Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless

KUBRICK

Then there are the new Kubricks. Warner Home Video is putting out both a box and standalone editions of new transfers of 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut, but reissuing the same old extras-less transfers of Lolita and Barry Lyndon. The first five are also coming out in Hi-Def and Blu-Ray editions.

A vexing state of affairs, as I for one was hoping for some kind of hi-def version of Lyndon, as groundbreaking a visual work in its way as 2001. But let's concentrate on the good news. As of press time, I have only acquired three of the titles: HD renderings of 2001 and The Shining, and the Blu-Ray disc of Clockwork. All three are pretty, well, whew. 2001 is an amazing experience on a flat-screen set in high-definition. The Shining comes remarkably close to the theatrical experience in the same format. Clockwork looks stunning for the most part — the transfer retains the film graininess that's part of its visual scheme and contributes so much to its peculiar directness. That said, in some of the wide-angle lens shots of Clockwork, there appears slight color distortion at the far portions of the picture; having no HD or standard DVD versions to check against, I can't tell if it's a format issue or a transfer issue, but, in any case, it doesn't detract as much from the experience of the image as you might imagine.

The Shining

The extras are a bit of a letdown. When the new DVDs were announced, it was hinted that the Kubrick estate had decided to open the master's archives, and that these editions would contain deleted scenes and stills from deleted scenes. Your correspondent was particularly stoked to revisit the original ending of The Shining, a four-minute scene between Shelley Duvall and Barry Nelson, which was snipped out of every print by Warners-and-Kubrick-dispatched editors the night of its May 23, 1980, opening (which your correspondent was lucky enough to see a matinee of). No such luck. Which is not to say there aren't good supplements. Clockwork has a typically dishy and smart commentary from star Malcolm McDowell, along with Kubrick scholar and memory-jogger Nick Redman. Steadicam inventor and operator Garrett Brown, so instrumental to The Shining, contributes his reminiscences along with Kubrick biographer John Baxter. And although the two actors don't show up until nearly an hour into the film, 2001 stars Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood go for the entire ultimate trip. You might not have expected Lockwood to have the sharply analytical cast of mind that he does, but he explicates portions of the film in ways more imaginative and thoughtful than many critics have. Some of the documentaries on these features have the dispiriting VH1-inspired habit of splicing in film clips to provide ironic rejoinders or just plain non sequiturs after a given narrator has made a point, but others, including a tribute to the ever-iconoclastic McDowell, play it straighter and are good, informative fun.