'Docurama' collection includes award nominees

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

John Travolta and Rene Russo starred in "Get Shorty," which hits the shelves a week before the sequel "Be Cool" hits the theaters. Gannett News Service

I was in line for a doc back at the 1999 festival when I heard that New Video executives Steve Savage and Susan Margolin decided to launch a nonfiction label called Docurama; it now has a catalog of nearly 100 titles. They range from the pioneering cinema verite work of Robert Drew — 1960s "Primary" and 1963's "Crisis" — to 2003's Sundance audience and director's award winner "My Flesh and Blood." The label's best seller has been D.A. Pennebaker's classic look at Bob Dylan in his prime, 1967's "Don't Look Back."

The label has now compiled many of its most acclaimed titles in a box set called "The Docurama Awards Collection," containing 12 movies that have been nominated for or won Academy Awards, not to mention dozens of other prizes.

The oldest is the 1979 Oscar winner "Scared Straight!" documenting the program that sent youthful offenders to prison to see what life was like; the most recent is the 2004 nominee "The Weather Underground," a history of the violent American revolutionaries.

Among the others are "Best Boy," Ira Wohl's poignant portrait of his 52-year-old retarded cousin; "From Mao To Mozart," following Isaac Stern on a concert tour of China; "Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision," about the architecture student who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and "Dancemaker," about the tireless and innovative choreographer Paul Taylor and his dance company.

The set also includes "Genghis Blues" and "Speaking in Strings," two very different documentaries about two very different musicians: the former is about Paul Pena, a blind blues singer studying the ancient art of throat singing, the latter deals with passionate, expressive classical violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg .

"Regret to Inform" delivers a powerful account of an American war widow who visits Vietnam decades after her husband's death in an effort to resolve questions and emotional issues. "Sound and Fury" finds deaf parents deliberating over whether their daughter should have an operation that could allow her to hear.

Completing the set are "Children Underground," about children rendered homeless by war in Eastern Europe, and "Murder on a Sunday Morning," a riveting investigation of a killing attributed to a 15-year-old black coerced into signing a confession.

All of the above are available individually.

Extra 'heat'

Any short list of the best crime dramas of the last 10 years would include, if not be topped by, Michael Mann's "Heat," which finally gets a much deserved two-disc special edition (Warner).

While there are 11 deleted scenes, they total only 10 minutes of viewing time and add nothing to the story of Los Angeles police Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and his dogged desire to take down unflappable master thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and his gang.

Much was made of the onscreen pairing of De Niro and Pacino, who had shared billing in "The Godfather Part II," but no scenes. But while the elongated coffee shop sit-down between the two is akin to movie acting master class, sharp eyes will notice they hardly ever share the same frame. There is so much else going well in this film it barely matters. The epic daylight shootout is worth the price of admission, as is the tenuous romance between De Niro and Amy Brenneman.

The special edition benefits from a new, if laconic, commentary from Mann; an hour-long documentary about the film's production, and a 10-minute dissection of the diner scene.

Crime pays

A very different crime caper from the same year, Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of "Get Shorty" has also been afforded a special edition (MGM) in anticipation of the theatrical release of a sequel, "Be Cool," on March 4.

Based on the Elmore Leonard novel about a mob enforcer named Chili (John Travolta), who becomes a Hollywood insider when he's sent there to collect a debt from a producer (Gene Hackman), Leonard said at the time he thought it the best adaptation of any of his crime novels to date.

Agonizing hokum

Having finally had my own cool seriously challenged by a visit to the Sistine Chapel last year, I found myself actually anticipating the DVD release of "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (Fox), the 1965 adaptation of Irving Stone's novel about Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and his relationship with warrior Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison), who commissioned the ceiling masterpiece.

It was as hokey and overacted as ever, not discounting the scene in which the work is finished, the music swells and director Carol Reed seems to be asking God himself to approve his own offering.