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By
WAYNE KLEIN
You could call Steve McQueen
many things but talkative wouldn't be one of them.
McQueen had a talent for portraying quite a lot
with minimal dialog and that's the way he liked
it. He has maybe 75 lines off dialog in "The
Magnificent Seven" yet his presence is equal to
that of star Yul Brynner. You'd be forgiven for
being confused about which Steve McQueen boxed set
to purchase. MGM has recently released "The Steve
McQueen Collection" which features four McQueen
classics that have previously been available on
DVD; "The Thomas Crown Affair," "The Magnificent
Seven," "Junior Bonner" and "The Great Escape."
All have been available before and, although they
are more affordable in that set, many fans may
already have them. "The Essential Steve McQueen
Collection" is a different beast entirely; it does
feature 2 titles that are no different from the
previously issued version -- "Papillon." All the
rest have either never been issued or, in the case
of "Bullitt," are now in two disc deluxe editions
that make this set a worthwhile addition to any
collection.
The crown jewel of this set is the new deluxe
edition of "Bullitt." McQueen plays San Francisco
detective Frank Bullitt. He's been assigned to
protect a witness for a major trial. The witness,
though, is murdered. Before the post-mortem has
begun, Bullitt hunts for the killers and plans on
nailing them. Featuring an amazing high-speed
chase through the streets of San Francisco and
shot entirely on location, "Bullitt" was Peter
Yates' first major US film and it crackles with
energy. The previous DVD edition of "Bullitt"
looked quite good but can't compare to the newly
digitally remastered transfer here. Image clarity,
color and detail for "Bullitt" is superb. The
sound is surprisingly spry with a nice 5.1 remix
that doesn't quite use the format to its best
advantage but that's not a surprise given that the
film is nearly 40 years old. "Papillon" comes with
the same transfer as it received in 2000. Image
quality is good but the negative could use
restoration. The colors aren't bright and vibrant
but they fit the general atmosphere of the film
and are fairly true to the original theatrical
exhibition if a bit faded.
"Bullitt" gets the most attention here when it
comes to the extras. Featuring two fine
documentaries on the film and McQueen, we also get
the original vintage featurette on the film. "The
Cutting Edge" examines movie editing and is a
terrific documentary about this mysterious art
form. "Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool" is a
terrific biography on McQueen that provides a lot
of information previously unknown about the actor.
There's also the original theatrical trailer
included as well. Peter Yates provides a marvelous
commentary track full of trivia about the film
that doesn't trivialize the film.
"Papillon" tells the story of a thief nick-named
Papillon for the large butterfly tattooed on his
chest. (McQueen) framed for murder in France and
sent to Devil's Island for life. From the moment
he steps on the boat headed to the prison he's
planning his escape. He agrees to protect a
financial thief Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman).
Schaffner's film portrays Papillon's attempt to
survive on Devil's Island until he can figure out
an escape plan. Although this isn't Schaffner's
best film, it has a number of powerful moments
that equal his classic films "Patton," "Planet of
the Apes" and "The War Lord." McQueen more than
holds his own with method actor Hoffman.
"Papillon" has the original promotional featurette
produced for the film as part of the extras as
well as the trailer.
"The Cincinnati Kid" features McQueen as Eric
Stoner a poke playing ace who challenges the best
gambler around "the Man" Lancey Howard (Edward G.
Robinson). A terrific performance by Edward G.
Robinson allows Robinson to almost steal the
picture under McQueen's nose. With a terrific
supporting cast, "The Cincinnati Kid" would be one
of the most memorable films about gambling until
"Rounders" three decades later. "The Cincinnati
Kid" also looks exceptionally good with nice color
reproduction and image quality. It's clear that
some digital restoration was done or the negative
was painstakingly cleaned prior to creating the
new print used here. Featuring a very good
commentary track from Norman Jewison, "The
Cincinnati Kid" is a film that takes repeated
viewings to appreciate fully.
