Any Ranch That You Can See on Foot Just Isn’t Worth Looking At

by Tony Dayoub

When discussing movies that must be seen on a big screen, old standbys that usually come to mind are Jacques Tati’s Playtime, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and even Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, just released on Blu-ray. One that you rarely hear about is William Wyler’s 1958 epic, The Big Country. Shot in Technirama, Technicolor’s higher-resolution alternative to the CinemaScope process, The Big Country really pushes the limits of pioneer cinematographer Franz F. Planer’s expansive photography. Characters are often dwarfed by the California locations, which are as vast as the film’s title and storyline.

An Epic Rivalry

Fifty-two years after its initial release, Ben-Hur arrives on Blu-ray in a 50th (?) Anniversary Edition

by Tony Dayoub

William Wyler’s Ben-Hur has finally made it onto Blu-ray in a special three-disc collection labeled as the 50th Anniversary Edition, despite the fact that the movie was actually released in 1959 (!?). Well, Warner Home Video’s mistake is our gain, since this gorgeous release is replete with all kinds of semicentennial-flavored goodness. In addition to the previous DVD version’s bounty of extras, the 1925 silent version of the film is again included, although it appears upgraded to 1080p high definition. New to the set is Charlton Heston & Ben-Hur: A Personal Journey, a feature-length hagiography that covers the star’s life offscreen with his family. They would frequently accompany him on extended shoots like the months-long lensing of Ben-Hur in Italy. The documentary is notable mainly for the extensive home-movie footage supplied by Heston’s family. Though perhaps of interest to completists, the Ultimate Collector’s Edition’s only additional extras are a hardbound book of the film’s production art and a hardcover replica of Heston’s personal journal. Otherwise, one can purchase the three-disc collection for a much lower price without all of the UCE’s stuffers...

CONTINUE READING AT NOMAD EDITIONS: WIDE SCREEN

Contender for 2011's Best Looking Blu-ray Is Also the Year's Best Kept Secret

by Tony Dayoub

Besides running my review of the new indie, Beginners, a film I'm sure will end up on my year-end top 10 list, this issue of Nomad Editions Wide Screen also contains my weekly column, DVDs of the Moment. This week, I have the pleasure of discussing the new Blu-ray release of an epic western that has quickly become one of my all-time favorite movies, William Wyler's The Big Country (1958).

Featuring an all-star cast that includes Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston, Carroll Baker, Burl Ives, and Chuck Connors, this shot-in Technirama film is made for high definition, as Jeffrey Wells rather dramatically discusses in his post today at Hollywood Elsewhere. Some may find the fact that it is currently only available online through Wal-Mart, a drawback. But, at just under $10, it is a steal, especially considering that it is a remarkable upgrade from its 2001 DVD release. Though light on extras, there are a few new special features included in the Blu-ray release. More importantly, though, is the fact that the disc's gorgeous transfer is off of the 2007 Academy Restoration.

I've been watching many a classic Blu-ray since I began writing the DVD column, more so because 2011 has turned out to be a watershed year in terms of the number of Blu-ray catalog releases. And I can safely say that along with Paramount's The Ten Commandments (1956) and Warner Archive's remastered The Boy Friend (1971), Fox/MGM's The Big Country is a strong contender for best looking DVD of the year. Sure, the movie rehashes some elements of Wyler's own 1938 "southern," Jezebel (haughty, self-involved heiress irritates her noble fiance enough for him to call their wedding off; climactic pistol duel), but between Franz F. Planer's cinematography, Jerome Moross's Oscar-nominated score, and Heston being Heston (Wyler directed him in Ben-Hur the following year), this movie has a lot to offer tastes both high and low. Why don't you read why I love this movie and its new Blu-ray release?

CONTINUE READING AT NOMAD EDITIONS: WIDE SCREEN

Charlton Heston

by Tony Dayoub

I've seen Charlton Heston in parts great and small. I've seen him keenly underplay a line, and also play so over-the-top that you wonder if he's even in the same movie as his fellow actors. Not only was Heston, the actor, a man of contradictions, but so was Heston, the activist. He courageously supported the civil rights cause in the 60s, while being an outspoken member, and eventual president, of the NRA in his later life. But personally, as well as to many film buffs of my generation, he will always be one of the seminal figures in my own entry into the world of cinema.

He generally played larger-than-life heroes in films by some of Hollywood's greats: Brad Braden in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); Moses in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956); Mike Vargas in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958); Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in Anthony Mann's El Cid (1961); John the Baptist in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); the title character in Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965); and Michelangelo in Carol Reed's The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). He won his only Oscar for the part of Judah Ben-Hur in William Wyler's Ben-Hur (1959).

The first film that I remember him from was Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes (1968), where he played the misanthropic astronaut, Taylor. He was arrogant, tough, wily, and the perfect foil to Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall, and Maurice Evans as the apes. He also brought some of his own activism to the subtext of the part. The cynical loner Taylor, who spends the first half of the film asserting mankind's flaws to his fellow astronauts, must spend the second half of the film defending mankind's virtues to their ape oppressors. His tragic, utter defeat, when he realizes mankind ultimately brought their fate down upon themselves, helps to create one of the most memorable finales in all of cinema.

He would go on to play some memorable parts in the remainder of his career: the eponymous Will Penny (1968); an older, defeated Taylor in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970); Robert Neville in The Omega Man (1971); Detective Robert Thorn in Richard Fleischer's Soylent Green (1973); evil Cardinal Richelieu in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973), and it's sequel (1974).

He died Saturday night at the age of 83.

Recommended Films: Touch of Evil, Ben-Hur, El Cid, Major Dundee, Planet of the Apes, Will Penny, The Omega Man