Chip Kaufmann’s Pick:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1969)

November is the month that features Thanksgiving so it seems quite logical to select a DVD that I am giving thanks for finally having made its appearance in a quality version. This new MGM Limited Edition DVD-R blows away the previous version which was simply copied from a muddy VHS transfer.

I first saw this version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on commercial TV as a special presentation before I went off to college. I then saw it there and that only reinforced my love for it. I didn’t see it again for over 20 years until it first appeared on VHS. That version was a rather sad affair with sound issues and poor picture quality but that’s all there was until now.

In addition to being one of Shakespeare’s most accessible plays (filmed many times including the 1999 Michelle Pfeiffer version), this version features a once-in-a-lifetime cast from the Royal Shakespeare Company just starting out on their careers. There’s Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, Ian Richardson, David Warner and a young and robust Judi Dench wearing little more than a fig leaf. The fashions and the make-up are contemporary (for 1969) although the settings are traditional.

What makes this version so remarkable, aside from the incredible cast, is the way they handle the dialogue. There’s nothing highbrow or stuffy about it. It’s spoken like everyday conversation with an ear to Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme (film versions often forget that Shakespeare was a poet as well as a playwright). This is one Shakespeare DVD that doesn’t need subtitles which is good because it doesn’t have any.

So fans of Shakespeare and this incredible group of British actors who have so enhanced so many movies of the past 40 years give hearty thanks. This is truly A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the ages and it’s great to have it available at long last looking like it was just released.

Michelle Keenan’s Pick:

A Walk in the Sun (1945)

Fury was a bit of a throw back, an old-school, battle weary war drama. I heard several people say it was the kind of film you could picture William Holden in back in the day. I don’t disagree with that, but as I thought about hard core WWII dramas, one kept sifting to the top. So, in tandem with Fury and in honor of Veteran’s Day this November, I’m recommending Lewis Milestone’s film adaptation of Harry Brown’s novel, A Walk in the Sun.

A Walk in the Sun was released to a war-weary nation in 1945. It was critically acclaimed, but it didn’t really find a home with audiences until years later. The film stars Dana Andrews (who starred the very next year in 1946’s wildly popular post-war drama, The Best Years of Our Lives), Richard Conte, John Ireland, George Tyne and Lloyd Bridges.

A Walk in the Sun came on the heels of a lot of flag waving, morale-boosting, sentimental WWII stories. This was a departure from all of that. Like Fury, the characters in A Walk in the Sun are battle fatigued and broken. They are shown honestly, as fallible, ordinary men doing what they have to do to survive as soldiers. The film is decidedly unsentimental but entirely engrossing.

Andrews plays Sgt. Tyne. It’s 1943 in Salerno Italy. After arriving on the beach under the cover of night, his platoon is to hoof it several miles inland to a farmhouse being held by the Nazis. Through a long series of casualties, Tyne finds himself in the unlikely position of being in charge of his infantry unit and in charge of taking the farmhouse. As one can surmise the walk to the farmhouse is no cake walk. Along the way the characters reveal more and more about their true selves, and it’s not necessarily pretty.

With the exception of Andrews and Bridges, most of the cast will be relatively unknown to most people today, but it’s no less of a cast even if they are forgotten. Andrews, who I think was rather under-rated in his day, turns in one of his finest performances. Like Pitt’s unit in Fury, Andrews’ unit tries to live by a ‘nobody dies’ mantra, but it is war and no one escapes unscathed.

Because A Walk In the Sun was made in 1945 it is very PG, even if it is unsentimental. Had it been made today, it would likely be a much bloodier beast of a film. For my money I’m glad it wasn’t made today. It shows the power of character, banter and the true nature of man and war.