
Daniel
Boone: The Complete Series
(1964 - 1970/Fox TV Archive DVD Set)/The
Equation Of Life
(2013/Shelter Island DVD)/Hellion
(2014/MPI/IFC DVD)
Picture:
C+/C/C Sound: C+ Extras: D/C/C Main Programs: B-/C+/C
Here
are the latest children's releases, one a hit TV show, one a drama
about children in social trouble and another that has some ideas
about that trouble.
Daniel
Boone: The Complete Series (1964 - 1970) was the culmination of
many Western genre TV series aimed at a child audience. As soon as
TV was launched, you had 15-minutes-long adventures as early as the
late 1940s, then came Davy Crockett, Annie Oakley, Roy Rogers and
even The Lone Ranger. Many of those shows were syndicated or on
daytime TV, but Westerns for children were starting to loose ground
to cartoons, action shows, educational shows and comedies, so this
hit show with Fess parker in the title role was the peak of that
cycle.
Finally,
all 165 hour-long shows are here in one heavy 36-DVD box set and it
has been decades since I have seen the show. The theme from the
first season stuck with me the most, but only bits and pieces of the
actual shows did. Remembered it being a good show, at least being
child-friendly for its time, but then you have Hollywood-style Indian
stereotypes, animal hunting and other politically incorrect surprises
that for some, might make them want to revisit it on that basis. It
also has its share of unintentionally funny moments.
Patricia
Blair was a regular as Rebecca Boone, Ed Ames played the indian
friend Mingo, a young Darby Hinton was added to appeal to child
viewers and semi-regular characters were also played by Veronica
Cartwright (who left early), Dal McKennon, singer Jimmy Dean and
Roosevelt Greer in the last season. Being a hit, it attracted star
talent like Lloyd Bochner, Don Pedro Colley, Ivor Barry, Bo Stevens,
Ramon Bieri, Jim Davis (Dallas),
Cesar Romero, Simon Oakland, Warren Stevens, Nita Talbot, Edward
Mulhare, Victor Buono, Jeffrey Hunter, Diane Ladd, Peter Graves, Jay
Silverheels (Tonto on The
Lone Ranger),
John Crawford, Cesare Danova, R.G. Armstrong, Paul Mantee, Forrest
Tucker (F
Troop),
Sid Haig, Burl Ives, Royal Dano, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto,
Dick Sargent, Richard Kiel, Claude Akins, Doodles Weaver, Slim
Pickens, Isabel Sanford, Alan Napier (Batman),
Michael Ansara, a young Zalman King, Jodie Foster, Butch Patrick,
Gloria Grahame, Brock Peters, Walter Pidgeon, Michael Rennie, Jeannie
Cooper, Vic Tayback, Cameron Mitchell, Abraham Sofaer, Maurice Evans,
Madlyn Rhue, Fabian, Jack Elam, James Gregory, Barbara Hershey,
Ricardo Montalban, Mike Farrell, Severn Darden, Andrew Prine, Joan
Hackett, Jim Backus, John Carradine, Richard Anderson, James Best,
Pat Hingle, Gordon Jump, Jill Ireland, Ted Cassidy, Lloyd Nolan,
Robert Lansing, Leonard Nimoy, Leslie Nielsen, George Kennedy,
Barbara Bel Geddes, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Woody Strode, Julie Harris
and Vincent Price among the many famous names and faces. Ida Lupino
even directed an episode!
I
like the earlier shows better since they are more serious, but as the
show goes to color, it lightens up a bit, then starts to get really
campy. There is also that theme song, in its original form only in
the debut season. They ruined it for Seasons 2 - 4, then try to give
it a Beatles-like beat for the last two seasons! The producers
should have left well enough alone. Now you can see the whole show,
flaws and all.
There
are sadly no extras.
Gerry
Orz's The Equation Of Life (2013) may have a co-director and
runs only over a half-hour, but it is an interesting piece on
bullying, not just from fellow neighborhood kids, students or the
like, but from parents and other adults that is not as discussed.
The same adults who allow bullying to go on as if it were nothing
when it is a growing problem. Talk about irresponsibility. Without
knowing it, this program (with its limited acting) hits on this and
is worth a look for those interested.
Extras
include Orz Intro and his appearance at the California State Senate
in 2012 and 2013 battling against bullying.
Kat
Candler's Hellion (2014) is an expansion of a very short tale
that here turns into one of a father (Aaron Paul) and his two sons
dealing with poverty, social limits and a troubled older son (Josh
Wiggins) who keeps getting into trouble. It has some good moments,
decent performances and Juliette Lewis shows up in a good-if-obvious
turn, but the last half hour get ridiculous, throwing out anything
that worked and the ending is just not believable or convincing. The
use of songs don't always work either.
Extras
include Behind The Scenes featurette, Original Theatrical Trailer,
the Original Short Film that inspired this feature and its Sundance
Premiere.
The
1.33 X 1 image on the Boone set is the best of the releases
here, starting with the black & white Season One that has
some detail issues and age issues, but could be worse. The remaining
seasons are in Deluxe color and though not as colorful as say Batman
in the same period, looks better than I remembered. They are also
sharper with more detail and depth than the early black & white
shows. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image color image on
Life and anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Hellion
have some good shots, but are both digital shoots with motion blur
and detail issues of different kinds. Life has a bit more of
an excuse with its budget limits, while Hellion is having
issues with style choices and some bad shots that don't match the
better ones.
Sound
is equal on all three releases with the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
on Boone
sounding better than expected, though it can vary from episode to
episode as expected but is professionally recorded overall. The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Life
has location audio issues and some compression and distortion issues,
but they are limited, while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Hellion
only engages its surrounds so much, is dialogue-based as much as not
and has soundfield limits as a result.
-
Nicholas Sheffo