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Seven-part miniseries on U.S. Marines in Iraq has loads of DVD extras
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Published on Sunday, Dec 14, 2008
Writer David Simon has been justifiably acclaimed for his epic series The Wire (now available on DVD in a complete-show box). But he followed that with nearly as impressive an achievement in Generation Kill.
Based on Evan Wright's book, the seven-part miniseries about Marines in 2003 Iraq included vulgarities, unblinking violence, dialogue that was as real as it was occa-sionally impenetrable and an overall impressive picture of men at modern war.
Dropping the audience into the Marines' lives with little introduction and then barreling along with them through the mundane and the horrifying, it demanded the audience pay attention (just as The Wire did) and made no concessions for the sake of narrative tidiness. But it rewarded the attentive viewer again and again.
On Tuesday, HBO Video will release it on DVD (three discs, $59.99) with extras, including everything from deleted scenes to a booklet identifying the major characters and offering translations of some of the slang used in the series. (A high-definition Blu-ray version is also planned but is not scheduled for release until June.) Also added on DVD are video diaries, a making-of segment and other elements. But watch the series first. Then watch it again, and then get to the extras.
Tuesday also brings the DVD release of the big-screen version of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on the play inspired by ABBA songs. While the movie was decidedly not to my taste, it took in about $143 million at the U.S. box office and did even better internationally (since there are countries that are even more ABBA-mad than the United States); all told it has made almost $570 million — and that's before they start tallying the expected DVD cash-in.
Universal's DVD version is being released on a single disc ($29.98, either full-screen or widescreen), a two-disc special edition for $5 more and a Blu-ray release for $39.98. Among the extras on all versions are on-screen lyrics for the musical numbers and a deleted performance of Name of the Game. The second disc and Blu-ray versions add a making-of piece, deleted scenes, a music video and a digital copy, among other things. And the Blu-ray has more features, including a way for you to add your own commentary to the movie.
Going way back into the video vault, there's Petticoat Junction: The Official First Season (Paramount, 38 episodes, five discs, $40.99), the beginning of the long-running CBS comedy about the folks at the Shady Rest Hotel in isolated Hooterville. Producer Paul Henning made Petticoat after the success of The Beverly Hillbillies and later spun off Green Acres from Petticoat. It's not as good as the two shows bracketing it, but it was harmless. And remarkable in all the places its female characters went in high heels.
For those of you who tracked the many casting changes in Petticoat over the years, the first season stars Bea Benaderet as Kate Bradley and features as her daughters Linda Kaye (later billed Linda Kaye Henning), Pat Woodell and Jeannine Riley. Henning, daughter of Paul, and Woodell provide episode introductions and are interviewed on the DVD.
The box contains the usual Paramount warnings that the episodes may have been edited from their network versions, and that music has been changed — two Paramount practices that have repeatedly irked consumers of their DVD sets. But in a quick sampling of episodes, the ones I saw at least appeared to be at their network length.
There is much hubbub about Frost/Nixon, the new movie drama about the dealings between interviewer David Frost and former president Richard Nixon and their galvanizing TV confrontation. But if you want to see the real thing, Liberation Entertainment has released Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews ($24.95), an 88-minute presentation of the most dramatic of the Frost-Nixon footage. The company plans another DVD release in 2009 of a ''deluxe version'' containing more footage from the 28 hours Frost spent talking to Nixon.
But this first DVD piece is still crackling verbal warfare. It adds Frost's own, modern-day comments about the interviews.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://heldenfels.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 and rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
Writer David Simon has been justifiably acclaimed for his epic series The Wire (now available on DVD in a complete-show box). But he followed that with nearly as impressive an achievement in Generation Kill.
Get the full article here.
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