America’s Favorite Cars (DVD-Video series)
The Complete Corvette 50th
Anniversary
The Complete Mustang 40th
Anniversary
Fabulous Fords Of The 50’s
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Main Programs: B- each
The
DVD-Video market has been flooded with many car titles, especially ones with
souped-up ecocars and the lifestyle they entail, but there has been a glut in
great cars of the past and great sports car marques. We have already covered the first five titles
in the Victory By Design series, including
titles on Aston Martin, Maserati, Porsche, Jaguar and Alfa Romeo. Now, Eagle Eye Media has issued three discs
on two other great sports cars and the historical 1950s period of Ford, which
includes the Thunderbird.
The Complete Corvette 50th
Anniversary is a
strong show produced in 1997 about the dawn of the model as a fancier regular
car before being redesigned to be America’s perennial superexoticar. Needless to say, from the production year,
the latest revision of the vehicle is not included, but it is a great
50-minutes-long program that has tons of valuable footage of the car. This includes some models rarely seen,
special editions and footage from classic TV commercials that is still a
must-have for fans and those who want to see the rise of an American
classic. Despite no reference to the
car’s early film appearance in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955), it manages to capture some great pop culture
moments for the car and shows how the fan base for it has built up over the
years, including a trip to a Corvette show like many that occur annually
worldwide. This is fun.
The Complete Mustang 40th
Anniversary is
just as long and was produced in 1991, so the actual show only goes up to it 25th
anniversary, making these two otherwise fine volumes a bit mistitled. What is fun about the tale here is that the
car was meant as an inexpensive sporty model that took off in ways Ford cold
never have imagined, plus the standard inclusion of an 8-track tape stereo
player in this car single-handedly launched the car stereo movement. The fanfare that builds around the car has an
even larger Pop effect than even the ‘Vette in many ways, spurred on by Carroll
Shelby’s involvement with the car in the 1960s and how the abilities of its
high-performance seemed to keep evolving until the model was rolled-back in
edge, power and excitement in the 1970s.
Again, it missed great appearances in films like Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965) and the James Bond
films Goldfinger (1964, the same
model/reviewed elsewhere on this site) and the great Mach One in Diamonds Are Forever (1971, reviewed
elsewhere on this site). It was also the
car on the great, influential Cult TV classic Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975), though the model used was
from the 1960s and is a better one than any form the 1970s or recent revival of
the series. Still, this is as solid a
volume as its predecessor.
Fabulous Fords Of The 50’s was produced in 1990 and
ironically is the episode that does not need to be updated in any way, shape or
form. The program has been divided into
five sections and runs the longest. The
first three chapters deal rather thoroughly with the Ford, Mercury and Lincoln
divisions respectively, with the wild card being in how the then-new medium of
television turned out to be a major factor in making the public aware of the
latest models. After all the successes
and failures are shown, we are reminded of how extremely collectible all the
cars produced became. That is even more
obvious in the section on Thunderbird and a great joke in the final segment on
the disastrous release of The Edsel.
They are also covered in great detail, with the Thunderbird launch and
resulting huge response as impressive as those of Mustang and Corvette, while
the launch for Edsel is funny, but shows the kind of serious effort the company
made to get them to sell. They did not,
but it was not for lack of ambitious marketing.
When the public is not interested, you can forget it.
All three
are produced on older analog NTSC videotape at the 1.33 X 1 aspect ratio, but
they look good for their age and the film footage is often in better shape than
expected. The footage is usually in
color on all three discs, but there is occasional black and white, while some
color footage may be fading in patches.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound is fine for what it is, but simply
does not offer any kind of Pro Logic surrounds and in some cases, like an awful
remake of The Troggs’ classic Rock hit Wild Thing in the Mustang DVD we
can all do without, especially in any kind of surround. Either way, the performance is fine for its
age and will not get in your way, as they are all well narrated just the
same. The one odd extra on all three
DVDs are a DVD-ROM only feature that offers the script of the program on each
respective disc to those interested.
This is odd, but what the Corvette and Mustang discs really needed was a
new featurette to update their programs to fit their titles. Why this was not done is odd, but these are
all great, collectible DVDs and are available at an exceptionally low price
that will make everyone happy.
For more
on great cars, try these links:
Alfa Romeo
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1153/Alfa+Romeo+-+Victory+By+Design
Aston Martin
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/920/Aston+Martin+-+Victory+By+Design
Ferrari
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/981/Ferrari+-+Victory+By+Design+(DTS)
Jaguar
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/982/Jaguar+-+Victory+By+Design+(DTS)
Maserati
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1145/Maserati+-+Victory+By+Design+(DTS)
Porsche
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/983/Porsche+-+Victory+By+Design+(DTS)
Clarkson – Heaven & Hell
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5282/Clarkson+–+Heaven+&+Hell
- Nicholas Sheffo
