Criterion May - RED RIVER (Both Cuts!) on Blu-Ray

[AndyDursin]

Sad I wasted my money on the UK Blu-Ray of RED RIVER, seeing the Criterion has BOTH cuts of the movie -- the "long" version, and the shorter version (with narration) that Hawks himself preferred. Apparently the music is somewhat different between the two versions as well.

RED RIVER (dual-format Blu-ray/ DVD edition)
No matter what genre he worked in, Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday) played by his own rules, and never was this more evident than in his first western, the rowdy and whip-smart Red River. In it, John Wayne (Stagecoach) found one of his greatest roles as an embittered, tyrannical Texas rancher whose tensions with his independent-minded adopted son, played by Montgomery Clift (From Here to Eternity) in a breakout performance, reach epic proportions during a cattle drive to Missouri, which is based on a real-life late nineteenth-century expedition. Yet Hawks is less interested in historical accuracy than in tweaking the codes of masculinity that propel the myths of the American West. The unerringly macho Wayne and the neurotic, boyish Clift make for an improbably perfect pair, held aloft by a quick-witted, multilayered screenplay and Hawks’s formidable direction.

1948 • 127 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio

DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration of the rarely presented original theatrical release version, the preferred cut of director Howard Hawks, with monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• 2K restoration of the longer version of Red River
• New interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich about Red River and the two versions
• New interview with critic Molly Haskell about Hawks and Red River
• New interview with western scholar Lee Clark Mitchell about western genre literature
• Audio excerpts of a 1972 conversation between Hawks and Bogdanovich
• Excerpts from a 1970 audio interview with novelist and screenwriter Borden Chase
• Two Blu-rays and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• More!
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and a 1991 interview with Hawks’s longtime editor Christian Nyby; a new paperback edition of Chase’s original novel, previously out of print

TITLE: RED RIVER (dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition)
CAT. NO: CC2359BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11701-2
ISBN: 978-1-60465-841-5
SRP: $49.95
PREBOOK: 4/29/14
STREET: 5/27/14

ACE IN THE HOLE (dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition)
Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole is one of the most scathing indictments of American culture ever produced by a Hollywood filmmaker. Kirk Douglas (Spartacus) gives the fiercest performance of his career as Chuck Tatum, an amoral newspaper reporter who washes up in dead-end Albuquerque, happens upon the scoop of a lifetime, and will do anything to keep getting the lurid headlines. Wilder’s follow-up to Sunset Boulevard is an even darker vision, a no-holds-barred exposé of the American media’s appetite for sensation that has gotten only more relevant with time.

1951 • 111 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio

DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary by film scholar Neil Sinyard
• Portrait of a “60% Perfect Man”: Billy Wilder, a 1980 documentary featuring interviews with Wilder by film critic Michel Ciment
• Interview with actor Kirk Douglas from 1984
• Excerpts from a 1986 appearance by Wilder at the American Film Institute
• Excerpts from an audio interview with Wilder’s coscreenwriter Walter Newman
• Video afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
• Stills gallery
• Trailer
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: Essays by critic Molly Haskell and filmmaker Guy Maddin

TITLE: ACE IN THE HOLE (dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition)
CAT. NO: CC2355BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11571-1
ISBN: 978-1-60465-837-8
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 4/8/14
STREET: 5/6/14

OVERLORD (Blu-ray edition)
Seamlessly interweaving archival war footage and a fictional narrative, this immersive account by Stuart Cooper of one twenty-year-old’s journey from basic training to the front lines of D-day brings to life all the terrors and isolation of war with jolting authenticity. Overlord, impressionistically shot by Stanley Kubrick’s longtime cinematographer John Alcott, is both a document of World War II and a dreamlike meditation on human smallness in a large, incomprehensible machine.

1975 • 84 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.66:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Stuart Cooper, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring Cooper and actor Brian Stirner
• Mining the Archive, a 2007 video piece featuring archivists from London’s Imperial War Museum detailing the footage used in the film
• Capa Influences Cooper, a 2007 photo essay featuring Cooper on photographer Robert Capa
• Cameramen at War, the British Ministry of Information’s 1943 film tribute to newsreel and service film unit cameramen
• A Test of Violence, Cooper’s 1969 short film about the Spanish artist Juan Genovés
• Germany Calling, a 1941 Ministry of Information propaganda film, clips of which appear in Overlord
• Excerpts from the journals of two D-day soldiers, read by Stirner
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones, a short history of the Imperial War Museum, and excerpts from the Overlord novelization by Cooper and Christopher Hudson

TITLE: OVERLORD (Blu-ray edition)
CAT. NO: CC2356BD
UPC: 7-15515-11581-0
ISBN: 978-1-60465-838-5
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 4/15/14
STREET: 5/13/14

Also available on DVD
CAT. NO. CC1689D
UPC 7-15515-02312-2
ISBN 1-934121-33-9
SRP $39.95

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (dual-format Blu-ray/DVD edition & Stand Alone DVD edition)
Abbas Kiarostami has spent his incomparable movie career exploring the tiny spaces that separate illusion from reality and the simulated from the authentic. At first blush, his extraordinary, sly Like Someone in Love, which finds the Iranian director in Tokyo, may appear to be among his most straightforward films. Yet with this simple story of the growing bond between a young part-time call girl and a grandfatherly client, Kiarostami has constructed an enigmatic but crystalline investigation of affection and desire as complex as his masterful Close-up and Certified Copy in its engagement with the workings of the mercurial human heart.

2013 • 109 minutes • Color • 3.0 surround • In Japanese with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital film transfer, supervised by director Abbas Kiarostami, with 3.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Forty-five-minute documentary on the making of the film
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar and critic Nico Baumbach

TITLE: LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE (dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition)
CAT. NO: CC2357BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11591-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-839-2
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 4/22/14
STREET: 5/20/14

DVD-ONLY EDITION
CAT. NO. CC2370DDVD
UPC 7-15515-11831-6
ISBN 978-1-60465-852-1
SRP $24.95
PREBOOK 4/22/14
STREET 5/20/14

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (Blu-ray edition)
Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his crew—Team Zissou—set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly nonexistent Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou’s partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. They are joined on their voyage by a young airline copilot (Owen Wilson); a pregnant journalist (Cate Blanchett); and Zissou’s estranged wife, Eleanor (Anjelica Huston). Wes Anderson (Rushmore) has assembled an all-star cast that also includes Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, Seu Jorge, and Bud Cort for this wildly original adventure comedy.

2004 • 118 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, restored digital transfer, approved by director Wes Anderson, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• Commentary by Anderson and cowriter Noah Baumbach
• New interviews with actors Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum
• This Is an Adventure, a documentary by Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, and Matthew Prinzing chronicling the production of the movie
• Mondo Monda, an Italian talk show featuring an interview with Anderson and Baumbach, hosted by Antonio Monda
• Interview with composer and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh
• Ten performances of David Bowie songs in Portuguese by Brazilian recording artist and actor Seu Jorge
• Intern video journal by actor Matthew Gray Gubler
• Multiple interviews with the cast and crew, featuring behind-the-scenes footage
• Making-of featurette
• Nine deleted scenes
• Behind-the-scenes photos and original artwork from the film
• Trailer
• PLUS: An insert featuring a cutaway view of The Belafonte, the ship from the film, Eric Anderson’s original illustrations, and a conversation between Wes and Eric conducted in 2005

TITLE: THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (Blu-ray edition)
CAT. NO: CC2350BD
UPC: 7-15515-11441-7
ISBN: 978-1-60465-831-6
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 4/29/14
STREET: 5/27/14