What I've Watched On DVD Recently

At the moment, I have worked my way through a few double disc sets of some classic 70's films, two of which were directed by the great Sidney Lumet.

Dog Day Afternoon, made in 1975, stars Al Pacino as "Sonny", who along with "Sal" (the late great John Cazale ) stage the hold-up of a bank in Brooklyn, on a hot August afternoon with all sorts of unforeseen consequences. Based on real events that took place in 1972, the film is a real potboiler with a dynamic performance from Pacino.

Network, made in 1976, may be set inside a fictional television broadcast center, but a lot of the stuff that writer Paddy Chayefsky satirized about the industry in the film, has come to pass.
Faye Dunaway, whose character often butts heads with Max, played by William Holden are great together, of course, but it's Peter Finch as newsman Howard Beale who steals the show. As I watched the scene where Finch utters the now famous line, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!, I was amazed at how well the film holds up because of his work. Brilliant! Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty co-star

Both the Dog Day Afternoon two-disc special edition, and the Network two-disc special edition come with audio commentaries by Lumet, as well as extensive retrospective documentaries on each film. The extras go a long way to explain how each film was made. And although Lumet does have to repeat himself from the commentaries to the docs, it's not that big of a deal really.

***
Last summer's revelation that former number 2 man at the FBI Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' during the investigation of the Watergate break-in, doesn't diminish the impact of All the President's Men in the least. Now that everyone knows the last piece of the puzzle, for me, it makes things even more interesting to watch. Directed by the late Alan J. Pakula in 1976, just 4 years after infamous break-in took place, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford make a good team as Woodward and Bernstein. As reporters for The Washington Post, their dogged investigation would lead to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. The rest of the cast is superb. Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Jason Robards as Editor Ben Bradlee, and Hal Holbrook as "deep throat" can't be beat.

Like the other DVD sets I've discussed in this post, the two-disc special edition for All The President's Men comes with an audio commentary, as well as extensive retrospective documentaries about the film and the history that surrounds it. While Redford's solo commentary isn't bad, I wish someone else who worked on the movie had joined in though, in the absence of Pakula (who sadly passed away in a 1998 car accident).

All three films are worth a look, as each one examines the social fabric of our society, and are deserving of a place in your film library. Theatrical trailers for each respective film are included in the extras as well.