Last week I neglected to post my DVD pick of the week, but the pickings were slim and I couldn’t recommend anything. This week there are plenty of great new DVD releases to get excited about such as Polart’s release of Andrzej Zulawski’s The Devil
I’ve been really happy to see Lindsay Anderson’s films finding there way onto on DVD this year. Anderson is one of my favorite British directors and one of the most important figures of the British New Wave, but his early films have often been hard to see in the U.S. and they were never made available on DVD until recently. Thankfully that’s finally changing. Criterion released Anderson’s brilliant If…. (1968) on DVD earlier this year and they recently announced their plans to release This Sporting Life (1963) in early 2008. Now Warner has entered into the Anderson DVD arena with their impressive Deluxe 2 Disc release of O Lucky Man! which as I mentioned over at Cinedelica earlier this week, promises to be one of the best DVD releases of the year.
O Lucky Man! is the second film in Lindsay Anderson’s trilogy focused around the character of Michael Arnold Travis aka Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) who first appeared in If…. and made his last appearance in Anderson’s Britannia Hospital
Recommended Links:
- My write-up on Warner’s new O Lucky Man! Two-Disc Special Edition DVD at Cinedelica
- Tim Lucas talks about Malcolm McDowell
- The Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation
What a great movie! I remember this and if were two “finalists” for my selections for 68 and 73 and I referred to the director as the “ever under-rated Lindsey Anderson.” It’s amazing to me still how many people are unaware of his work. I’d like to think this DVD will change that but I think it will be sold to it’s built-in audience and not venture far past that. And it’s the first movie where most of us got to know Helen Mirren, such an excellent actress.
And as you and I have lamented so many times before, Malcolm McDowell is so good in this and so many other films - and has never been nominated - ONCE! Not ONCE! It boggles the mind! With Helen Mirren just finally winning her first Oscar I hope that Malcolm is not far behind. He is long overdue.
Comment by Jonathan Lapper — October 26, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
I’ve never seen this one, but it sounds great. Plus I’ll watch anything that Malcolm McDowell is in. I’ll have to check it out. Hope you’re having a good weekend.
Comment by Keith — October 27, 2007 @ 1:36 pm
Jonathan - I think 60s-70s era British cinema in general tends to often be overlooked a lot due to the lackluster critical response so many of that countries films got during their initial release, which is a shame. Anderson is really brilliant and I’m very happy that his work is finally finding its way onto DVD this year.
I’m also not surprised McDowell has been overlooked by the Academy since in the early stages of his career he tended to work in more experimental or cutting-edge films. Hopefully he’ll get more interesting roles soon. I haven’t seen a lot of recent films, but Tim Lucas (who I linked to above) seems to have enjoyed many of them.
Keith - I hope you get a chance to see it soon now that it’s available on DVD! My weekend’s going great and I hope yours is too.
Comment by cinebeats — October 28, 2007 @ 10:48 am