America Lost and Found: The BBS Story [Criterion Collection] [9 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Like the rest of America, Hollywood was ripe for revolution in the late sixties. Cinema attendance was down; what had once worked seemed broken. Enter Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner, who knew that what Hollywood needed was new audiences - namely, young people - and that meant cultivating new talent and new ideas. Fueled by money made from their invention of the superstar TV pop group the Monkees, they set off on a film-industry journey that would lead them to form BBS Productions, a company that was also a community. The innovative films produced by this team between 1968 and 1972 are collected in this box set - works created within the studio system but lifted right out of the countercultural id, and that now range from the iconic (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show) to the acclaimed (The King of Marvin Gardens) to the obscure (Head; Drive, He Said; A Safe Place). Head: Hey, hey, it's the Monkees . . . being catapulted through one of American cinema's most surreal sixties odysseys. In it, Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork become trapped in a kaleidoscopic satire that's movie homage, media send-up, concert movie, and antiwar cry all at once. Head escaped commercial success on its release but has since been reclaimed as one of the great cult objects of its era.

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 9
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Features:
  • Audio commentaries for Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, A Safe Place, and The Last Picture Show
  • Selected-scene commentary for the king of marvin gardens
  • Hours of new and archival interviews and documentaries
  • Outtakes, screen tests, tv and radio spots, stills galleries, and trailers
  • Plus: a booklet featuring essays by critics Chuck Stephens, Matt Zoller Seitz, Kent Jones, Graham Fuller, Mark Le Fanu, and J Hoberman

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1971 (Ben Johnson)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1971 (Cloris Leachman)
•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 1971 (Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 1971 (Robert Surtees)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1971 (Peter Bogdanovich)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1971 (Stephen Friedman)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1971 (Jeff Bridges)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1971 (Ellen Burstyn)
•     Nominated Best Actor - 1970 (Jack Nicholson)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1970 (Adrien Joyce, Bob Rafelson)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1970 (Bob Rafelson, Richard Wechsler)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1970 (Karen Black)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1969 (Terry Southern, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1969 (Jack Nicholson)

• American Film Institute

•     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Screenplay - 1972 (Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1972 (Ben Johnson)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1972 (Cloris Leachman)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1972 (Peter Bogdanovich)

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won Best First Feature - 1969 (Dennis Hopper)

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1971 (Peter Bogdanovich)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1970 (Bob Rafelson)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1969 (Dennis Hopper)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1971 (Ben Johnson)
•     Won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 1970 (Karen Black)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1971 (Peter Bogdanovich)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 1971 (Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Drama - 1971
•     Nominated New Star of the Year - Female - 1971 (Cybill Shepherd)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1970 (Bob Rafelson)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - 1970 (Jack Nicholson)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Drama - 1970
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1970 (Adrien Joyce)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1969 (Jack Nicholson)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1998

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1971 (Ben Johnson)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1971 (Cloris Leachman)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1970 (Karen Black)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1971
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1970

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Screenplay - 1971 (Penelope Gilliatt, Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1971 (Ben Johnson)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1971 (Ellen Burstyn)
•     Won Best Director - 1970 (Bob Rafelson)
•     Won Best Picture - 1970
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1970 (Karen Black)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1969 (Jack Nicholson)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1998
•     Film Presented - 1975

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1975 (Bob Rafelson)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Jack Nicholson - David Staebler
       Bruce Dern - Jason Staebler
       Cybill Shepherd - Jacy Farrow
       Ben Johnson - Sam The Lion
       Annette Funicello - Minnie
       Charles Lavine - Grandfather
       Fannie Flagg - Stoney
       Abraham Sofaer - Swami
       Toni Basil - Terry Grouse
       Charles Macaulay - Inspector Shrink
       Sally Struthers - Betty
       Charles Irving - Mayor Feedback
       John Ryan - Spicer
       Irene Dailey - Samia
       Lorna Thayer - Waitress
       Ray Nitschke - Private One
       Carol Doda - Sally Silicone
       Frank Zappa - The Critic
       June Fairchild - The Jumper
       Teri Garr - Testy True
       I.J. Jefferson - Lady Pleasure
       Ann Thomas - Bambi

