DVD Find the Perfect Gift    Send a Gift Certificate
Search 
Home › Classics › War and Westerns
Review Castaway NW [VCP] / Raintree County [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Walter Abel
  • William Challee
  • Edward Dmytryk
  • Oliver Blake
  • Ruth Attaway
  • Nesdon Booth
Release date: 2007-06-05
Creator: Johnny Green
Price: £4.83

Review Raintree County [1957] / Castaway NW [VCP]:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Good Bad And The Ugly [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Lee Van Cleef
  • Aldo Giuffrè
  • Luigi Pistilli
  • Eli Wallach
  • Clint Eastwood
  • Sergio Leone
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 155 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.50

Review The Good Bad And The Ugly [1966] / MGM Entertainment:

This two-disc Special Edition presents the restored, extended English-language version of Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, now clocking in at almost three hours (actually 171 minutes on this Region 2 DVD as a result of the faster frames-per-second ratio of the PAL format). It includes some 14 minutes of previously cut scenes, with both Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach returning to the editing suite in 2003 to add their voices to scenes that had never before been dubbed into English (Wallach's voice is noticeably that of a much older man in these additional sequences). The extra material contains nothing of vital importance, but it's good to have the movie returned to pretty much the way Leone originally wanted it. The anamorphic widescreen picture is now also accompanied by a handsome Dolby 5. 1 soundtrack, making this the most complete and satisfactory version so far released. Film historian Richard Schickel provides an authoritative and engaging commentary on Disc 1. On the second disc there are featurettes on Leone's West (20 mins), The Leone Style (24 mins), Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (11 mins) and a documentary about the historical background of the Sibley campaign, The Man Who Lost the Civil War (15 mins). In addition, there's a two-part appreciation of composer Ennio Morricone, Il Maestro, by film-music expert John Burlinghame. Tuco's extended torture scene can be found here, along with a reconstruction of the fragmentary "Socorro Sequence". In short, exemplary bonus features that will satisfy every Leone aficionado. [+]
-Mark Walker.

Review BCI, a Navarre Corporation Company / The Best of Wanted: Dead or Alive (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Steve McQueen
Release date: 2008-06-17
Run time: 200 min.
Price: £3.05

Review The Best of Wanted: Dead or Alive (REGION 1) (NTSC) / BCI, a Navarre Corporation Company:


Review Warner Home Video / The Wild Bunch [Blu-ray] [1970] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Ernest Borgnine
  • Robert Ryan
  • William Holden
  • Warren Oates
  • Edmond O'Brien
  • Sam Peckinpah
Release date: 2007-09-25
Run time: 145 min.
Price: £12.05

Review The Wild Bunch [Blu-ray] [1970] [US Import] / Warner Home Video:

Here's how director Sam Peckinpah described his motivation behind The Wild Bunch at the time of the film's 1969 release: "I was trying to tell a simple story about bad men in changing times. The Wild Bunch is simply what happens when killers go to Mexico. The strange thing is you feel a great sense of loss when these killers reach the end of the line. " All of these statements are true, but they don't begin to cover the impact that Peckinpah's film had on the evolution of American movies. Now the film is most widely recognized as a milestone event in the escalation of screen violence, but that's a label of limited perspective. Of course, Peckinpah's bloody climactic gunfight became a masterfully directed, photographed, and edited ballet of graphic violence that transcended the conventional Western and moved into a slow-motion realm of pure cinematic intensity. But the film-surely one of the greatest Westerns ever made-is also a richly thematic tale of, as Peckinpah said, "bad men in changing times. " The year is 1913 and the fading band of thieves known as the Wild Bunch (led by William Holden as Pike) decide to pull one last job before retirement. But an ambush foils their plans, and Peckinpah's film becomes an epic yet intimate tale of betrayed loyalties, tenacious rivalry, and the bunch's dogged determination to maintain their fading code of honor among thieves. The 144-minute director's cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah's films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer's understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. [+]
The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane. -Jeff Shannon.

