Re: COOPER, BRANDO, AND NEWMAN BOXSETS IN NOVEMBER
I haven't had the opportunity to see this thread for a couple of days, however I see now that Warners has indicated that the reason they won't be releasing The Hanging Tree at this time is that the film elements are in bad shape, and in need of restoration. That being the case, the tentative criticsm for Warners not including the film in the Cooper box set is unjustified. It will be nice to see a restored version of The Hanging Tree, hopefully sooner rather than later.
If The Hanging Tree had been available it would have been the second best film in the Cooper set, however the best film in that set is clearly Sergeant York (1941). I respectfully disagree with the critical comments made about the film. Sergeant York is one of the all time great American films. With Sergeant York you get what practically amounts to two outstanding films rolled into one. The first half of Sergeant York is one of the greatest slices of rural Americana ever filmed, and is so well done it almost stands on its own as a separate film. The film then morphs into an exciting and well executed traditional action/war film, with the big difference that the hero's accomplishments are, for the most part, the real deal, as opposed to some writer's imagination.
I can recall that back in the early 1990's one of the film critics for the Los Angeles Times (I apologize that I can't remember his name) wrote an extensive piece for the Sunday Calendar, in which he quite persuasively argued that 1941, rather than 1939, was the real apex of the golden age of motion pictures. If memory serves me right, the critic opined that Sergeant York was the second best film made during that golden year (with Citizen Kane being first), and the critic placed Sergeant York ahead of The Maltese Falcon and How Green Was My Valley ( which won the academy award for best picture that year), and all the rest of the legion of great films made in 1941.
I also recall reading somewhere that Sergeant York was the number one box office hit of 1941. So in what was arguably the greatest year in motion picture history, Sergeant York was the film which apparently most pleased the public. I would ask that those whose recollections of this film are negative give the film another viewing, as I think you might be pleasantly surprised at how really good a film it is. c Jim Bur
Apparently John Boorman's film The General was offered in two different versions on a dual sided disc in the U.S. The Australian copy of The General is the desaturated colour version of the film, but apparently there is a version that is completely black and white.
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