• Director:

  Bob Rafelson, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Henry Jaglom, Peter Bogdanovich

• Producer:

  Jack Nicholson, Bob Rafelson, Peter Fonda, Bert Schneider, Harold Schneider, Richard Wechsler, Harry Gittes, Fred Roos, Steve Blauner, Stephen Friedman

• Screenwriter:

  Jack Nicholson, Bob Rafelson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern, Adrien Joyce, Jeremy Larner

• Book Author:

  Jeremy Larner

• Screenwriter:

  Henry Jaglom, Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry

• Book Author:

  Larry McMurtry

• Screenwriter:

  Jacob Brackman

• Book Author:

  Jacob Brackman, Bob Rafelson

• Cinematographer:

  Michel Hugo, Laszlo Kovacs, Baird Bryant, Bill Butler, Richard C. Kratina, Robert Surtees

• Composer (Music Score):

  Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Ken Thorne, Nilsson

• Songwriter:

  Hoyt Axton, Carole King, Roger McGuinn, David A. Axelrod, Bob Dylan, Gerry Goffin

• Featured Music:

  Jimi Hendrix

• Songwriter:

  Antonia Durzen, Larry Waner, Jack Keller, Merle Kilgore, Tammy Wynette

• Featured Music:

  Johann Sebastian Bach, Fryderyc Chopin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

• Songwriter:

  Billy Sherill, Bobby Braddock, Sonny Williams, Claude Putnam Jr.

• Featured Music:

  Gus Arnheim, Arthur Freed, Abe Lyman & Band

• Composer (Music Score):

  David Shire

• Songwriter:

  Mason Williams, Louis Hardin

• Editor:

  Monte Hellman, Mike Pozen, Donn Cambern, Christopher Holmes, Gerald S. Shepard, Robert Wolfe, Pat Somerset, Pieter Bergema, Henry Jaglom, John F. Link

• Production Designer:

  Toby Carr Rafelson, Vince Cresciman, Polly Platt

• Art Director:

  Sydney Z. Litwack, Jerry Kay, Harry Gittes, Walter Scott Herndon, Toby Carr Rafelson

• Associate Producer:

  William Hayward, Harold Schneider

• Executive Producer:

  Bert Schneider

• Set Designer:

  Ned Parsons, Toby Carr Rafelson

• Costume Designer:

  Gene Ashman, Bucky Rous, Barbara Flood, Nancy McArdle, Tony Scarano

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Les Fresholtz, Tom Overton

• Makeup:

  Virgil Frye

• Special Effects:

  Charles Gaspar, Bruce Lane, Butler-Glouner, Inc., Burton Gershfield, Chuck Gasper, Steve Karkus

• First Assistant Director:

  Jon C. Anderson, Andrien Joyce, Stephen F. Kesten, Robert Rubin, Tim Zinnemann

• Choreography:

  Toni Basil

• Production Manager:

  Paul Lewis, Harold Schneider

• Casting:

  Ross Brown

• Properties Master:

  Robert O'Neil

• Unit Production Manager:

  Don Guest

REVIEWS:

