DVD Goes Back to Future With Early Films

Every time a new home entertainment format is unveiled, the companies providing software for it make sure to release the most commercial titles possible, in an extra effort to lure new consumers into the fold.

Initially, such was the case with DVD. But after the studios promptly released all the “Batmans” and “Rambos” of the world, a wide array of other titles started appearing.

The recent release of several classics from the early days of cinema, of interest only to collectors or students of movie history, is definite proof that DVD is here to stay.

In a noble effort to create a highly comprehensive library of titles, Image Entertainment has just released four masterpieces by Russian pioneer director Sergei Eisenstein.

First, there’s “The Battleship Potemkin,” a 1925 film that many still consider the best ever made, alongside Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane.”

Watching a black-and-white, silent movie with the occasional subtitle explaining the plot takes a little getting used to, but before you know it, the sheer visual magic of “Potemkin” grabs ahold of you.

This was the first film in which editing was fully used to express emotions, going far beyond its initial task of telling a story. Of course, in these post-MTV days of editing as a means of pounding your senses into complete submission, it’s a little hard to put Eisenstein’s genius in perspective. But the famous Odessa Steps scene, with its amazing use of montage and metaphorical condemnation of tyranny and oppression, will convey its full-blown pathos even to the most disaffected of viewers.

The other Eisenstein titles being released are 1938’s “Alexander Nevsky,” famous for its epic battle of the ice and rousing Sergei Prokofiev score, and the first two parts of the unfinished trilogy “Ivan the Terrible” (Part 1, 1943; Part 2, 1946), an overambitious, uneven project that still packs more innovative concepts and striking images than any film today. The only pity is that the soundtracks of these films weren’t cleaned up for these digital releases.

Image has also released two notorious films by American pioneer D.W. Griffith: 1915’s controversial “Birth of a Nation,” which will make you cringe with its heroic depiction of the Ku Klux Klan, and 1916’s unabashedly melodramatic, four-hour “Intolerance,” arguably the best silent ever made in America.

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Twentieth Century Fox has finally decided to plunge into the DVD arena with an uneven initial batch of eight titles. There are no significant bonus materials in these releases, except for one of them, which happens to be the best of the crop.

Mel Brook’s hilarious 1974 spoof “Young Frankenstein” gets the deluxe treatment in a DVD special edition that actually duplicates most of the materials from a 1996 laserdisc. No reason to complain, though, since this is one of the funniest pictures Brooks ever made, and he complements it with an audio commentary that is a sheer delight.

Also included are seven deleted scenes (all of them winners), a collection of outtakes you wish would last for hours, an extensive gallery of production photos and a 36-minute documentary that drags a little but is still informative. There’s also a series of interviews with Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman and Marty Feldman conducted by Mexican television that are downright hysterical.

It is to be hoped that Fox will pay an equal reverential treatment to the other Brooks titles in its collection. Although none of them matches the gothic lunacy of “Young Frankenstein,” they still deserve to be treated as the comedy classics they are.

Laserdisc Releases

“The Emigrants, The New Land” (1971-72, Image): The definitive edition of this two-part saga about Swedish emigrants in Minnesota contains more than an hour and a half of footage that was cut from the original theatrical versions. At six and a half hours, this epic is hard to digest, but is also full of memorable scenes.

DVD Releases

“Midnight Express” (1978, Columbia TriStar): The DVD edition of the harrowing, unforgettable Alan Parker drama contains a featurette and the original theatrical trailer.

Ernesto Lechner can be reached at LechnerE@aol.com.