Prine, Andrew

Gettysburg (Widescreen Edition)

Depicts the famous Civil War battle which was the turning point of the war.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: BERENGER/DANIELS/SHEEN
Title: GETTYSBURG
Street Release Date: 06/21/2005
Domestic
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE

Three days in the summer of 1863, at a place called Gettysburg. Although it received a theatrical release, this four-hour depiction of the bloody Civil War battle was shot as a made-for-television film. But no taint of cheapness or shortcuts should stick to this magnificent picture (well, except maybe for those phony-looking mustaches). Based on Michael Shaara's book The Killer Angels, this film takes a refreshingly slow, thorough approach to the intricacies of battle. In ordinary circumstances, those intricacies might seem of importance only to fans of military strategy or Civil War enthusiasts, yet in Gettysburg they come across as the very stuff of life, death, and unexpected heroism. If the film has a problem, it's that it climaxes too early: the first long segment, detailing the struggle of a "civilian soldier," Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels), to hold his ground against long odds, is an enthralling piece of moviemaking. Daniels, in a heartbreaking performance, does his best film work. Other cast members include Tom Berenger, Sam Elliott, and Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee. Richard Jordan, in his final role, gives a powerhouse performance as Confederate general Lewis A. Armistead. Oh, and you can also try to spot Ted Turner, whose company produced the film, as a Confederate soldier. Writer-director Ronald F. Maxwell seems inspired by the gravity of the battle; long as it is, every moment of Gettysburg is informed by a nobility of purpose. --Robert Horton

The Miracle Worker

Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft had been playing their respective roles as Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, on Broadway for some time before director Arthur Penn (The Left-Handed Gun) built a mesmerizingly beautiful film around their layers-deep performances. Duke is astonishing as the deaf, blind, mute Keller, who awakens to an awareness of language under Sullivan's determined guidance. Bancroft is fascinating and focused. Penn wisely kept his adaptation unencumbered by cinematic indulgence. The black-and-white film is sparse and charged with the immediacy of the drama. The script is by William Gibson, who also wrote the original play. --Tom Keogh

Starring in what is quite possibly the most moving double performance ever recorded on film (Time), Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke are remarkable in their OscarÂ(r)-winning* portrayalsof Annie and Helen. Ennobling and uplifting (Variety), this inspirational story of courageand hope is one of the finest works of art in the history of motion pictures (Boxoffice). Locked in a frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness since infancy, 7-year-old Helen Keller has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. ThenAnnie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touchthe only tool they have in commonand leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light. *1962: Actress (Bancroft); Supporting Actress (Duke)

V - The Final Battle

Though followers of current science fiction television series may dismiss V: The Final Battle as a quaint relic from the pre-computer animation days, the six-hour miniseries about an alien invasion of Earth was a ratings juggernaut for NBC in 1984 and should still provide some entertainment for hard-bitten devotees and fans of '50s-style sci-fi. The Final Battle picks up four months after the shock conclusion of the 1983 prequel miniseries, with a small group of humans known as the Resistance struggling to convince their fellow humans that a fleet of seemingly friendly visitors from space are in fact bent on world domination.

Executive producer Kenneth Johnson (who oversaw most aspects of the first series) only supervised the sequel's script (which underwent several changes before its airing), and the writing occasionally suffers due to the lack of his attention. But the series still delivers its share of action and intrigue, as well as one showstopping gruesome moment involving the birth of interspecies twins. Acting is again a stumbling block, with leads Marc Singer and Faye Grant as bland as any performers from the American International Pictures stable; character actor Michael Ironside makes the strongest impression as a tough Resistance member, and a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund is amusing as a kind-hearted alien. The miniseries was followed by an inevitable weekly series featuring most of the same cast, which was demolished in the ratings by Dallas, but a faithful Resistance-like following remains to this day. --Paul Gaita

Marc Singer, Robert Englund and Michael Ironside in the thrilling sequel miniseries about human resistance to alien invaders - from the birth of the first interspecies child to a harrowing countdown to nuclear doomsday.

DVD Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access

V - The Original TV Miniseries

In its day, V was a monumental event that for one generation remains a pop-culture touchstone. Close Encounters of the Third Kind may have reassured us that perhaps we have nothing to fear from alien visitors and E.T. introduced us to a benign extraterrestrial who only wanted to go home, but Kenneth Johnson's 1983 television miniseries knew better. Visitors who claim to come in peace are revealed to be nothing but human-looking reptilians on human conversion and conquest. As in the dark days of fascism, some collaborate with the enemy; others form the resistance.

At the time, the epic scale of this production was unprecedented. Those 50 motherships that hover over Earth's major cities anticipate Independence Day by more than a decade. The special effects and makeup are still awesome. Less so is the often-hackneyed dialogue. But thanks to their signature roles, the mostly no-star cast, most of whom would be reunited for a sequel and subsequent television series, have ensured themselves standing invitations to sci-fi conventions. Marc Singer is cameraman-turned-freedom-fighter Mike Donovan. Julie Parrish is a medical student-turned-rebel. Richard Herd is the aliens' supreme commander. Jane Bradler is Diana, the ravishing but ruthlessly ambitious alien science officer. Leonardo Cimino lends dignity to his heavy-handed allegorical role as a Holocaust survivor. Look for a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund as one of the aliens.

The DVD is presented for the first time in widescreen format. Supplemental features include an amiable and enlightening director's commentary and a brief "making of" segment. --Donald Liebenson

Aliens pretending to be friendly come to Earth and are received openly. The aliens have masqueraded themselves to look just like humans. When it is discovered that the aliens' planet is dying and that they have come to rape the Earth of its natural resources, the war for Earth begins. An important key to the humans' success is distinguishing the their own from the aliens.

Rooster Cogburn (...and the Lady)

Chisum

Chisum showcases John Wayne in the twilight of his remarkable 200+-film career. As John Chisum a real-life cattle king determined to protect his empire against a land-grabbing developer (Forrest Tucker). Wayne's no-nonsense persona snugly fits this lively reworking of the events of New Mexico's 1878 Lincoln County War. "Directed in fine sagebrush style by Andrew V. McLaglen and beautifully photographed by William H. Clothier" (The Warner Bros. Story) Chisum is the kind of sweeping brawling Western that made Wayne endure as a star.Running Time: 111 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: G UPC: 085391158592 Manufacturer No: 115859

Although Chisum stars John Wayne--playing a benign variation on his Red River empire-builder --he's curiously sidelined in this umpteenth retelling of Pat Garrett, William Bonney, and the Lincoln County War. Sam Peckinpah would direct the world-class version of that götterdämmerung, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, three years later. This version, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen in a slightly less broad vein than usual, is just odd--not least because it omits Garrett and Bonney's celebrated final confrontation. Geoffrey Deuel's Billy is a pleasant juvenile who scarcely seems delinquent, let alone murderously psychotic. Glenn Corbett's characterization of Garrett consists mainly of wearing a seriously BIG hat. There's an irksome rivalry for Chisum's perky niece (Pamela McMyler), and a Dominic Frontiere score that's the Western equivalent of elevator music. Chief scoundrel Forrest Tucker seems bored, but Christopher George, Richard Jaeckel, and Bruce Cabot get some juice into their villainy. --Richard T. Jameson

The Devil's Brigade

William Holden gives a heroic cool-under-fire performance as the leader of WWII's renowned 1st Special Service Force in this fact-based battle-filled saga that also stars Cliff Robertson.System Requirements:Starring: Vince Edwards William Holden and Cliff Robertson. Running Time: 131 Min. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616875778 Manufacturer No: 1003428

Dismissed in 1968 as a plodding rip-off of The Dirty Dozen--without that 1967 film's sardonic, antiestablishment satire--The Devil's Brigade now plays like a nostalgic last gasp of the sentimental World War II action genre. Celebrating the 1st Special Service Force (a commando-like unit formed to fight in Norway but ultimately deployed in Italy), this typically broad Andrew V. McLaglen production recounts the teaming of some miscreant GIs with "the handpicked best of the best-trained army in the world"--the Canadians--under a U.S. officer (William Holden) who had never commanded men in combat. The first hour, heavy on machismo and low comedy, depicts the unit's training at an abandoned base in Montana, with nonstop international rivalry until Yanks and Canadians bond in a lusty saloon brawl. After that, the Germans are easy meat. Holden is solid, as usual, and so is the widescreen work of veteran cameraman William H. Clothier, impeccably rendered on the DVD. --Richard T. Jameson

