The American Film Institute's choice for Best American Film of All Time, Citizen Kane marks the feature-length writing, directing, and acting debut of Orson Welles (The Stranger). Borrowing elements from the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst in order to create fictional protagonist Charles Foster Kane (Welles), Welles crafted this technically innovative portrait of power and ambition.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, on the other hand, remains one of the most influential horror movies ever made. Director Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist) brings a vérité-style approach to this tale of five young adults terrorized by a cannibalistic Texas family, the most terrifying member being Leatherface, a savage, unstable killer who uses a mask made from human flesh to cover his facial disfigurations.
The technical and supplementary specifications for Warner and New Line's "40th Anniversary Edition" of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Blu-ray are still unknown.
Regarding Kane, however, Warner's new two-disc Kane edition presents the film in its 1.37:1 original aspect ratio with a monaural DTS-HD Master Audio track. The disc also retains the following special features from the three-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition:
Audio commentary by Peter Bogdanovich
Audio commentary by Roger Ebert
World Premiere of Citizen Kane featurettes
Interviews with Ruth Warrick and Robert Wise
Production galleries (featuring commentary from Roger Ebert)
Deleted scenes
Theatrical trailer
Full-length The Battle Over Citizen Kane documentary on a separate DVD
Previously available as a Best Buy-exclusive, this version of Citizen Kane expands its release schedule to retailers everywhere on January 17th, while The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is expected to street on October 1st.
It appears so. I know Dark Sky lost the rights (they put out a very respectable Blu-ray a couple years ago that is now out of print); New Line and WB probably wanted ownership so they could tie the original into whatever Platinum Dunes remake they release...
Cool to see The original Texas Chainsaw is coming back in print. I'm sure this will be a repackaging of the first release, but would be very surprised if it had new Pic and sound. We will see.
So happy about Texas Chainsaw Massacre coming back into print! I missed the first blu release and am now really curious about how they're going to do this 40th anniversary edition. Im also really hoping they go all out for it and give it a digibook as its one of my favorite horror movies ever.
Got the steelbook Darksky dvd so I at least have that for all their special features, all I gotta worry about is how good the picture and sound will be but Warners does very well with that most of the time.
@bboisvert: The feature list is virtually identical to the BB digibook, particularly its inclusion of The Battle Over Citizen Kane but *not* RKO 281. If it's not the same as the BB digibook, it'll have to be plain-case.
TCM...that film looks best in SD, in my opinion. I will reserve judgment until I read the reviews here. CK is another DVD that when upconverted looks fantastic. I'll stick with that for now.
Perhaps down the line I'll consider buying The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with a price drop. I already own the excellent Ultimate Collectors Edition of Citizen Kane, so I'm happy with that.
Let's hope this Citizen Kane is as reasonably priced as the best buy was at $10.99. I only want the movie, so that edition is good for me. Too bad BB ran out, but they did give an $11 coupon when they unilaterally cancelled the order.
For anyone curious about the digibook/Best Buy edition of Citizen Kane, I love it. Unlike the oversized Ultimate Edition, the case looks nice on the shelf and is appropriately sized (at least as digibooks go). The punchy cover art, which looks fabulous, is SO much better than the generic puzzle tiles on the UE.
Excepting the "book" of the digibook, the assortment of physical extras is not included, but frankly that's all fluff. I like the leaner version without the added crap but obviously that's personal preference. The only real omission of importance is the RKO 281 DVD, which was a weird inclusion in the first place, being a stand-alone feature film with a prominent cast, similar in material to the Battle Over Citizen Kane documentary, and, well, a DVD. For anyone who wants the RKO 281 DVD, I'd STILL advise to get this version and just buy RKO 281 separately. It can be easily found for less than the premium charged for the UE over the digibook.
While I like a digibook without the swag, and may purchase it especially if it sells for 10.99, what I really wish is that the amazon eclusive version with The Magnificent Ambersons DVD would go down significantly in price.
I read some place on the net, maybe here, where the BB Kane digibook is the same as this release. The UCE of Kane was good, imo, for the The Magnificent Ambersons dvd (sadly no HD Bluray remaster on that) that was given through Amazon.
Granted I wish I wasn't such a fan of this film to have waited for a digibook or regular case edition. Size is an issue. Same goes for Willy Wonka : (
joshkatz, Platinum Dunes is now done with horror movies. They said a while back that Nightmare on Elm street was going to be the finalhorror movie for the company.
Although Digibooks are a nice touch, I would prefer a steelbook for TCM. I recall so many people crying over the Exorcist in a digibook, and the threads never quite leave my memory. It seems impossible for the studios to please everyone, because no matter what they put out, someone will be unhappy. These days, most of us are displeased as studios fail to put the effort into quality releases unless it is a new film, and even then they fall short. If they want to stop losing $$, they need to stop making horrible remakes, mindless rom coms, and teen filled horror that goes nowhere and give the home market a better blu release.
IMHO, WB needs to do more than a repackage of TCM to get me to buy again. Going back to VHS, I 've bought it 4 times now, so nothing short of a new transfer, scanned at 4k will get me to fork over more cash.
There's really not much more that can be done to improve TCSM. Don May Jr. from Synapse was responsible for the last major cleanup effort (The Dark Sky release), which was a drastic improvement from the Pioneer DVD release. 4K is not going to bring out much more from a 16mm negative.