Actors & Directors
  • John Litel
  • Eric Blore
  • George Flaherty
  • Alan Baxter
  • Georges Metaxa
  • Albert H. Kelley
Release date: 2004-03-23
Run time: 64 min.
Price: £2.35

Review Submarine Base [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Alpha Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / D-Day: 6th June
Actors & Directors
  • John Williams
  • Richard Todd
  • Robert Taylor
  • Edmund O'Brien
  • Dana Wynter
  • Henry Koster
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £19.99

Review D-Day: 6th June / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review 4 Front Video / The Guns Of Navarone [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Gregory Peck
  • Anthony Quinn
  • J. Lee Thompson
  • Alexander Mackendrick
  • Stanley Baker
  • David Niven
  • Anthony Quayle
Release date: 2000-06-24
Run time: 150 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £9.99

Review The Guns Of Navarone [1961] / 4 Front Video:

This rousing, explosive 1961 WWII adventure, based on Alistair MacLean's thrilling novel, turns the war thriller into a deadly caper film. Gregory Peck heads a star-studded cast charged with a near impossible mission: to destroy a pair of German guns nestled in a protective cave on the strategic Mediterranean island of Navarone, from where they can control a vital sea passage. As world famous mountain climber turned British army Captain Mallory, Peck leads a guerrilla force composed of the humanistic explosives expert, Miller (David Niven), the ruthless Greek patriot with a grudge, Stavros (Anthony Quinn), veteran special forces soldier Brown (Stanley Baker) and the cool, quiet young marksman Pappadimos (James Darren). This disparate collection of classic types must overcome internal conflicts, enemy attacks, betrayal and capture to complete their mission. Director J. Lee Thompson sets a driving pace for this exciting (if familiar) military operation, a succession of close calls, pitched battles and last-minute escapes as our heroes infiltrate the garrisoned town with the help of resistance leader Maria (Irene Papas) and plot their entry into the heavily guarded mountain fort. Carl Foreman's screenplay embraces MacLean's role call of clichés and delivers them with style, creating one of the liveliest mixes of espionage, combat and good old-fashioned military derring-do put on film. In 1978, the sequel Force 10 from Navarone was released, but MacLean fans will prefer to check out the action-packed thriller Where Eagles Dare. -Sean Axmaker.

Review ST Clair Vision / Classic TV Westerns [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Gene Barry
Release date: 2007-02-27
Run time: 637 min.
Price: £3.40

Review Classic TV Westerns [1957] / ST Clair Vision:


Review Columbia TriStar / MacKenna's Gold [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gregory Peck
  • Omar Sharif
  • Keenan Wynn
  • J. Lee Thompson
  • Telly Savalas
  • Camilla Sparv
Release date: 2000-07-11
Run time: 122 min.
Price: £3.14

Review MacKenna's Gold [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review Whe Europe Limited / The Outlaw [1943]
Actors & Directors
  • Thomas Mitchell
  • Jane Russell
  • Howard Hughes
  • Jack Buetel
  • Walter Huston
  • Mimi Aguglia
  • Howard Hawks
Release date: 2003-04-21
Run time: 117 min.
RRP: £3.99
Price: £0.74

Review The Outlaw [1943] / Whe Europe Limited:


Review 20th Century Fox / The Frogmen [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jeffrey Hunter
  • Lloyd Bacon
  • Richard Widmark
  • Warren Stevens
  • Dana Andrews
  • Gary Merrill
Release date: 2005-05-24
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £5.14

Review The Frogmen [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review Whe Europe Limited / McLintock [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Maureen O'Hara
  • Jack Kruschen
  • Patrick Wayne
  • Andrew V. McLaglen
  • Stefanie Powers
  • John Wayne
Release date: 2003-02-17
Run time: 124 min.
RRP: £3.99
Price: £1.96

Review McLintock [1964] / Whe Europe Limited:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / They Came To Cordura [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Rita Hayworth
  • Van Heflin
  • Richard Conte
  • Gary Cooper
  • Tab Hunter
  • Robert Rossen
Release date: 2004-11-22
Run time: 118 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.98

Review They Came To Cordura [1959] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Gary Cooper's forte-the searching, lone figure beleaguered by conflicts over conscience, truth, and ethics-followed him all the way to the ambitious They Came to Cordura, his third-to-last feature. Cooper plays Thomas Thorn, a career officer in America's fading horse Army of the early 20th century. Thorn's alleged cowardice in battle has been papered over by superiors: He is to identify acts of bravery during an attack on Pancho Villa's troops and lead those designated heroes to a Medal of Honor ceremony in Cordura, Texas. Though Thorn tries to extract the secret behind courage from each man, he discovers a battle-hardened, bestial side to them as well. The Cordura journey becomes fraught with mutiny and near-assaults on a Yankee expatriate (Rita Hayworth). Thorn, reputation aside, redefines courage on his own terms. This widescreen drama (the DVD offers full-screen format as well) is suspenseful, morally complex, and visually rich, but Cooper's performance carries the day. -Tom Keogh.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Five Card Stud [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Tiffany Clark
  • Misty
  • David Morris
  • Keri Kelly
  • Vince Benedetti
  • Master T.
Release date: 2003-03-24
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.92

