Building a DVD library—the Warner way: the Warner Home Video backlist, with more than a dozen of the American Film Institute's 100 Best American Films, is a treasure trove for collectors - Entertainment

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), March, 2003 by Robert S. Rothenberg

Deliverance (109 minutes, $19.98) is based on the novel by James Dickey, who also wrote the screenplay and appears onscreen as a southern sheriff, a rare triple play. This harrowing adventure story follows a quartet of friends--Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, Ronnie Cox, and Burt Reynolds--who take a canoe trip down a Georgia fiver and find themselves in a desperate struggle for survival. Reynolds, eschewing his usual good-old-boy lightweight charm, is a particular revelation, leaving viewers to wonder why he seems to have always taken the easy way out in choosing other roles. The picture and director John Boorman received 1972 Academy Award nominations, losing out to "The Godfather" and Bob Fosse (for "Cabaret"). The DVD features a behind-the-scenes documentary, "The Dangerous World of Deliverance," which vividly demonstrates how many of the spectacular water scenes were filmed.

The Man Who Would Be King (129 minutes, $19.98), based on a story by Rudyard Kipling, is director/screenwriter John Huston's epic adventure tale that follows a pair of rogue 19th-century British sergeants, played bigger than life by Sean Connery and Michael Caine, who set out to create their own empire in the fictional mountain country of Kafiristan, only to fall victim to greed and hubris just when immense fiches and power are in their hands. The 1975 film not only succeeds as a rollicking cinematic costume drama, but lends insights into the mindset of countries of the region such as Afghanistan and how their culture clashes with that of the West. "Call It Magic: The Making of The Man Who Would Be King" is the main special feature.

The Shawshank Redemption (142 minutes, $19.98), adapted from a short story by Stephen King, in one of his occasional forays away from the horror genre, proved a sleeper hit in 1994 and has approached the status of a near-cult film since then. The prison tale is a far cry from the old James Cagney-Humphrey Bogart potboilers, coming closer at times to the brutal cable television series "Oz." The picture was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but won none, running into a "Forrest Gump" juggernaut that beat it out for best picture and saw Tom Hanks take best actor over Morgan Freeman's reluctantly compassionate convict. There are no significant special features on the DVD.

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC

Singin' in the Rain (103 minutes, $26.99), 10th on the AFI list, is arguably the greatest musical ever made, one that continues to garner awards since its 1952 release, despite the fact that it was regarded as just another MGM musical when that studio ground it out a half-century ago, as Broadway writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green were brought in to cobble together a picture built around the songs of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, which the studio owned. The resulting satire of Hollywood on the cusp of moving out of the silent film era remains a delight, highlighted by the exuberant performances of Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, and Jean Hagen, whose uproarious portrayal of a squeaky voiced star ill-adapted for talkies won her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination, though she lost to Gloria Grahame ("The Bad and the Beautiful"). The 50th Anniversary Edition two-disc DVD is loaded with special features, including a "Making of ..." documentary, "What a Glorious Feeling"; a near-feature-length examination of the career of songwriter/producer Arthur Freed, "Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM"; outtakes; excerpts of other movies from which the Freed-Brown songs originated; and interviews with O'Connor, Reynolds, Comden and Green, codirector (with Kelly) Stanley Donen, and dancers Cyd Charisse and Rim Moreno, both of whom are featured in the picture, among others.