Warners Release New Kubrick Box DVD Set - Pretty Much Like the Old Box Set

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Stanley Kubrick fans were disappointed when they picked up their boxed DVD sets a couple years ago. The discs were in great shape, and the films looked great, but there was little in the way of extras, except for a 'Making of THE SHINING' documentary shot by the director's daughter, Vivian. Well, now a new boxed set is coming out, so does that mean we're getting all the extras and supplemental that we didn't the first time? In a word, no.

The old set contained seven titles: LOLITA, DR. STRANGELOVE, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BARRY LYNDON, THE SHINING and FULL METAL JACKET. The new set adds EYES WIDE SHUT and includes a new disc for DR. STRANGELOVE. The latter includes some bonus features not seen in the older DVD (although it still fails to recreate the Criterion Collection laserdisc of several years ago, which featured Kubrick's draft of the script, before bringing on Terry Southern as co-writer). Also included is the new documentary STANLEY KUBRICK: A LIFE IN PICTURES. Too bad they couldn't go whole hog and add PATHS OF GLORY and THE KILLING. That would be pretty much the entire Kubrick oeuvre (not counting the two early films FEAR AND DESIRE and KILLER'S KISS, which he more or less disowned).

The new boxed set offer remastered sound and new anamorphic edition of 2001, but the previous set was released while Kubrick was still alive. Do we really think he allowed shoddy versions into the marketplace that needed to be retooled after his death? Bottom line: if you're a completist type of collector, go ahead and shell out the money, but if you have the previous boxed set, just buy EYES WIDE SHUT, the new DR. STRANGELOVE, and look for STANLEY KUBRICK: A LIFE IN PICTURES on cable.