Review Five Card Stud [1968] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Paramount released a first-rate Western, El Dorado, in 1967, and another, True Grit, in 1969. So why was the studio's 1968 oater such a hunk of buzzard bait? You know Five Card Stud's in trouble from the opening credits-they're too short to accommodate the Dean Martin title song, so that it spills awkwardly into the first scene. The timing never does come out right-not in the lethargic pacing, not in the lax editing (which often leaves cast members stranded onscreen at scene's end), and not in the herky-jerky screenplay, which either lurches over intervals of weeks (months?) or piles up enough calamities in one day to stock a sequel. Even the end comes five minutes and two anticlimactic scenes late. An after-hours poker game is underway as the film begins. A stranger is caught cheating and, over the objection of professional gambler Dean Martin, lynched. Soon there's another stranger in town, black-clad preacher Robert Mitchum, and participants in the fatal card game start dying grotesque, solitary deaths. Five Card Stud wants to be a psychological mystery, but there's scant psychology and no mystery at all beyond why the filmmakers thought any viewer could fail to figure it out. Martin and Mitchum sleepwalk through their roles (Martin's includes a glum, ludicrously written romance with brothel-keeper Inger Stevens), while Roddy McDowall camps up his turn as spoiled son of the local range baron. Somewhere in the middle, the young Yaphet Kotto plays it admirably cool as a philosophical bartender.

Review Columbia TriStar / Texas [1941] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • George Marshall
  • Glenn Ford
  • William Holden
  • Edgar Buchanan
  • George Bancroft
  • Claire Trevor
Release date: 2005-04-05
Run time: 93 min.
Price: £5.18

Review Texas [1941] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review United Artists / The Man with the Gun [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Emile Meyer
  • Robert Mitchum
  • Jan Sterling
  • Karen Sharpe (IV)
  • Richard Wilson
  • Henry Hull
Release date: 2008-05-13
Run time: 84 min.
Price: £5.08

Review The Man with the Gun [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / United Artists:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / D-Day: 6th June
Actors & Directors
  • John Williams
  • Edmund O'Brien
  • Dana Wynter
  • Robert Taylor
  • Richard Todd
  • Henry Koster
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £19.99

Review D-Day: 6th June / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Momentum Pictures Home Ent / Joy Division [2006]
Actors & Directors
  • Ed Stoppard
  • Reg Traviss
  • Michelle Gayle
  • Bernard Hill
Release date: 2007-04-30
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.67

Review Joy Division [2006] / Momentum Pictures Home Ent:


Review 4 Front Video / Walk the Proud Land [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Audie Murphy
  • Pat Crowley
  • Tommy Rall
  • Charles Drake
  • Jesse Hibbs
  • Anne Bancroft
Release date: 1999-07-01
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.29

Review Walk the Proud Land [1953] / 4 Front Video:


Review Oracle Home Entertainment Limited / Thunder Mountain / Wild Horse Mesa [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Tim Holt
  • Lew Landers;Wallace Grissell
  • Harry Woods
  • Richard Martin
  • Martha Hyer
  • William Gould
Release date: 2008-09-08
Run time: 122 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.77

Review Thunder Mountain / Wild Horse Mesa [1947] / Oracle Home Entertainment Limited:


Models & Brands:
Raintree County [1957], The Good Bad And The Ugly [1966], The Best of Wanted: Dead or Alive (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Wild Bunch [Blu-ray] [1970] [US Import], Submarine Base [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC), D-Day: 6th June, The Guns Of Navarone [1961], Classic TV Westerns [1957], MacKenna's Gold [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Outlaw [1943], The Frogmen [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC), McLintock [1964], They Came To Cordura [1959], Five Card Stud [1968], Texas [1941] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Man with the Gun [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC), D-Day: 6th June, Joy Division [2006], Walk the Proud Land [1953], Thunder Mountain / Wild Horse Mesa [1947]

Top headlines:
Search 
DVD Rental: try it for free