these producers. The film was subsequently and quietly forgotten.

Criterion gathered together the prints for all of the available versions of the film; using that footage they compiled a new “comprehensive version” for this DVD set by editing existing footage according to Welles’s intentions for the film (as outlined in notes by the director himself). Criterion’s 3-disc set presents consumers with all three dramatically different versions of the film, a slew of production features including documentaries, interviews, and radio programs, and even the complete book on which the film was based (Welles may or may not have been the author). Though hard on the wallet, it’s well worth the average $50 retail price for the set, as you’re getting three DVDs and a book.

 

3. John Wayne-John Ford Film Collection (8 film boxed set)

This set includes:
--The Searchers: 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition (1956)
--Stagecoach: Two-Disc Special Edition (1939)
--Fort Apache (1948)
--The Long Voyage Home (1940)
--The Wings of Eagles (1957)
--3 Godfathers (1948)
--She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
--They Were Expendable (1945)

John Ford is easily the most influential American director in film history; his presence has affected not only every film in the Western genre, but he’s also given directors such as Kurosawa, Welles, and Spielberg a visual template to work from, which is comparable to the beauty of an Albert Bierstadt painting. Ford won four Oscars for Best Director, had a roughneck lifestyle, and developed an actor/director partnership with both John Wayne and Henry Ford (which rivaled the partnerships of Robert De Niro & Martin Scorsese and Toshiro Mifune & Akira Kurosawa). His coupling with screen legend John Wayne over the years produced some of the best westerns ever made. This set, released by Warner Bros., includes several of them.

There are eight films and eleven DVDs in this set; all of them (save two) are worth a place on your shelf. They Were Expendable and The Wings of Eagles are interesting, well made, but ultimately, at least in comparison to the other work in this set, don’t hold up. Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and 3 Godfathers all have the same tenderness, humor, and general audience appeal found in Ford’s The Quiet Man and Young Mr. Lincoln. Visually, these works are astounding (particularly Ribbon) and thematically they speak to everyone, especially American history buffs.

The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Long Voyage Home are the apexes of this collection, however. The Searchers, considered by many to be the best western ever made, over three discs contains a new Ultra Resolution transfer (a painstaking process that’s only been applied to three other DVDs, most impressively Gone with The Wind and Ben-Hur), loads of extras including a couple of full-length documentaries, even a nifty mail-in offer for a free movie poster, and much more. If this wasn't in the boxed set and was an individual release, The Searchers would still make it on my top 10 DVDs list. Stagecoach is the pivotal first film between Ford and Wayne; it’s also the film that solidified Wayne’s status as a star. The Long Voyage Home, one of Ford’s best, concentrates on the lives of sailors that are pushed and pulled by the corruption, temptations, and vices of life at sea.

With this collection, for around $90 consumers get a small library of excellent cinema; they're some of the best movies ever made. John Ford was well revered on DVD in 2006. In addition to this set, Warner also released a five film set entitled The John Ford Collection (worth picking up for the early 1930's Ford Masterpieces The Informer and Lost Patrol) and the Criterion Collection released Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln in a 2-disc special edition. 2006 was bliss for John Ford fans.

 

4. Double Indemnity: Universal Legacy Series

This archetypal film noir is often cited as being a template for the genre (Though some would say film noir isn’t a genre, it’s a filmic style. But that’s a debate for another time.). Director Billy Wilder (Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17) co-wrote the screenplay with famed mystery novelist Raymond Chandler and then directed it in an innovatively expressionist visual style. Double Indemnity is a classic in every sense. The lead actors (Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson) all give their best performances; the plot bears all the foundations of great noir, and the witty, fast dialogue has more atmosphere than Earth’s troposphere.

There was a DVD released in the late 1990’s, except that disc has been out of print for around seven years. Fans of Turner Classic Movies could catch it on there at least once a month, yet there was always clamoring for a new, improved DVD. Well, here it is… With a new, crisp transfer, the film has never looked so good. On two discs of in-depth features, fans get a great documentary about film noir, original trailers and vintage posters, and an additional made-for-TV version of Double Indemnity (which is a terrible TV remake, but funny to watch nonetheless). It’s an essential DVD for any fan of Golden Age cinema.

