DVD Pick of the week: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS (First Run Features)
The title tells all in this riveting, award-winning documentary feature from producer/directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, which recounts the real-life story of the Pentagon official who in 1971, realizing the futility of the ongoing Vietnam War, leaked confidential documents to the press that told the truth about the war.
The result, as might be expected (and for those who remember), was an international firestorm of controversy that rocked both the Constitution and the presidency of the United States, and certainly had an impact on the war Ellsberg was trying to halt.
To some, Ellsberg was a hero. To others, a traitor. And to Richard Nixon’s White House, he was the catalyst for the Watergate breakin, thereby linking Ellsberg to both the end of the Vietnam War and the downfall of an American presidency. All because of one man. It’s an almost unbelievable story, and it happens to be true.
This film brings the controversies of yesteryear back into sharp, unblinking focus. It is a trenchant reminder of an era not so far removed from our own, told in concise, compelling and sometimes chilling fashion. Not just a great film, but an important one as well.
ALSO AVAILABLE
BING CROSBY: THE COLLECTION (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): A self-explanatory six-film selection ($49.98 retail) showcasing the talents of Bing Crosby (1903-’77): College Humor (1933) co-stars George Burns and Gracie Allen; Here is My Heart (1934) co-stars Kitty Carlisle and Roland Young; Mississippi (1935) co-stars WC Fields, Gail Patrick and Joan Bennett; Sing, You Sinners (1938) costars Fred MacMurray and Donald O’Connor; Dixie (1943) teams Der Bingle with Dorothy Lamour; and Welcome Stranger (1947) co-stars Joan Caulfield and Crosby’s Going My Way costar and fellow Oscar winner, Barry Fitzgerald.“THE BIONIC WOMAN”: SEASON ONE (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): Lindsay Wagner, who won the Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, plays the title role of Jaime Summers, in all 13 episodes from the 1976 season of the primetime sci-fi ABC-TV series spun off from “The Six Million Dollar Man,” and also featuring Richard Anderson and Martin E Brooks from that series. This four-DVD boxed set retails for $39.98.
CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37 (Alpha Home Entertainment): Monte Hellman directed this belated 1978 spaghetti Western, with Fabio Testi as a gunman hired by the railroad to kill rancher Warren Oates, only to fall in love with his wife (gorgeous Jenny Agutter). Filmmaker Sam Peckinpah turns up in a cameo role as a dime-store novelist, and Ronee Blakley sings the theme song. This was the last film released by Allied Artists, and suffered from spotty distribution as a result, with various cuts and running times. Although this 91-minute version is longer than some previous releases, it’s not the full R-rated version and appears to have been edited for TV.
CRASHING THRU (Alpha Home Entertainment): This 1938 installment of the low-budget “Renfrew of the Royal Mounted” film series features James Newill as the singing Mountie and Warren Hull as his sidekick, this time pursuing hijackers. Other familiar faces on hand include Robert Frazer, Milburn Stone and Dave O’Brien (later to assume the Renfrew role). Clocking in at under an hour, there’s a steady succession of thrills and spills (and a couple of songs), capped off by a riotous biplane climax that the title alludes to.
GROUP SEX (Monarch Home Video): Scattershot comedy with Josh Cooke as a womanizer who encounters his dream girl (Odette Yustman) in a sex-addict therapy group. Greg Grunberg (also a producer and screenwriter), Henry Winkler, Lisa Lampanelli, Tom Arnold, Kurt Fuller, Rob Benedict and an unbilled James Denton also drop by, to little effect. Rated R.
THE HANGOVER (Warner Home Video): An “Extreme Edition” ($33.92 DVD retail, $35.99 Blu-ray retail) of Todd Phillips’ side-splitting, award-winning 2009 comedy about four friends (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha) whose bachelor-party excursion to Las Vegas turns into a comedic cataclysm. One of the highest-grossing comedies in Hollywood history, with the inevitable sequel on its way. Rated R.
“HUMAN TARGET”: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (Warner Home Video): The popular DC Comics series comes to the small screen, in all 12 episodes from the premier 2010 season of the prime-time Fox Network series starring Mark Valley as a bodyguard-forhire with a penchant for danger and risk. Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley round out the regular cast. Three Emmy nominations including Outstanding Stunt Coordination (for the episode “Run”). The DVD boxed set retails for $39.98, the Blu-ray boxed set for $49.99.
“MAGIC & BIRD: A COURTSHIP OF RIVALS” (HBO Home Entertainment) Liev Schreiber narrates this sports documentary ($19.98 retail) tracing the on-court rivalry between NBA superstars Earvin “Magic” Johnson of the LA Lakers and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.
“THE MENTALIST”: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (Warner Home Video): Simon Baker (Emmy nominee as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series) is back in action, in all 23 episodes from the 2009-’10 season of the award-winning, prime-time CBS-TV series about a one-time “psychic” who aids and abets the authorities tackle the toughest cases. The regular cast also includes Robin Tunney, Amanda Righetti, Owain Yeoman and Tim Kang. This five-DVD boxed set retails for $59.98.
“NHL STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS 2010: CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS SPECIAL EDITION” (Warner Home Video): The Windy City’s NHL franchise celebrated its first championship since 1961. Unfortunately, they beat my Philadelphia Flyers to do it. This DVD boxed set features all the highlights, such as they are, and retails for $39.92.
NOT OF THIS EARTH (Shout! Factory): A special-edition re-release of Jim Wynorski’s lowbudget 1988 remake of producer Roger Corman’s 1957 sci-fi shocker (low-budget in its own day), starring Traci Lords in her first mainstream role as a sexy young nurse to a mysterious businessman (Arthur Roberts), who is actually a bloodthirsty alien from outer space. Silly and lowbrow, but camp humor carries it. Rated R.
PHILLY HOOPS: THE SPHAS AND THE WARRIORS (Alpha Home Entertainment): Writer/producer/director James Rosin’s 2003 documentary traces the history of professional basketball and its direct relationship to the city of Philadelphia, in particular the earliest years, an era in which the SPHAs (a team sponsored by the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) and the Philadelphia Warriors were prominent. An enjoyable and informative romp through sports nostalgia, narrated by broadcaster Bill Campbell.
SEX AND THE CITY 2 (Warner Home Video): The second big-screen spin-off from the award-winning HBO series, based on Candace Bushnell’s best-selling novels, proves a case of the terrible twos — an overlong, irritating comedy that does its best and worst to squander any goodwill toward its principal characters, again played by Sarah Jessica Parker (also an executive producer), Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. Chris Noth and John Corbett also reprise their series roles, with Liza Minnelli as herself. One the year’s worst films. Rated R.
THE TERROR WITHIN/DEAD SPACE DOUBLE FEATURE (Shout! Factory): A DVD twin-bill ($19.93 retail) of low-budget sciencefiction thrillers from producer Roger Corman: George Kennedy and Andrew Stevens headline 1988’s underground monster mash The Terror Within (**); and Marc Singer stars in 1990’s interstellar monster mash Dead Space (*), the latter of which borrows considerable footage and story ideas from previous Corman films. Love that Roger! Both films are rated R.
TOO HOT TO HANDLE (Alpha Home Entertainment): Also released as Fig Leaf Frolics (!), this delirious bit of nostalgia (released in 1950) showcases comedy and burlesque as presented by “Lillian Hunt’s Blond Beauties” (although not all of the girls are blondes). Some 60 years later, this seems almost quaint in retrospect, but at the time was (gasp!) scandalous. The stand-up comedy routines are cringingly bad — and all the more funny as a result.
