New Collection of Winners of the Academy's Most Prestigious Prize
Lionsgate has released a five-disc DVD set they are calling Best Picture Academy Award Winners — Five Film Collection, which packages together for the first time the following movies:
No Country for Old Men (2007), nominated for eight Academy Awards and winner of four: Best Picture, Best Director (Ethan and Joel Coen), Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Crash (2004), nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of three: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.
Chicago (2002), nominated for 13 Academy Awards and winner of six: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Editing and Best Sound.
Shakespeare in Love (1998), nominated for 13 Academy Awards and winner of seven: Best Picture, Best Actress (Gwyneth Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Comedy Score.
The English Patient (1996), nominated for 12 Academy Awards and winner of nine: Best Picture, Best Director (Anthony Minghella), Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Dramatic Score, Best Editing and Best Sound.
The five films in this collection were nominated for a total of 52 Oscars, of which they won 29, including in each case the grand prize of Best Picture.
The Five Feature Films
No Country for Old Men is a crime drama written and directed by the Coen brothers and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. Set in West Texas in 1980, the story centers on the aftermath of a heroin deal gone wrong. Jones plays the sheriff, and Bardem portrays a psychopathic killer.
Crash is a theme-driven drama exploring racial tension in multiethnic L.A. There are interconnected narrative strands following several characters — whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians and Middle Easterners — over a two-day period. The ensemble cast includes Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon.
Chicago, starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah, is a comedy with 15 musical numbers. The story takes place during the Prohibition era. Zellweger and Zeta-Jones play women on Death Row, Latifah portrays a prison matron and Gere plays a defense attorney.
Shakespeare in Love is a romantic comedy pairing Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. In London in 1593 it's illegal for women to appear in plays, so Viola (Paltrow) disguises herself as a young man and takes the male title role in Romeo and Juliet, the latest effort by Will Shakespeare (Fiennes).
The English Patient slowly unravels the mystery surrounding a dying man (Ralph Fiennes) being tended by a nurse (Juliette Binoche) during the waning days of World War II. In flashback, the film shows how he met a woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) in the North African desert and had a passionate love affair with her.
Bonus Materials
No Country for Old Men has three video extras with total runtime 39 minutes, 24 minutes of which is a making-of documentary. The eight-minute "Working With the Coens" has cast and crew praising Joel and Ethan, while the seven-minute "Diary of a Country Sheriff" discusses Tommy Lee Jones' character in the film.
Crash has a 15-second intro by director Paul Haggis and a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. There's also a four-minute music video of the song "If I …" performed by Kansascali, as well as an audio commentary by Haggis, writer Bobby Moresco and actor Don Cheadle.
Chicago has a 28-minute behind-the-scenes featurette and a four-minute deleted scene in which Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah perform the musical number "Class." There's also an audio commentary by director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon.
Shakespeare in Love has 35 minutes of video extras: the 22-minute making-of "Shakespeare in Love and on Film," the two-and-a-half-minute "Academy Award Winning Costumes" and 11 minutes of deleted scenes. Also, there are two audio commentaries, one by director John Madden, the other by cast and crew. Finally, there's some text material titled "Shakespeare Facts."
The English Patient provides no bonus materials.
Details
Below are some details for the Best Picture Academy Award Winners — Five Film Collection DVD set.
DVD Release Date: January 31, 2012Number of DVDs: 5
No Country for Old Men Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes
No Country for Old Men MPAA Rating: R for Strong Graphic Violence and Some Language
Crash Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes
Crash MPAA Rating: R for Language, Sexual Content and Some Violence
Chicago Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes
Chicago MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Sexual Content and Dialogue, Violence and Thematic Elements
Shakespeare in Love Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes
Shakespeare in Love MPAA Rating: R for Sexuality
The English Patient Runtime: 2 hours 42 minutes
The English Patient MPAA Rating: R for Sexuality, Some Violence and Language