 

5. The Virgin Spring (Criterion Collection)

Swedish director Ingmar Bergman is best known for thoughtful filmic melancholies on death and God. His best films—such as The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Fanny and Alexander—all meditate over pensive material with a calming and poetic energy. The Virgin Spring is unlike any film by the Swedish master; like Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, it deals with points of view and circumstance. In medieval Sweden, a young girl travels alone, only to be raped and killed by murderous bandits. As fate would have it, those same bandits take refuge, unbeknownst to them, at the home of the girl’s father. But can the father, a pious man, avenge his daughter’s death and still be considered pious? Completely innovative on his own to brooding works, Bergman's story focuses on how faith and revenge reconcile each other. The film, which won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was beautifully restored with awe inspiring visual lucidity by the Criterion Collection. The DVD includes a 28 page booklet full of essays, several interviews about the film with scholars, and an introduction by Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm director Ang Lee.

 

6. King Kong: Extended Edition

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Extended Editions are some of the best DVDs I own. Jackson knows the contemporary importance of planning a DVD while in the production stages of shooting a film. He knows what fans of his work want and he’s the type of director who maintains artistic integrity while giving a great product (both theatrically and on DVD). King Kong, one the best films of 2005, is now given the Peter Jackson DVD treatment. The Extended Edition of King Kong has hours of features including two full versions of the Kong script, more than one good documentary, and 38 minutes of deleted scenes. But the real reason to buy this DVD is the movie itself. Now complete with 13 minutes of added footage, this dramatic adventure contains all the daring extravagance and sad undertones intended by the directors of the 1933 version (I still can’t decide if I like the 1933 version or Jackson’s version best), but updated in an artistically and beautifully crafted way. Not since, not surprisingly, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’s Gollum has a CGI character been so real. Jackson’s Kong, played by the same actor that brought Gollum to life (Andy Serkis), has all the complications of a human. Beyond his characteristics, the CGI work on the iconic gorilla is flawless, proving once again that Jackson’s production company WingNut Films is a major source for both entertaining and important cinema.

 

7. Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection (7 DVD set)

This set includes:
--Sullivan’s Travels
--The Lady Eve
--The Palm Beach Story
--Hail the Conquering Hero
--The Great McGinty
--Christmas in July
--The Great Moment

Preston Sturges, possibly the greatest comedy mind in film history, perfected the screwball comedy back in the early 1940’s to include not only wild physical humor, but also a biting intelligence. The man was a bona fide genius and inventor, but the peak of his career lasted only just under a decade. That short period began with a string of box office successes. He became the highest paid man in Hollywood for the first four years of his career; the latter six years he went independent and lost everything: his box office draw, his money, and his career. In a span of less than ten years, Sturges went from the most popular writer-director in Hollywood, to a broke has-been. But looking back, even his latter failures are inspired today.

This DVD collection brings together the seven films Sturges made with Paramount, which have since been purchased by Universal Studios. There are a couple downsides to the collection for Sturges fans that have already purchased his work on DVD. First, Sullivan’s Travels, The Lady Eve, and The Palm Beach Story are already on DVD (the preceding two were discs were released in glorious Criterion Collection editions). Second, the other films in the set (Christmas in July, The Great McGinty, Hail the Conquering Hero, and The Great Moment) are not available separately. So, if you’re like me and you already have those previously released three, you’re purchasing them all over again to get the four discs in this set that aren’t available separately. Unfortunately, there’s no word on whether the four discs exclusive to this set will ever be individually released. But even if you do own the available discs in the set, the average $45 retail is worth it for Christmas in July, The Great McGinty, Hail the Conquering Hero, and The Great Moment, as each is a Sturges classic. For the average consumer not concerned with definitive collectors' editions like those released by Criterion, this set contains seven comedic masterpieces by a filmic icon well worth the relatively cheap price.

8. The Fallen Idol (Criterion Collection)

I first saw The Fallen Idol in October of 2006. Criterion was circulating a print of the film to revival theaters around the country. I didn’t know much about it other than it was going to be a Criterion DVD in November and it was directed by Carol Reed, the man behind one of my all-time favorite films The Third Man (also a Criterion DVD). The film is about a wealthy child whose best friend is his family’s butler. The butler can do no wrong in the child’s mind and when the butler is wrongly suspected of murder, the child does everything he can to lie for him, making the whole investigation more suspicious.