• Of the new wave of young American directors who emerged in the early 1970s, Peter Bogdanovich displayed the strongest affinity for the Old Masters of Hollywood's Golden Era, particularly Howard Hawks and John Ford, and The Last Picture Show drew more consciously and effectively from their styles than any other film of its day. With its sharply defined black-and-white framing and simple, straightforward camera setups, The Last Picture Show resembles a classic Hawks or Ford picture; but, while those directors used their techniques to tell sweeping tales of the American frontier, Bogdanovich instead examined a tiny Texas town crumbling into dust in the early 1950s. In The Last Picture Show, the cowboys, Indians, and settlers of Stagecoach or Red River have been replaced by wealthy but ineffectual oilmen with bored wives, and high school kids looking for excitement or a future in a town that offers neither. The sole strong adult role model, Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson, a member of Ford's stock company), is a scruffy misfit showing his age and losing his health; if he's the town's last tie to the strong and noble men of the Old West, he's also decaying as fast as the town itself. Anarene has been reduced to a dusty little Peyton Place, where everyone knows everyone else's sordid little secrets and sexual peccadilloes; when Sam the Lion dies, the town loses its last pillar of dignity, with the later closing of the town's only movie house (where Red River is the last feature) serving as the most obvious symbol of its slow, inexorable decline. The strongest people are the ones who can leave, while those who stay behind follow a circle of heartbreak and romantic betrayals. "You can't believe how this town has changed," Sam says at one point to Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms), always the boy who needed his guidance the most, and Johnson gives those words a rueful weight that makes it one of the most telling moments of this sad, sometimes funny, and deeply moving film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
• The Monkees' one and only theatrical outing is a difficult, deliberately confrontational attempt to shatter their image as goody-two-shoes pop idols. On the part of the filmmakers, it was an attempt to break all the rules of filmmaking: no plot line, no clear-cut protagonists, no attempt to maintain the illusion of telling the viewer a story. The end result is uneven to be sure, but interesting nonetheless. Head is a rare case of a film's biggest strength (its taboo-trashing sense of daring) also being its biggest weakness. Since the film is essential a loosely connected series of sketches interrupted with a series of non-sequiturs, the film lacks the rhythm that would make it fascinating from start to finish and it becomes tiresome after a while. However, this doesn't mean that it isn't worth seeing. Anyone with any kind of interest in cult movies should see it at least once, because it when it hits the bull's eye, the rewards are dazzling. Highlights include a surreal scene where a hysterical crowd cheering on at a Monkees concert is intercut with news footage of the Vietnam War and a pseudo-parody of Lawrence of Arabia that involves Micky Dolenz blowing up a Coke machine that won't give him a bottle. Head also boasts some of the Monkees' finest post-television-fame music, the best being the dizzying psychedelia of "The Porpoise Song" and the rousing rocker "Circle Sky." Each of the bandmembers fully commits to the daring style of the film, with Micky Dolenz pulling off the wildest comic moments and Michael Nesmith achieving the most slyly witty moments. To sum up, Head is a hit-and-miss affair, but its sense of daring and periodic moments of brilliance make it worthwhile for cult movie fanatics. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi
• The role that propelled Jack Nicholson to stardom was his turn as frustrated, disaffected musician-turned-oil-rig-worker Bobby Dupea in Bob Rafelson's moody character study Five Easy Pieces. Many viewers remember it for the classic scene at a diner in which Nicholson orders a chicken salad sandwich without the chicken salad, and it established Nicholson as an icon of angst. The supporting cast, especially Karen Black as Bobby's pregnant girlfriend, and Susan Anspach as his brother's high-class fiancee, is strong. Written by Rafelson and Adrien Joyce, Five Easy Pieces was shot like an arthouse movie, on a low budget, but marketed to a mass audience. It was a key breakthrough in tearing down those divisions between commerce and art in American movies, and in highlighting the class and cultural divisions of the time that were eating away at America's cultural cohesion. Nicholson's classic alienated character was long defined by this film and his Oscar nomination for his role in it. Rafelson, however, did not translate his success with Five Easy Pieces to a memorable career. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
• When films emblematic of the 1960s American counter-culture are mentioned, Easy Rider comes to the fore. Almost everything about this story of a motorcycle gang that travels across a landscape of alienation is hopelessly dated, yet the film remains a lot of fun. As one of the most popular films of its times, it both depicted and promoted a youth culture that centered around illicit drugs and rock music. More than any other movie, it established the career of Jack Nicholson, who won some critics' awards and an Oscar nomination as a supporting actor, and promoted the wild image of Peter Fonda. It is also one of Dennis Hopper's earliest directorial efforts and one of his first maniacal roles, though Hopper did not immediately capitalize on his success in either capacity. The psychedelic moments are priceless, and the soundtrack, featuring the Byrds, Steppenwolf, and other bands of the era, is golden. Few who came of age in the turbulent 1960s did not mark Easy Rider as one of their formative cultural experiences. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi