Orson Welles Collection: Passport 5 Pack

 

                             Picture:  Sound:  Extras:  Film:

 

The Stranger             C-       C           D          B

King Lear                  C-       C           D          B

David and Goliath      C-       C           D          B-

The Trial                   C-       C           D          B-

Bonus DVD               C-       C           D          C+

 

 

I always like to point out that when Orson Welles finished Citizen Kane, which is considered one of the greatest films ever made, that he was merely 25 years old.  It’s incredible to think that someone so young, could complete a work of art so profound, so daring, so technical, and without a doubt would makes the name Welles synonymous with greatness.  Not only did he complete an incredible work of art, but of course the lengthy battle that was fought for the film with William Randolph Hearst.  It’s just incredible!  That brings me to another point, which is that the lifework of Welles has always been looked upon with great criticism.  So much so that Welles never truly felt appreciated because most of his career his work was compared to Citizen Kane as if it was the film to compare all work to.  This is just ludicrous.  As an artist Welles was purely capable of making other interesting films and his other notable work purely show this, but his expressions in these films are quite different in nature than Kane. 

 

Take for example Touch of Evil, which Welles would complete in 1958 and is a film that rests heavily on its visual splendor rather than its loop-holed narrative.  Another film highly neglected is his 1942 masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons, which has been long awaited on the DVD format.  What is quite interesting though about Welles semi-known work is that most of it is incredible just the same, but is less known simply because it doesn’t necessarily reach the status as some of his best films.  I suppose that this is common today as well because we often expect so much from directors…Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Polanski, etc.  The list goes on of directors who have always had high expectations placed on just about every project they did.  When that particular director did not deliver the ‘norm’ than they were nailed by the critics.  My mind quickly thinks about Eyes Wide Shut, Bringing Out the Dead, and perhaps even Munich could be classified as a recent example. 

 

This particular DVD set includes 5 DVD’s inside a double DVD pack with what I would call some of the most interesting packaging in the format.  I won’t go into details though.  Each film is on it’s own disc with a final disc containing some extra material.  The Stranger and The Trial were available together in a DVD called Citizen Welles, and I have also seen other companies release these two titles, which apparently are in a type of public domain status.  However, King Lear as well as David and Goliath are seldom seen works that are worth seeing, especially on DVD.  Unfortunately the quality delivered here is not spectacular, but at least here is an opportunity to have the films together.  Quality is somewhere around VHS quality with poor contrast, lots of grain, and plenty of debris as the prints for these films obviously have not been treated well over the years.  For shame!  Audio is equally poor with lots of distortion and the Dolby Digital 1.0 or even 2.0 mono sound is just sub-standard.  It’s too bad these films were not well preserved, although money should be spent to restore these gems before they are beyond repair.  Obviously, these copies are not from the camera negatives, owned by someone else.

 

This set is probably only going to appeal to big fans of Welles that are inclined to track down some of the rarer films in his filmography, but even those fans (who are probably film enthusiasts to begin with) will be mildly if not heavily disappointed by the quality that these films are in.  Most people will want to wait for what will hopefully be better issues in the future, but that future may be bleak as these films might never get the restoration that they deserve and with time ticking…it might be too late once the realization is made.  Basically, it’s a toss up in this particular case.  The fifth DVD has a Hollywood Remembers installment on Welles and Hollywood Couples segment on Welles and Rita Hayworth included to tip the consumer’s opinion as to whether to purchase this set or not.  They are not bad and worth a look.

 

 

-   Nate Goss