Though on the big screen this masterpiece was a treat, Criterion’s new DVD transfer brings the film into digital clarity. The audio and video are more crisp and pronounced than the theatrical print (but that’s in part due to Oak Street Cinema’s crappy sound system) and the features (namely the lengthy documentary A Sense of Carol Reed) illuminate the director’s vast career and artistry, giving consumers another superb disc from Criterion…

 

9. The Wild Bunch: Original Director's Cut: Special Edition (1969)

Warner Bros. released the director’s cut of The Wild Bunch several years ago as one of their first DVDs; as a result of limited DVD technology at the time and the film’s length, the disc was a flipper (Meaning half way through the movie, you’d have to get up and flip the disc over to view the second half. Many Warner discs were this way, including Goodfellas, but have since been given special editions resolving the problem.). With the 2006 two-disc special edition, The Wild Bunch finally receives the treatment it deserves with a gleaming new transfer, no flipping, and a second disc of extras. The extras aren’t the important aspect of this disc; the beauty of this violent, epic western’s transfer is the centerpiece.

The clarity of this DVD allows for the picturesque yet fatalistic moments of The Wild Bunch to visually sound off like a cannon. Sam Peckinpah’s gritty, wholly male film revives the testosterone-infused persona of the West. It’s fitting that the main characters are a bunch of criminals chased down not by authorities, but by bounty hunters more despicable than they are. Every character is below the law, brutally savage, and unrelentingly male in the most graphic and vile sense of the word. Peckinpah was one of the first directors to use blood in a Western and he splatters it everywhere. Next to the aforementioned The Searchers, this is the best western ever made, and now it has a quality DVD to prove it.

 

10. Star Wars Trilogy: Unaltered Versions

A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi

The Original Trilogy of Star Wars has been raped, dismembered, and generally mutated by George Lucas over the years. He’s added different audio, reedited, added new scenes with CGI, revamped deleted scenes to put them back in the movie, and even changed the faces of characters to fit with the continuity of his terrible Prequel Trilogy. Fans have complained. Online petitions and the like have begged Lucas to release the unaltered Original Trilogy on DVD, but for years Lucas maintained that it would never be released on DVD. He even stated the negatives for the unaltered Original Trilogy no longer existed.

Suddenly in 2006, Lucas decided to release three individual 2-disc special editions of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi with the unaltered versions of the Original Trilogy on the second disc. For fans, this was a victory; it meant we would be able to finally see DVD quality transfers of the movies we all grew up with, untouched by Lucas’ busy hands. And then the news came: poor audio and no remastered transfer.

What does this mean? It means that while Lucas agreed to give fans the unaltered Original Trilogy the way we remember it from our childhoods, he doesn’t care enough to clean up the video and improve the audio—a minimum standard for DVD. Instead, Lucas chose to use the laserdisc transfers for these DVDs. The laserdisc transfers are ample, but not what they should be. The DVDs are nothing more than watchable, even with the minimum digital cleanup from the laserdisc version.

I’m including these Original Trilogy DVDs as one entry, even though they’re only sold separately (Lucas wouldn’t even spring for a box for the three films). In this case, the quality of the DVDs is outweighed by the joy of the films themselves. It was a great joy to revisit a piece of my childhood and watch the Original Star Wars Trilogy as I remembered it. So on nostalgia alone, the original, unaltered Star Wars Trilogy ends my Best DVDs of 2006 list...

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**Honorable Mentions:
--Brazil: Criterion (Reissue with same features as the original release, just a new video transfer.)
--A History of Violence
--A Scanner Darkly
--Playtime: Criterion (2 discs)
--La bête humaine: Criteron
--Lady Vengeance
--The Bad Sleep Well: Criterion
--V for Vendetta
--Sergeant York: Two-Disc Special Edition (1941)
--Frankenstein: 75th Anniversary Edition - Universal Legacy Series (1931)
--A Canterbury Tale: Criterion
--Elevator to the Gallows: Criterion
--Young Mr. Lincoln: Criterion
--Kicking and Screaming: Criterion
--Late Spring: Criterion
--3 films by Louis Malle: Criterion (Includes: Au revoir les enfants, Murmur of the Heart, and Lacombe, Lucien)
--Looney Tunes: Gold Collection, vol. 4
--The Tick vs. Season 1
--Superman: The Animated Series, vol. 3
--Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, vol. 2 (The set includes: Action in the North Atlantic (1943), Passage to Marseille (1944), Across the Pacific (1942), All Through the Night (1942), and The Maltese Falcon: 3-disc Special Edition (1941))
--The Children are Watching Us (Criterion)
--Forbidden Planet: 50th Anniversary Edition