Dallas - The Complete Fourth Season

Following a tumultuous third season that culminated in the shooting of likeable villain J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) by an unknown assailant, Dallas: The Complete Fourth Season is relatively tame by comparison. Still, it begins with no fewer than four episodes stretching out the mystery of who (from a wide field of candidates) actually shot J.R., with the victim's alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), looking like the chief suspect. Meanwhile, with J.R. out of commission and possibly paralyzed by a bullet pressing against his spine, brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) reluctantly takes the reins of Ewing Oil at the insistence of his father, Jock (Jim Davis). Prepared to buy a refinery at a bargain price—something Jock always wanted but J.R. could never deliver—Bobby is set to take Ewing Oil to a new level of success, but finds his authority undercut by J.R., who is pulling strings from his hospital bed.

Another suspect in the shooting, Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), brother of Bobby's wife, Pam (Victoria Principal), tries to jumpstart his return to Texas politics by making trouble for the Ewings in the Texas legislature. Bobby himself, burned out on the family business, tries his own hand at the state senate, a useful place to be once Jock and Ewing matriarch Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes), mired in a personal conflict that heads toward divorce, find themselves on opposite sides in a land dispute. Other story threads include a rocky marriage between granddaughter Lucy (Charlene Tilton) and a medical student (Leigh McCloskey), and extramarital distraction for lonely Pam and Sue Ellen. Perhaps the biggest scandal of the season is J.R.'s manipulation of a counterrevolution in the Southeast Asian country where Ewing Oil fields were disastrously nationalized--a crime that could come back to haunt him. --Tom Keogh

Dallas - The Complete Fifth Season

The saga of the wealthy Ewing family continues in its fifth season - full of sibling wars adultery reconciliation and power struggles. In its fifth season the Ewing Family is struck by tragedy when Jock is presumed dead in a plane crash J.R. schemes to gain ultimate power over the Ewing business and battles for custody of his son and ultimately tries to win Sue Ellen's love back. Bobby adopts Kristin's baby and gets caught up in a murder charge.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569755543 Manufacturer No: 75554

Blink while watching Dallas: The Complete Fifth Season, and one might miss some of the fastest moving nastiness ever seen on the granddaddy of primetime soaps. Hovering over everything is the tragic loss of grizzled patriarch Jock Ewing (Jim Davis, who died prior to season 5), off on business in South America but dead before he returns to Southfork Ranch and the arms of Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes). While the widow grieves for her loss, charming scoundrel J.R. (Larry Hagman) finds new lows to reach as he conspires to woo estranged wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) back to Southfork and blackmail younger brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) into abandoning his shares in Ewing Oil, thus giving J.R. control. Even J.R.'s schemes mask deeper ploys: getting back Sue Ellen means getting back their toddler son, John Ross, which means adding John Ross's ten shares to J.R.'s arsenal. Sheesh.

There's also more collateral damage than ever from J.R.'s machinations, notably the complete destruction of chronic loser Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), whose romantic overtures toward Sue Ellen stand in J.R.'s way. Not only does poor Cliff lose Sue Ellen's affections, he falls hook, line, and sinker for a fake deal dangled by a J.R. confederate, costing him the respect and support of his family and threatening his health. But there's also the infant son of Sue Ellen's late sister to think about: Bobby and baby-starved Pam (Victoria Principal) want to adopt him, but J.R. claims to be the father and threatens to take the boy away. (How do most of these people manage to live under the same Southfork roof?) Meanwhile, young Lucy (Charlene Tilton) deals with divorce and the emotional aftermath of being held hostage, and Jock's son Ray (Steve Kanaly) threatens his marital stability with impulsive investments in real estate. Everything comes to a head with a new eruption in the old Ewing-Barnes family feud, and an internal fight for control of the Ewing empire. Down and dirty, and completely irresistible. A nice special feature provides a tour of the real-life Southfork ranch. --Tom Keogh

They're Playing with Fire

A beautiful British professor seduces one of her young male students and afterwards offers him a chance to "make a great deal of money." Later however the young man finds himself in the middle of of a bizzare murder investigation.Runtime: 109 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 013131486292 Manufacturer No: DV14862