"Never So Few" features McQueen in the third
billed role of Bill Ringa a member of the O.S.S.
fighting the Japanese during World War II in
Burma. Ringa and his Captain Tom Reynolds (Frank
Sinatra) are in Burma to train the Kachin natives
in how to fight the Japanese. Reynolds fights
dirty when Chinese rebels cross over to Burma to
kill and loot the American soldiers stationed
there. Although it's not one of director John
Sturges ("The Magnificent Seven." "Ice Station
Zebra") best films, "Never So Few" provides
McQueen with a role that continued his
breakthrough as an actor. It also inspired Sturges
to cast McQueen in "The Magnificent Seven." "Never
So Few" also looks quite good particularly when
you consider the age of the negative. It receives
a solid transfer with bright colors and nice image
clarity.
"The Getaway" almost didn't make it to the screen.
Originally Peter Bogdanovich was to direct with
his girlfriend actress Cybil Shepherd in the lead.
When she dropped out so did Bogdanovich. Luckily
director Sam Peckinpah stepped in and the
rewritten script by Walter Hill was tooled for
McQueen. Scandal broke out on the set when McQueen
became involved with his co-star Ali McGraw (who
was then married to Paramount head Robert Evans).
McQueen plays thief Doc McCoy who has been
paroled. The only problem is that Sheriff Beynon
(Ben Johnson) expects him to do a big robbery for
him. He plans on killing McCoy afterward but
things don't quite work out the way that Beynon
intended. "The Getaway" looks terrific again
considering the age of the movie. The blacks are
rock solid and the colors as vivid and bright as
they've ever been. There's the occasionally soft
image but, on the whole, "The Getaway" looks
marvelous. We get a "virtual" commentary track
gathered from comments over the years by McQueen,
McGraw and Peckinpah as well as a fine commentary
by documentary filmmakers/film scholars Nick
Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David
Weddle.
"Tom Horn" (McQueen) a tracker and "enforcer" who
dispensed justice in the old west takes a job to
stop cattle thieves. When things get messy and
Horn has to kill some of the rustlers, the
ranchers who hired him want Horn stopped. He's put
on trial for the murder of a 15-year-old boy. The
next to last film McQueen made before he died in
1980, is a surprisingly powerful and great
western. The screenplay by novelist/screenwriter
Thomas McGuane ("The Missouri Breaks," "92 in the
Shade," "Rancho Deluxe") and Bub Shrake
("Nightwing," "J.W. Coop," "Songwriter") portrays
a character out of time; Horn's style of
dispensing justice faces the gray world of
corruption and politics. McQueen gives one of his
best nuanced performances in a film that didn't do
all that well at the box office. It's a pity as
it's a great movie that deserves a wider audience.
Luckily, for those who buy the boxed set they'll
finally get a chance to see this classic western.
"Tom Horn" looks extremely good with sharp images,
bright and vivid colors. Although a tad grainy
(like most of the films here) that has more to do
with the stock used to shoot the films and the
condition of the negative than the transfer. In
most cases, the graininess adds to the character
of the films. All six films feature 2.0 Dolby
Digital Surround soundtracks (in addition to the
5.1 remasters for "Papillon"). All sound crisp
with nice clarity to the dialog and music.
"The Cincinnati Kid," "Never So Few" and "Tom
Horn" all have only the original theatrical
trailer for the respective films. It's a pity that
Warner chose not to do a documentary or at the
very least a featurette on "Tom Horn." Since it's
about a real historical figure and making the film
was a passion for McQueen, it would have been
appropriate and provided much needed information
on the historical figure and the production of
this fine overlooked film.
Steve McQueen was a man of action whose physical
style was as important as the words he said on
screen. This terrific collection fills out "The
Steve McQueen Collection" released roughly at the
same time. While that release has some great films
in it, almost all of them have been previously
released and don't have anything extra added to
them. Once again Warner Home Video has set the bar
for boxed sets between this set and "The Complete
James Dean Collection." I am a bit disappointed
that Warner chose not to do a new digital remaster
for "Papillon" (and not to include a commentary
track from a film scholar or one of the surviving
actors from the production) but other than missing
a few other McQueen gems, this is the set to get
for McQueen fans. |
