DVD Picks & Pans: Must-See DVD for Spring

Military.com - Tom Miller

This week affords me the opportunity to recommend (not just review) a trio of outstanding DVDs.  They include "The Second Season" of one of television's finest dramatic series, "Friday Night Lights"; the third and final volume of "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones," a classic family-oriented drama from the 1990's; and "Charlie Wilson's War," a superb account of the CIA's secret war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.  Sit back and enjoy!
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"Charlie Wilson's War," DVD-2008 ($29.98, Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded neighboring Afghanistan.  The U.S. response was to condemn the invasion, cheer on the feeble Afghan resistance, and boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.  It was a token response by a weak president and yielded token results.

Enter Democratic Congressman Charlie Wilson of Texas, a bachelor with a weakness for booze and pretty women.  Wilson also was a fierce anti-Communist and prodded by sometime-mistress Joanne Herring—a Texas socialite, fundamental Christian, and rabid anti-Communist—decided to use his strategic position on key congressional committees to help the Afghans. 

Teaming up with Gust Avrakotos, a renegade CIA agent, Wilson leveraged his influence into a CIA secret war with an annual budget of $1 billion.  Arming the Mujahideen—Afghan freedom fighters—with advanced weapons, including the crucial Stinger anti-aircraft missile, Wilson and Avrakotos helped drive the Soviets from Afghanistan: a humiliating defeat that hastened the fall of the Soviet Union.

Journalist George Crile first told Wilson's outrageous story in his best-selling book, Charlie Wilson's War, and veteran screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Mike Nichols brings Crile's best-seller to the big screen in this brilliant adaptation. 

Sorkin and Nichols remain mostly faithful to Crile's book while capturing the absurdity of much of the tale.  The underlying story is breathtaking and its execution is close to flawless here.  The dialogue is strewn with irreverent nuggets.  Just one example: Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) taunts Wilson (Tom Hanks), "Why is Congress saying one thing while doing nothing?"  Wilson deadpans: "Well, tradition mostly." 

The cast, especially the principals, is excellent.  Philip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for the movie's single Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for this portrayal of Avrakotos.  Hanks is a consummate actor and as usual inhabits his character.  Amy Adams as Wilson's chief aide and Emily Blunt in a small role as one of Wilson's tarts also shine. 

People can disagree about movies, but I think that Hollywood punished "Charlie Wilson's War" for being blatantly anti-Communist and arguably patriotic and for calling attention to anti-war Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha's previous ethics problems.  In my opinion, this was clearly one of 2007's outstanding films and deserved several additional Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. 

If you missed this outstanding and important film in the theaters, don't miss it on DVD.  If you saw it in the theater, see it again. 

Mititary.com Rating: ****

(DVD extras include two featurettes: "The Making of Charlie Wilson's War," and "Who is Charlie Wilson," a profile of the real Charlie Wilson.)
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"Friday Night Lights: The Second Season," DVD-2008 ($29.98, Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

In July 1988, H. G. Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, took a leave of absence and moved his family to the barren plains of west Texas, settling in Odessa, a boom-and-bust oil town where high school football had acquired all the trappings of a secular religion. 

Bissinger spent the next four months observing the Permian Panthers, a team with a storied past, as they chased another state championship.  He emerged from his immersion into the highly-charged world of Texas high school football to write a remarkable account: Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream. 

Friday Night Lights was an instant success, generating glowing reviews and brisk sales, and in 2002, Sports Illustrated ranked it 4th (and the first football title) on its list of the "Top 100 Sports Books of All Time." 

Sixteen years after that 1988 season, Bissinger's book finally spawned a movie.  Directed by Peter Berg ("The Kingdom") and written by Berg and David Aaron Cohen, the eponymous movie based on the now-iconic book grossed over $61 million in domestic box office receipts. 

Two years later, Berg succeeded in bringing the book/movie to the small screen.  If the movie is based on the book, the television series is only inspired by the book.  Odessa has been replaced by the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, and the real-life characters have spawned fictional counterparts.  The major themes—the economically-depressed town's obsession with its football team; the challenges of growing up, especially in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a successful football program; and the life-lessons taught by football—are explored, but in new stories and in greater detail.

