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TOP 11 DVD’S OF 2008 by Oren Shai

WHITE DOG (Criterion)

Sam Fuller marks his target and attacks it head on. He has no time for subtlety, no reason for finesse and no patience for bullshit. In 1982, at age 70, his directorial style was even more brutal and intense then in his young days. Criterion deserves a lot of credit for releasing this cult classic about a dog that has been trained by white supremacists to attack and kill anyone whose skin is black. WHITE DOG is a raw, visually exploitive, unrelenting commentary of racism in America. This is a tour de force of directing, if for nothing else then for the characterization of the dog, who becomes human-like and reminiscent of a villain in the era’s slasher films.

MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (Bac)

Orson Welles said that this 1937 Leo McCarey classic could “make a stone cry”. He was right. Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi star as an elderly couple who are forced to separate when they lose their home. As each lives with another of their children, they dream of reuniting once more. Why this great film is only available in France is unclear, as it should be hailed as an American classic. But this was the case upon its initial release as well, when the award-circle snubbed it. Upon receiving the Academy Award for his second production of that year, THE AWFUL TRUTH, McCarey called the Academy out: “Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture.”

THE Jacques Demy BOX-SET (Arte video)

This set may be the single best DVD release of 2008 but unfortunately it’s not yet available in the United States. The 12 discs include Demy’s entire output of features and shorts. Completely unique amongst the French New Wave directors, Demy was a hopeless romantic, heavily influenced by the golden age of the Hollywood Musical. In THE UMRELLAS OF CHERBURG (1964) songs replace all dialog; The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), his most lavish tribute to the classic musical features Gene Kelly in an inspired cameo; The more obscure MODEL SHOP (1969), a sequel to his classic film, LOLA (1961), features the title character in her misguided search for love in Los Angeles; THREE PLACES FOR THE 26TH (1988), Demy’s final film is available here for the first time. It stars Yves Montand as himself, returning to his hometown to stage a romanticized musical of his life. The line between reality, nostalgia and the musical that Demy often dealt with reaches an unexpected peak in this must-see rarity. Ordering the Jacques Demy collection from France is pricy but worth every penny (or Euro).

THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER (Sony Home Entertainment)

I second every word written by Roy Frumkes about this wonderful and well-deserved collection in his top-ten list.

THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB PRESENTS: ANNETTE (Walt Disney)

I previously reviewed this wonderful set (to be found in the latest Christmas Stocking column). Here’s an excerpt: ANNETTE stars Walt Disney’s favorite, and only, hand-picked member of the Mickey Mouse Club, Annette Funicello, as a dark-skinned farm girl who moves in with her aunt and uncle in an all-white, middle-class American suburb. She soon finds a friend in the class hunk, Steve, and a nemesis in his rich, snotty girlfriend, Laura. Other characters include Jet, a farm girl who is not a member on the cool-crowd, and Steady Ware, an always-hungry, dancing-pro, loud-mouthed youngster who hangs out with the older teenagers. Steady, holding up a giant, raw steak and telling the girl obsessed with him to beat off, is a sight to be seen. This lightweight soap is the closest live action could get to an Archie comic book (certainly more then ARCHIE: TO RIVERDALE AND BACK AGAIN, 1990).

MANDINGO (Legend Films)

Like Fuller’s WHITE DOG, there’s no bullshit here. Richard Fleischer’s film is one of the most brutally honest depictions of African American slavery ever put on film. Instead of taking the “Hollywood” route – telling a story in which there is either hope for the future or a hint at the seeds of abolition – there is no uplifting moral at the end of MANDINGO, just more of the same. This unapologetic approach made it easier to disregard MANDINGO as a “camp classic” or an exploitation film instead of confronting it as a pointing finger at a long and shameful era in history and to the cruelty that men are capable of.

REDACTED (Magnolia)

Cahiers du cinéma picked Brian De Palma’s latest as the best of 2008. Since it was released theatrically in the US in 2007, it should at the very least be considered one of the best DVD’s of the year. De Palma experiments with mediums and narrative forms by intercutting between home video footage shot by an American soldier, a French documentary on the war and various online video sites. The main plotline calls to mind his 1989 film CASUALTIES OF WAR, drawing a direct line, both real and cinematic, between the Iraq and Vietnam wars. Among the many films to come out in recent years in protest of the war, REDACTED hails as King.

THE FURIES (Criterion) / MAN OF THE WEST (United Artists)

Anthony Mann is one of the greatest American Western directors. Period. And these two takes on ‘King Lear’, are among his best. THE FURIES, a dark family melodrama set in 1870 New Mexico was made in 1950 (same year as Mann’s great WINCHESTER ’73). It is one of the most unique and perverse Westerns you will ever watch and it features the great Walter Huston in his last (and possibly best) performance.

As for the Gary Cooper starrer, MAN OF THE WEST (1958), Godard put it best: “Just as the director of BIRTH OF A NATION gave one the impression that he was inventing the cinema with every shot, each shot of MAN OF THE WEST gives one the impression that Anthony Mann is reinventing the Western.”

Aki Kaurismäki’s Proletariat Trilogy (SHADOWS IN PARADISE / ARIEL / THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL) (Criterion)

Don’t expect to find a director with a dryer sense of humor then Kaurismaki, a Finnish parallel to Jim Jarmusch – or vice versa (Jarmusch has a cameo in his LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA, 1989). Always a champion of the Finnish every-man, Kaurismaki is one of the great European directors of the past 3 decades. Thanks to Criterion, viewers in the US can finally see why. If you have never seen any of his films, start here, then move to THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST (2002) and the LENINGRAD COWBOYS films. For more, drop Criterion a line to release a Vol. 2!

DEATH PROOF [BLUE-RAY] (Weinstein Company)

Yes, DEATH PROOF came out on DVD in 2007, but any new release of this cinematic achievement demands notice, this year in Blue-Ray, maybe next year as a 3D View-Master reel. Quentin Tarantino’s film combines the no-bullshit approach of Fuller above and the experimental courage of Godard to tell an exploitation-inspired story in a complex double narrative. Look beyond the prism of the “cinema of cool” stereotype stuck to Tarantino’s films and find the greatest American director of our generation.

…and the Best Film of 2008. Best to-be DVD in 2009 and Best of the Decade in 2010:

GRAN TORINO

Since I already wrote an extensive article about the genius of GRAN TORINO, I’d like to close with an insightful observation by David N. Meyer at The Brooklyn Rail: “Having begun the cycle of revisionist Westerns by being (in Clint’s words) “the first hero to ever fire first,” Clint here repudiates forty-four years of on-screen bloodletting by refusing to fire at all.”

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