'Kid' entertains through embellishment

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

•

'Chicago' makes debut on DVD "Chicago" fans need wait no longer. The eagerly awaited DVD version of the Oscar-winning musical was released this week by Miramax. The tale of two femmes fatales in the flapper era stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones (winner for best supporting actress) and Richard Gere as a slick lawyer. It was directed by Rob Marshall and won six Academy Awards, including one for best picture.

"Kid," released theatrically in 2001, was inspired by Evans' richly entertaining, self-serving and not-to-be-trusted autobiography. The book is even better enjoyed as an audio book read by Evans in his trademark swinger's rumble, a staccato that has inspired a million Hollywood imitations.

Portions of the audio book are recycled as the narration for the film, in which the present-day Evans is glimpsed only in silhouette at the beginning and end. The rest unfolds in photographs, vintage TV appearances and clips from the movies Evans produced, which just happen to be some of the greatest films of the last great period of American moviemaking, the '70s.

If you believe Evans, he is personally responsible for "The Godfather" and "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" — but then he also takes credit for the sappy smash hit "Love Story" and his first ill-fated comeback, "The Cotton Club," so it balances out.

Co-directors Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein made a smart decision in leaving Evans' account of his career unchallenged by the usual talking-head interviews, which allows us to revel in anecdotes that have obviously been embellished and polished to the point of legend.

The DVD supplements include a commentary by the directors and portions of a "Nightline" segment inspired by the film's release. Best of all, there's a gag reel, most of it filmed on the set of "Marathon Man," with Roy Scheider and Dustin Hoffman doing Evans imitations. Hoffman would turn his into something of a cottage industry, using it to portray Mumbles in "Dick Tracy" and the Evans-like producer who stages a war in "Wag the Dog."

Surreal enjoyment

"Bowling for Columbine" (MGM), Michael Moore's Oscar-winning look at America's love affair with guns, takes a few liberties with the truth itself — although Moore, whose ego may be bigger than Evans', will spend an hour or so rebutting that if you let him. Better to just enjoy the film, released last year, although "enjoy" seems to be an odd word to describe a movie that uses the Colorado high school massacre — seen on the surveillance camera tapes — as its stepping-off point.

Moore uses his credentials as a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association in an attempt to persuade us that his public image as a knee-jerk liberal provocateur is a simplification. And to his credit, "Bowling" is anything but a harangue. It balances his well-planned stunts, like opening an account at a Michigan bank that offers a free gun as an incentive, with serious looks at America's lifelong romance with firearms. And it forces us to look at the infamous killing of a classmate by a 6-year-old with an unregistered gun in a very different light from what was reported in most news outlets.

The extras include what the packaging promotes as his now-famous Oscar acceptance speech, in which he was booed for his "Shame on you, Mr. Bush" tirade. In truth, it's his re-creation of the speech, since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences would not let him use the broadcast footage.

Musical medley

It's a good week for musicals, beginning with my favorite of the past quarter-century, 1979's "All That Jazz" (20th Century Fox). Often described as director Bob Fosse's "8 1/2," it's the story of a Fosse-like director and choreographer coping with the casting of a new Broadway musical, the editing of a "Lenny"-like movie, an ex-wife, his dancer girlfriend (a gorgeous Ann Reinking, basically playing herself) and the specter of Death (played by Jessica Lange, who was Fosse's girlfriend at the time).

Surreal, sublime and sensational, it deserves a more elaborate DVD treatment than it received; the only extra is screen-specific commentary by Roy Scheider. But the opening number, "Fly Me," is worth the price of admission.

Fox has also released "Hello, Dolly!" and 1979's "The Rose." The former, the film version of the Broadway musical starring Barbra Streisand as matchmaker Dolly Levi, is almost as difficult to sit through now as it was when released in 1969. The latter has Bette Midler in her first starring role, as a thinly disguised Janis Joplin, longing for love and spiraling out of control. A product of its time, it has not aged especially well.

By contrast, Fox's "Simon and Garfunkel — The Concert in Central Park," originally shown on HBO shortly after the duo's brief 1981 reunion, is a true treat, mixing S&G standards with tunes from Simon's solo songbook. Just the thing to get you in the mood for the rumored fall tour.