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The films that last the longest, outdistancing their time and place, have something significant to say. It doesn’t seem to matter how they say it, in terms of genre. A comedy, even a seemingly silly one known for drunken hijinks, can be as timeless as a tragedy.
Three examples, all new on Blu-ray, deftly mine youth culture in their particular eras. All resonate across generations.
Welcome back to John Singleton’s tragic drama Boyz N the Hood (1991), John Hughes’ clever comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and John Landis’ brilliant gross-out Animal House (1978).
Boyz N the Hood and Animal House are both newly remastered in high definition, with Boyz making its Blu-ray debut this week and Animal House set for July 26. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a re-release, with a re-packaging of the 2009 Blu-ray coming Aug. 2. Plans for a 25th anniversary overhaul fell through. The cover is different but the contents, including bonus materials, is exactly the same as that earlier Bueller … Bueller … Edition.
n Boyz N the Hood: Singleton realistically explores ghetto life in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s, showing the tragic shockwaves gangbangers send through their communities. They rent the fabric of daily life. They react to social pressures but make agonizingly wrong choices. They die young. They perpetuate a cycle of violence.
Boyz never glorifies the gangsta lifestyle. It intimately shows the whole range of humanity in a working-class neighbourhood. At the end of his violent opus, Singleton inserted the words "Increase the Peace" under the title. The heroes of the piece are the survivors, such as Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character. The villains are the victims-victimizers, such as Ice Cube’s troubled Doughboy.
"I thought only, like, people in the neighbourhood would care about Boyz N the Hood," Ice Cube says in a 28-minute documentary, The Enduring Significance of Boyz N the Hood. "I knew everybody on my street would love it. Hollywood? Not so sure!" Gooding recalls: "We had really tapped in the social consciousness — and it is a statement film."
Boyz struck the 1991 Cannes Film Festival like a lightning bolt. It became a mainstream hit. Singleton was nominated for two Oscars, including one as best director, youngest ever in that category. "I beat Orson Welles by a year," Singleton remembers.
On Blu-ray, Boyz looks stunning. The restoration is terrific. Earlier DVD extras are recycled and the Enduring doc is new.
n Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Even after 25 years, Hughes’ youth comedy classic still plays well. Fans continue to debate exactly what happened. Colleagues just spent time last weekend debating whether Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) and his adventures are actually figments of his friend Cameron Frye’s imagination. Provocative thought. Regardless, this re-released Blu-ray reinforces the notion that Hughes, at his zenith, created movies that spoke for an entire generation of high school kids.
n Animal House: Also known as National Lampoon’s Animal House, this crass comedy looks ab-fab in its restoration. That is a surprise. I thought it would be grainy and murky. Instead, John Belushi’s grunt antics are crystal clear and the idiocies perpetuated by the inmates of Delta House at Faber College in 1962 are wonderfully fresh. Although the extras are all recycled from DVD editions.
"No one had written the definitive college movie for our generation — and we thought this was it," co-writer Harold Ramis recalls in a 1998 doc included on the Blu-ray. Put yourself on Double Secret Probation and watch this sucker again in its splendid restoration.
Source: Sacramento Bee
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