Berg also exploits the great advantage of serial television—time—to expand the scope of the original story to include other issues and characters.  Football—the players, coaches, and games—continues as the main thread, but characters and activities away from the locker room and field take on added importance. 

In its first season, the series explored issues as diverse as paralysis, promiscuity, performance-enhancing drugs, and infidelity.  And, while the series faltered in the ratings, it was a hit with the critics.  The New York Post called it "the best live-action show about contemporary America that is currently on the air," and USA Today raved that it's "one of the best-acted, best written, and best produced shows on television." 

Not surprisingly, it garnered its share of honors: an Emmy nomination for Best Direction for a Drama Series; the 2007 Television Critics Association award for Outstanding New Program; a Peabody Award; and the American Film Institute's 2006 Television Program of the Year. 

Season Two was challenging for "Friday Night Lights."  The ratings continued to suffer and the writers' strike almost killed off the show.  Only the fifteen episodes completed before the strike were televised, and no new shows were made afterward. 

The good news for fans is that NBC has entered into a partnership with DirecTV to save the show.  Thirteen new episodes will be produced for next season and will air first on DirecTV's The 101 and later on NBC.  

As for Season Two, "Friday Nights Lights" continues to offer some of the best storytelling and most compelling characters on television. 

Season Two continues the tradition of multiple storylines.  Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) who left Dillon High for his dream job at Texas Methodist University is increasingly unhappy with his choice.  Meanwhile back in Dillon, the Panthers are struggling under their new coach, and uber-fan Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) maneuvers to bring Coach Taylor back. 

School slut Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki) and homely brainiac Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons) start an improbable relationship while covering up a killing.  Sweet Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) discovers Christianity and a new boyfriend.  QB1 Matt Saracen (Zack Gilford) scores off the field with his grandmother's nurse.  Unlike Tyra who seems to be working toward redemption, bad boy Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) is not.

The ensemble cast is excellent, especially Chandler, Connie Britton (who plays Coach Taylor's wife Tami), Gilford, and Palicki. 

Military.com Rating: ****

(DVD extras include deleted scenes, audio commentary with producers and cast members, and an interview with cast and crew at the William S. Paley Television Festival.)
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"The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Three: The Years of Change," DVD-2008 ($129.99, Paramount Home Entertainment with Lucasfilm Ltd. And CBS Home Entertainment)

Anyone who argues that history is boring hasn't seen "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones," legendary producer George Lucas' Emmy-award winning television series from the 1990's. 

Lucas' vision was to take his popular Indiana Jones character, reinvent him as a nine-year-old and a teenager, and place him in situations where he would interact with famous people and become involved in key historical events of the early twentieth century. 

Over the course of the series, which ran from 1992-1994, Indy goes on safari with former President Teddy Roosevelt, is kidnapped by Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution, fights in World War I, shares a post-war college dorm room with future G-Man Eliot Ness, and works on a film set for legendary director John Ford. 

The series is being released in three volumes.  Volumes I and II came out on in 2007 and take Indy through much of World War I.  Vol. III carries the young Indy through the end of the war and into the Roaring Twenties.

Vol. III is a ten-disc set and includes seven feature-length episodes and a treasure trove of companion documentaries that add historical depth and insight.  The documentary subjects include, among others, writers Ernest Hemingway and Edith Wharton, legendary movie director John Ford, future G-man Eliot Ness, and future Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.

The eight episodes in Vol. II follow the peripatetic Indy from behind enemy lines in Italy to service with the French Foreign Legion in Africa, a top-secret mission to Istanbul, the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, New York City's bohemian Greenwich Village, and a Hollywood set. 

Indy is played as a young man by Sean Patrick Flanery who is excellent, as is the cast in general.  Guest stars in "Vol. III: The Years of Change" include Anne Heche, Bob Peck, Nicholas Turturro, and Jeffrey Wright.

This is an excellent series that brings history vividly, dramatically to life.  Get this one for your kids and watch it as a family. 

Military.com Rating: *** ½

(Vol. III delivers over 15 hours of special features that include two-dozen in-depth documentaries, a historical overview, interactive game, and interactive timeline.)
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Military.com Picks & Pans Rating Scale

* Pan—Save your money & time
** Borderline Pick—Okay but only as a last resort
*** Pick—Worthwhile & enjoyable
****Enthusiastic Pick—Excellent 

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Copyright 2012 by Tom Miller