As good as, or maybe better than, the movie it celebrates is a documentary that has been assembled for the glossy new laserdisc boxed set of “Sophie’s Choice” (Pioneer Special Editions PSE97-104, two discs, letterboxed, $99.98).
The 1982 movie, in which Meryl Streep gained a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a guilt-ridden Holocaust survivor, has been flawlessly transferred to disc, with a separate soundtrack containing running commentary by director Alan J. Pakula.
Seeing Nester Almendros’ superb cinematography so beautifully reproduced would be reward enough, but after the movie comes the motherlode, the nearly one-hour documentary “Death Dreams of Mourning.” Charles Kiselyak, the writer-director-producer of the documentary, treats the movie like a masterpiece, and he has gathered a formidable array of people — novelist William Styron, Pakula, the movie’s stars, plus Holocaust survivors and scholars — to talk about the film’s significance. Into this mix of talking heads he has introduced a chilling series of news clips showing actual scenes from Nazi death camps.
This is an outstanding (and expensive) laserdisc package, one of the best of the year.
Kiselyak’s comprehensive coverage is further illustrated in “On Golden Pond” (Pioneer PSE 97-102, two discs, widescreen, $69.98), which rounds up actors Jane Fonda, Dabney Coleman and Doug McKeon, director Mark Rydell and playwright-scenarist Ernest Thompson for a documentary looking back with great sentiment on the filming of the 1981 film, which won Oscars for Thompson, Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda.
The recent special edition of “Shine” (The Criterion Collection 335, DDSS, widescreen) offers the chance to compare the merits of this laserdisc with the DVD version (New Line Home Video N4546), released earlier this year.
The DVD, at $24.95, offers both widescreen and pan-scan versions of the film, the theatrical trailer, printed information on the actors, multiple language and subtitle choices, a question-and-answer interview with director Scott Hicks, and Geoffrey Rush’s acceptance speech at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards. As usual with DVD, the movie’s colors are deeper, darker and crisper than those in any other home video format.
The laserdisc, at $39.95, provides scene-specific commentary by Hicks and Rush on a separate audio track throughout the movie, plus taped interviews with and performances by pianist David Helfgott. The laserdisc transfer, only in the widescreen version, has a slightly softer image than the DVD picture, but the stereo surround sound, particularly in the crucial concert scenes, is considerably more powerful than that of the DVD.
Which one would you pick?
Another 1997 Oscar winner (for screenplay adaptation), Billy Bob Thornton, gets the special-edition treatment in “Sling Blade” (Criterion 350, two discs, widescreen, $59.95), which includes Thornton offering audio commentary, introducing three deleted scenes from the movie and starring as the central figure in a short documentary on his rags-to-riches success, “Mr. Thornton Goes to Hollywood.”
Curiously, no mention is made on the disc of the 25-minute black-and-white film “Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade,” also featuring Thornton, which preceded the full-length “Sling Blade.” (This featurette can be seen on the excellent DVD “Short Cinema Journal I.”)
“Walkabout” (Criterion 351, widescreen, $49.95), the 1971 film by director-cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, looks beautiful in its laserdisc debut. Special features include audio commentary by Roeg and Jenny Agutter, who appeared as one of two children abandoned in the Australian outback and rescued by a resourceful young Aborigine.
