French novelist Andre Malraux is quoted as saying "A man is the sum of his
actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, nothing else." Its hard to
think of a better way to describe the man that was Mohandas Gandhi.
Through his nonviolent actions, he sought to empower India's lower class,
even shedding his wealth to live among them in poverty. Today, the
Academy-award winning biographical film '
Gandhi' is released on Blu-ray.
The film opens with a message from the filmmakers, stating that "no man's
life can be encompassed in one telling", essentially admitting that some
tales were not told in this film. What a compliment to the man, that even
at 191 minutes in length, his actions could still not be recorded in total.
Indeed, if a man's worth is measured by the sum of his actions, there
could be few greater than Mohandas Gandhi.
Director Richard Attenborough tells the story of how a young, successful
lawyer in South Africa accepted a life of poverty in order to better serve his
fellow man. The transition was not easy, but the results of his actions can
still be seen today. At a time when Indian independence was thought to
be only obtainable by violently overthrowing the British government, he
championed for nonviolent actions. Unfortunately, it was violence that
ultimately cost him his life.
Sony delivers an absolutely stunning Blu-ray release, worthy of this epic
film. Video shows all the grain and detail that previous home video
versions either washed out or didn't have enough video resolution to
reveal. Audio too provides a noticeable improvement, though, original
recording problems and errors could not be resolved with the higher
fidelity. Overall, Sony has produced a great Blu-ray release for one of its
most deserving catalog titles.
The quickest way to get a film made, is to attach a successful director and
actor to a script, knowing that the two have worked well in the past.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are one of the more obvious
pairings, but Riddley Scott and Russell Crowe are quickly becoming
the hot Hollywood team. So how do you one-up Scorsese? Easy,
take his dancing partner and make '
Body of Lies'. While it wasn't a
stand-out film for 2008, it did provide for an entertaining ride.
Disney has an amazing knack for producing extremely successful teen-
focused series that are financially unstoppable - the latest cash-cow
being the "High School Musical" series. Today, they are not only releasing
the third installment (and first to hit theaters) '
High School Musical 3: Senior
Year', but also an updated version of the first film '
High School
Musical: Remix'. The second film was
released in 2007 on Blu-ray,
but if you happened to miss it until now, you can pick up all three films as
a
Blu-ray
three-pack.
Finally, while the film's creator, Mel Gibson, has come under intense
scrutiny as of late, the fact that '
Passion of the Christ' is one of
the most profitable films of all time hasn't changed. Its hard to say if the
enthusiasm for the film will wear off now that the film's controversy is all
but buried, but I'll be eager to see how this release performs on the
weekly charts, nonetheless.
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.