THE RETRO ROCKETS

THE RETRO ROCKETS

By I. Slifkin for The Sound View

Back in the old days of home video—call them “prehistoric,” if you must-- people with VCRs pretty much got whatever was offered to them from the video companies. It was the boom-boom time for the burgeoning industry, roughly between 1980-1990, and movie fanatics were typically given few options on the movies they rented or bought.

Lousy transfers. Movies shot in widescreen formats presented in panned-and-scanned versions. Incomplete versions of films that were offered only in edited form from unreliable sources.?

You name it—it was out there.

And then there were movies that were simply missing in action, films that seemed to be shoo-ins for film fans to view at home, but remained unavailable because of licensing issues or other seemingly complex problems.??

Things changed over the years. Of course, there were exceptions to the rule right from the get-go. Nostalgia Merchant licensed much of the RKO library and works of independent producers and brought the likes of?King Kong?and?Gunga Dinj?much to the delight of lovers of classic films. Hal Roach Studios, the company that produced?The Little Rascals?(aka “Our Gang”) and a whole slew of other vintage comedies made sure their library was accessible to video viewers.?

As the years went on, more independent companies got into the fold and many studios which held the rights to scores of titles began putting them out. And, as technology got better and movie collectors turned more discriminating, more focus was put on releasing films in proper widescreen ratios coordinating with their theatrical presentation and finding movies in complete, unexpurgated form.?

The introduction of Laserdisc in the late 1970s hinted at what was to come, but the DVD format, debuting in 1996, and, later, Blu-ray in the mid-2000s, accelerated this trend.?

The major studios got keen to the public’s desire to own movies from their libraries and to make them?attractive to people who may have already purchased the titles in another format like VHS or even Laserdisc, began adding attention-getting extras—commentaries from the above and below-the-line talent, informative “making of” documentaries, alternative scenes or endings, access to listening to an isolated soundtrack or reading a film’s entire screenplay, trailers and options to view a film with various subtitles, among other offerings. None of this was possible with the VHS format of the prehistoric era.?

Many studios began paying close attention to what was in their own backyard for releases, and often used in-house materials, like trailers and promotional interviews, for extras.?

Warner Brothers, which controlled rights to Warner titles, as well as pictures from the RKO, MGM and Allied Artists library started their own archives collection, going deep into the vaults, presenting less famous films on-demand in the DVD-R format. Meanwhile, Warner focused lavish attention on classics such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane with stunning new transfers and extras-stuffed packages, often in celebration of anniversaries of their release dates. The Warner releases were sometimes bolstered by a re-release in theaters sponsored by Turner Classic Movies, another Warner-owned company.?

For significant titles, the major studios mostly followed suit. But eventually, as DVD and Blu-ray sales trailed off, Hollywood entities began licensing their films to independent enterprises which were ready, willing and able to give films the attention collectors wanted.????

One way some suppliers drew attention older films was by colorizing them. Ted Turner, owners of score of films through his Turner Entertainment, pumped new life into scores of black-and-white films by using technology as his brush and painted them with spanking new color. Others followed suit like 20th Century Fox, who assumed parents would like to show their kids classic?Shirley Temple films—in color. The practice proved popular for a bit, but purists showed great disdain for the practice.?

The now-defunct Anchor Bay, launched in the mid-1980s as a supplier funded by public domain-centered company Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment, was revolutionary in licensing movies from Disney, Universal, New World, Fox and ABC Films. They helped open the floodgates for other indies to made deals with majors and indie producers. The likes of Kino-Lorber, MVD, Arrow, Shout/Scream Factory (started by the Rhino Records and Rhino video guys) followed suit.?

Predating these companies’ efforts of putting out both studio and indie-sanctioned efforts were Criterion, noted initially for their foreign library; and VCI and Kit Parker Films, two early indie players with histories that go back to pre-prehistoric times, before even VHS, with roots in the 16 mm non-theatrical market.???

One would think that in these days of streaming, the desire for extras-packed digital releases of the physical nature would have come to a standstill or at least slowed down considerably. Yet that doesn’t seem to be the case.

With many studios more open to let others peek into their once-sacred libraries and pick out what they want to put onto the home market and movie-savvy consumers ready, willing and (sometimes) able to purchase the ‘nth’ edition of a classic they already own in a newly remastered, higher definition, extras-stacked release, the practice and the physical video world continues. The numbers sold may be smaller than before, but the choices certainly become greater and the efforts from suppliers to bring something new to the table in their releases rarely fails to impress.????

If there’s one thing the home entertainment industry has proven time and time again, everything old can be new again. And we do mean everything.

Here are just a few (10 but who’s counting?) recent Retro Rockets aka Re-Issues in HD you might want to take a look at:

A Walk In The Sun: The Definitive Restoration?(2-disc Collector's Set) 760137727590?Kit Parker Films

Audrey Rose?760137113751 Arrow Video

Crazylegs?760137116325 Kit Parker Films

Digging to China?760137734888?MVD Marquee Collection

Heidi?760137626398 Filmrise

Rain?089859891922 VCI Entertainment

Rain Man?760137110019 MVD Marquee Collection

Django Collection Volume One: Six Film Set (Digitally Remastered)?760137626893 Filmrise

The Final Countdown?Blue Underground

The Green Promise?089859898921 VCI Entertainment

Enjoy the complete April 2023 issue of The Sound View where this article was first published. It's always #free to read and #free to #subscribe.

#films #movies #thesoundview Soundview Media Partners, LLC MVD Entertainment Group VCI Entertainment FilmRise Arrow Films Robert Blair Irv Slifkin Derek Stubinski Eric D. Wilkinson Mark Hudson #restoration #DVD #bluray #remastered