'Raging Bull' the centerpiece of Scorsese box set
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
It's increasingly possible Martin Scorsese will finally win his best director Oscar for "The Aviator," but were it possible, the voters would probably turn back the clock to give him the award he deserved for "Raging Bull," the centerpiece of the four-film box set "The Martin Scorsese Film Collection" (MGM, $49.96).
The second Scorsese box to be released in eight months, this doesn't have the heft of Warner's five-film "Martin Scorsese Collection," which contained "GoodFellas" and "Mean Streets." But while the beautifully restored, must-own "Raging Bull" can be purchased separately, it has a list price of $29.98. So Scorsese fans get the other three films in this collection at a decidedly bargain price.
From 1972, "Boxcar Bertha" was Scorsese's second film for Roger Corman's American International Pictures and opened mostly at drive-ins. An unabashed attempt to cash in on the success of "Bonnie and Clyde," it had Barbara Hershey, in her first movie lead after 1969's unsettling "Last Summer," playing a character based on a real-life Depression-era drifter who hooked up with a union organizer (David Carradine), a blues man (Bernie Casey) and a grifter (Barry Primus) to rob trains.
As in most Corman films, the action scenes and the sex scenes are compulsory and precision-timed, but movie fans who saw it at the time were fully aware they were watching a film by a movie-loving director with style and savvy.
Also included here is "The Last Waltz," Scorsese's 1978 film of the guest-star-laden final performance of The Band; with Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense," it is one of the two best concert films ever made. But minus the slipcase, it's the same version already on shelves, with restored footage and other extras included on the limited-edition 2003 release.
To my knowledge, however, this is the first DVD issue of Scorsese's most fascinating failure, the 1977 musical "New York, New York." The director's homage to both the big-band era and the musicals of Vincente Minnelli, it features a decidedly miscast Robert De Niro as a sax player who falls in love with up-and-coming canary Liza Minnelli in an elongated and erratically paced story that owes an all-too-obvious debt to "A Star Is Born."
The DVD, which suffers from a surprisingly mediocre transfer considering Scorsese's effort to replicate the glorious visual design of the hipper MGM musicals, includes a frank introduction from Scorsese, scene-specific commentary by the director and the fine film critic Carrie Rickey, and 20 minutes of outtakes and alternate scenes. But it does nothing to inspire a re-evaluation of the film's reputation. This, "Boxcar" and "Waltz" are all individually priced at $14.95.
On the other hand, the special edition of "Raging Bull" only reinforces its standing as one of the most dramatically searing, exquisitely acted and directed, beautifully photographed (by Michael Chapman) and excitingly edited (by cutter extraordinaire Thelma Schoonmaker ) film biographies of all time.
De Niro's portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta is all it's cracked up to be, and Cathy Moriarty, as the beautiful teenage wife who incites frightening fits of jealousy in the middleweight fighter, looks and acts like a movie-star-in-the-making; that she wasn't only makes Scorsese seem more inspired.
There are no fewer than three commentaries, encompassing the insights of everyone from Schoonmaker (with De Niro, one of the film's only two Oscar winners) and writer Paul Schrader to La Motta and supporting player John Turturro.
The second disc is crammed with extras you may want to watch more than once, including an excellent retrospective documentary; a 26-minute portrait of the real La Motta; and a real treat for fight-movie fans: a dissection of the ring choreography that compares it to the film of the actual fights.
People who argue that Scorsese's fight footage was too stylized may have to revise that opinion after seeing this. We should lift the arms of all involved.
'Shark Tale,' 'Sunset'
Revisionism 101: "Shark Tale" (DreamWorks) — a funny, clever animated comedy about a big-dreaming small fish (the voice of Will Smith) mistaken for a shark killer — had the misfortune of being compared to the overrated "Finding Nemo," but this family-friendly DVD should do swimmingly.
The western drama "Deadwood: The Complete First Season" (HBO) proves to be a lot more than dirty talk and blazing six-shooters; it's no "Sopranos," but it could be.
And if you missed the moving romantic drama "Before Sunset" (Warner), starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as one-night lovers reunited years later — perhaps because you hadn't seen its predecessor, "Before Sunrise" — do yourself a favor and see one or both now. With "Kill Bill Vol. 2," it's the best film of 2004 to go unrecognized in the upcoming Academy Awards.
