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Blu-ray

Gone With the Wind: 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition/Warner/Everett Collection
The story of Scarlett O'Hara, the narcissistic yet driven Southern belle who defies all convention to rise from the ashes of the Civil War as a steely, ruthless businesswoman, is as seductive as they come, and David O. Selznick's lavish super-production is as perfectly crafted as Hollywood epic entertainment gets. It's also a problematic classic that idealizes the antebellum South and relegates its black characters to comic relief roles, a sometimes embarrassing product of its era. British actress Vivien Leigh, then unknown in America, plays Scarlett like a jungle cat, purring and soft yet ferocious when she wants something, while Clark Gable is a dream Rhett Butler: insolent, rakish, charming, and even noble under his gambling-man exterior. How could she prefer that aristocratic fop Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) to this red-blooded Southern wolf?

It looks magnificent in its Blu-ray debut, with color that glows as if lit from within, and the entire film is kept to a single disc. The rest of the set is packed with all the supplements from the previous DVD special edition (commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer, the exhaustive 1989 documentary "The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind," documentaries on Gable and Leigh, and all manner of featurettes and archival shorts) plus the 1992 documentary "MGM: When the Lion Roars," the 1980 TV movie "The Scarlett O'Hara War," and the new 2009 TCM documentary "1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year." The box set (and it's a box, all right) also includes a booklet, miniature reproductions of art prints and the original theatrical program, and a CD soundtrack sampler.
©Miramax
Kevin Smith Box Set
Kevin Smith's debut film, "Clerks" (1994), is a grungy guerrilla comedy about smart-aleck dropouts in the lowest rungs of the service industry, shot on black-and-white 16 mm with a starvation budget in the hinterlands of New Jersey. Fifteen years later it's still arguably his best film: scruffy, sardonic, sarcastic and surly. And the Blu-ray debut features two versions of the film (with commentary on each) and all the supplements of the earlier DVD special edition. The set also features a pair of films rooted in the same Smith "askewniverse": "Chasing Amy" (1997) and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001), also with commentary and other supplements. Smith kept his scruffy aesthetic even as he graduated to studio budgets, which begs the question: Why Blu-ray? The answer: Why not?
©Lionsgate
Near Dark
"There's a price for the night." The artwork for Lionsgate's new release of Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 film plays upon the romantic angle a la "Twilight," but there's a very different kind of romance in this feral and ferocious vampire road movie noir. This is a movie about blood in all senses of the word, and it defies the traditions of vampire lore with a moving portrait of healing and sacrifice. But it's also a modern Southwestern with teeth. Director Bigelow offers a solid commentary track, and the disc includes the excellent, original 47-minute documentary featurette "Living in Darkness" and a deleted scene with director commentary.
©Paramount
It's a Wonderful Life
Teacher says: Every time someone watches "It's a Wonderful Life," an angel gets its wings. OK, that's not actually the quote, but I stand by the thought. At once one of the most life-affirming pictures of all time and a nightmare of small-town America gone bad that rivals any 1940s film noir, this is the craziest and most wonderful holiday movie ritual ever. Paramount became the sole custodian of the film on home video a few years back, and now debuts it on Blu-ray with a beautifully-mastered edition. Also features the previously available documentary "The Making of It's a Wonderful Life" and a second disc with a colorized version of the film (best left unwatched -- you don't take crayons to a classic).
©Kino
The General
To the best of my knowledge, Kino's Blu-ray release of "The General" is the first silent film to get the high-definition treatment, and deservedly so. The 1920s was a golden age of cinema and a peak of film craft, and after years of poorly preserved and shoddily presented silent films, audiences are starting to see just how stunning Hollywood silents really looked. "The General" is no exception, and this edition, newly mastered from a print struck directly from the original negative, is gorgeous. It's also one of the greatest and funniest movies ever made. This edition features three musical scores and all the (rather minor) supplements of Kino's previous DVD special edition.

Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment and a contributing writer for GreenCine.com, Turner Classic Movies Online, Parallax View and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications. Find links to all of this and more on his shamelessly self-promoting blog.

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