The Criterion Collection Complete

HUNG, Sammo Kam-Bo (Hong Kong) Eastern Condors [1987] Spine #1244 Blu-ray Legendary actor-director Sammo Hung delivers a bazooka blast of pure adrenaline in this exemplar of Hong Kong action cinema at its most entertaining. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood war films like  The Dirty Dozen, Eastern Condors  follows a ragtag band of Asian American prisoners dropped into Vietnam on a secret suicide mission to prevent a cache of weapons from falling into the hands of the Viet Cong, who are more than ready for a fight. Propelled by a dynamic ensemble cast that includes the ever-charismatic Yuen Biao as a black-market trader and a superhuman Yuen Wah as a giggling martial-arts monster, this rip-roaring spectacle offers a nonstop barrage of turbocharged set pieces that defy death, logic, and gravity itself. 98 minutes Monaural Color In Cantonese 2:39:1 Criterion Release 2024 Director/Writer Sammo Kam-Bo Hung  was 35 when he directed Eastern Condors . Other Hung films in ...

COEN, Joel & COEN, Ethan (United States) No Country for Old Men [2007] Spine #1243 Blu-ray A deadly game of chance and destiny plays out against the stark backdrop of early-1980s West Texas in Joel and Ethan Coen’s powerful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. When he happens upon more than two million dollars from a drug deal turned desert massacre, a retired welder and Vietnam veteran (Josh Brolin) sets into motion a wave of senseless, inexorable violence as he’s stalked across the plains by a soul-weary sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and a psychopathic hit man (Javier Bardem). Winner of four Academy Awards—including Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actor for the indelibly disturbing Bardem—this darkly deadpan borderlands noir keeps both the tension and the existential unease mounting through each cruelly ironic twist of fate. 122 minutes 5.1 Surround Color 2:39:1 Criterion Release 2024 Director/Writer Joel Coen was 53 and Ethan Coen was 50 when they directed No Country for ...

DEL TORO, Guillermo (United States) The Shape of Water [2017] Spine #1242 Blu-ray Cinema’s great modern mythmaker Guillermo del Toro uses the hallmarks of classic horror and fantasy to tell a strange and sublime fable about outsiderhood, connection, and love’s transcendence. An ineffably touching Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a mute janitor at a top-secret government laboratory who finds herself drawn to the facility’s newest research subject: a humanoid amphibian—for whom she is soon risking everything, amid the stifling conformity of 1960s America. A triumph of visual imagination that combines elements of sci-fi, noir, and the golden-age musical, this swooning cinematic dreamscape—winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director—is a monster movie with a human heart. 123 minutes 5.1 DTS Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2024 Director/Writer Guillermo del Toro  was 53 when he directed The Shape of Water. Other del Toro films in the Collection: #551: Cronos (1993)...

BOGDANOVICH, Peter (United States) Paper Moon [1973] Spine #1241 Blu-ray Maverick director Peter Bogdanovich affectionately recreates the world of the 1930s Dust Bowl in this beloved, briskly entertaining chronicle of one of cinema’s unlikeliest crime sprees. Real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal (who became the youngest-ever Oscar winner for her spark-plug performance) play off each other with almost musical agility as a Bible-hawking con man and the precocious, recently orphaned tomboy who falls into his care—and soon rivals her newfound father figure’s skill as a swindler. With period-perfect detail, glowing monochrome imagery by cinematographer László Kovács, and a memorable supporting cast (including the inimitable Madeline Kahn),  Paper Moon  is a witty, loving portrait of two natural-born hustlers on a road trip through Depression-era America. 102 minutes Monaural Black and White 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2024 Director/Writer Peter Bogdanovich  was 34...

WYLER, William (United States) Funny Girl [1968] Spine #1240 Blu-ray Witness the birth of a movie star as Barbra Streisand makes a screen debut for the ages in this musical spectacular. From humor to pathos, she hits every note as popular 1920s singer-comedian Fanny Brice, a young Jewish New Yorker whose spirit and supernova talent propel her to fame in the  Ziegfeld Follies,  but whose devotion to an unreliable gambler (a charismatic Omar Sharif) brings drama and heartbreak into her life. Adapted from a hit Broadway show and directed by Hollywood master William Wyler,  Funny Girl  hits emotional highs in unforgettable performances of songs like “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade”—moments that won Streisand one of the most richly deserved Best Actress awards in Oscar history. 155 minutes 5.1 Surround Color 2:35:1 Criterion Release 2024 Director/Writer William Wyler  was 66 when he directed Funny Girl. Other Wyler films in the Collection: #974: The Heiress (1...

HAWKS, Howard (United States) Scarface [1932] Spine #1239 Blu-ray Blazing across the screen in a spray of bullets, the gangster-film sensation  Scarface  helped set the standard for the genre for decades to come. Swaggering, scary, and unexpectedly charming, Paul Muni gives an iconic portrayal of criminal sociopathy as Tony Camonte, the ruthless, machine-gun-toting mobster who rises through the ranks of a bootlegging empire atop an ever-increasing body count, but whose possessive relationship with his wild-child sister (Ann Dvorak) threatens to be his undoing. With rat-a-tat command of editing and dialogue, and his trademark panache, director Howard Hawks creates an unstoppable sense of dynamism while pushing on-screen violence to new heights of brutality. 95 minutes Monaural Black and White 1:35:1 Criterion Release 2024 Director/Writer Howard Hawks  was 36 when he directed Scarface. Other Hawks films in the Collection: #1085: Bringing Up Baby (1938) #806: Only Angels Ha...