'Sky Captain' visual design excels

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

Gwyneth Paltrow, as reporter Polly Perkins, co-stars with Jude Law, who plays Joe Sullivan, in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," a new DVD. It's 106 minutes of pure entertainment, plus extras. Advertiser library photo

Admittedly, my much earlier reaction to "Raiders" was in part nostalgic, a consequence of my abiding love for the serials that were still being shown at the neighborhood theater of my youth. But with "Sky Captain" — now available on DVD (Paramount) — that feeling was augmented by the incredible visual design, created entirely in a computer by first-time director Kerry Conran.

Conran let his imagination and love of old films from "King Kong" to "Metropolis" run rampant in telling the story of the dashing Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), whose private air force is enlisted to help the pre-World War II U.S. government respond to an attack by giant robots controlled by mysterious mastermind.

It means, however, that Joe has to team up with reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), a clinch-waisted cross between Kate Hepburn and Jean Arthur.

Most reviewers saw "Sky Captain" as an oft-told, campy tale tricked up with astounding art deco/German Expressionist computer effects. I, on the other hand, saw it as the most purely entertaining 106 minutes I spent at the movies last year.

I could use this space to recant or qualify my initial excitement, and truth is, the film does not have the same impact on my 32-inch TV screen as it did in the theater. But if this is the only way I'll ever see it again, it's better than nothing. The DVD also contains the very short film that Conran, a former animator, worked on for years that was used to get backing for the feature version. There are also five featurettes, the best of which focuses on how the backgrounds were created, but all of them capture the enthusiasm that was poured into the project.

Note: "Sky Captain" is being released in both wide- and full-screen versions, but for a film as artfully composed as this one, full screen version is not the way to go.

In mood for hoods?

The DVD cup runneth way, way over this week. After "Sky Captain," we delve into "Warner Bros. Pictures Gangsters Collection" (Warner), which collects six of the greatest crime dramas from the studio.

"Gangsters Collection" includes remastered versions of 1931's "Little Caesar," the template for hundreds of gangster movies to follow, with Edward G. Robinson as the small-timer turned underworld emperor, and, from the same year, "The Public Enemy," the movie that made James Cagney a star playing a gang boss (and shoving a grapefruit in Mae Clark's mug).

From 1938, "Angels With Dirty Faces" sees Cagney becoming the gangster idol of Huntz Hall and the Dead End Kids, much to the chagrin of former friend-turned-priest Pat O'Brien. (Humphrey Bogart's along for the ride as well.) "The Petrified Forest," from 1936, stars Bogie in the iconic role of Duke Mantee, a hood who takes Arizona diner customers hostage in an effective if stilted adaptation of a popular stage play.

The box is completed with 1939's "The Roaring Twenties," with Cagney, Bogart and Jeffrey Lynn as World War I pals whose lives take dramatically different turns after the war; and 1949's "White Heat" with Cagney, returning to the genre after showing his versatility in other roles, playing the mother-fixated, machine gun-wielding psychopath who goes down after reaching the "Top o' the world, Ma!"

Back to 'Backbeat'

You don't have to be a Beatles fan to enjoy 1994's "Backbeat," which also rates a new "Collector's Edition" (Universal), but if you are, you'll find even more to admire in Iain Softley's account of the band's storied months in Hamburg, playing six hours nightly to clubgoers intoxicated by rock 'n' roll (or just intoxicated).

The focus here is on the real fifth Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff ), an art-school friend of John Lennon (Ian Hart) recruited to play bass despite any noticeable musical talent. The brooding, handsome Sutcliffe projected the image Lennon then sought for the band: tough but sensitive, artistic yet raw.

"Backbeat" is a mix of legend, speculation and the occasional random fact, and Paul McCartney, George Harrison and then-drummer Pete Best are basically just sketches on a canvas given to the relationship between Lennon, Sutcliffe and the German photographer Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee). She took the iconic black-leather jacket photos of the band in 1962, and, according to most accounts, convinced the band to ditch the Teddy Boy hairstyle in favor of the brushed-forward coiffure that would take the world by storm.

But any concerns with the story pale beside the music, with the Beatles' stage act of the period reinterpreted by a band that included Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, Nirvana's Dave Grohl and the Afghan Wigs' Greg Dulli. The actual soundtrack, Miles Davisistyled cool jazz played by a group led by Terence Blanchard, is also great, and both sound better than ever in newly remastered 5.1 Surround.