Collection of Nine Mel Brooks Movies Released on Blu-Ray
by Philip Chien
20th Century Fox has released a special collection with nine of Mel Brooks’ funniest movies on Blu-Ray. The set includes – “The Twelve Chairs”, “Blazing Saddles”, “Spaceballs”, “Young Frankenstein”, “High Anxiety”, “History Of The World Part I”, “Robin Hood: Men In Tights”, “Silent Movie”, and “To Be Or Not To Be”. The collection also includes a 120 page collectors book about Brooks’ life and career.
The book looks like it was written by a publicist and it probably was. It’s a sanitized history which concentrates on the nine films in this collection. Actor Richard Pryor was supposed to have a staring role in “History of the World Part I”, but had to be replaced by Gregory Hines at the last minute. The book claims it was because of a “house fire”, but it was actually because Pryor set himself on fire while freebasing with cocaine. There are some interesting anecdotes in the book and several photos which haven’t been widely distributed.
Brooks tore apart Westerns in “Blazing Saddles”, horror movies in “Young Frankenstein”, Robin Hood in “Robin Hood: Men In Tights”, classic silent movies and early Hollywood in “Silent Movie”, historical epics in “History of the World Part I”, and science fiction in “Spaceballs.” You’ve got to wonder what he’s got planned for his next movie.
Regrettably the collection doesn’t include some of Mel Brooks’ funniest movies. If I had to pick one additional move which I would include it would be “Dracula – Dead and Loving It”, but I’d also love to see the “Producers” (both the original 1968 movie with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder and the 2005 musical with Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick). The good news is the collection includes “The Twelve Chairs”, one of Brooks’ earliest movies which was early in his career and many fans may not be aware of.
It’s high quality packaging and isn’t cheap. The suggested retail price is $139.99 U.S. / $179.99 Canada, or $15.55 per movie. The movies are packaged in a ‘book’ form with each movie in a slot on the page. It doesn’t provide as much protection as a standard Blu-Ray plastic case but should be adequate for protecting the disks.
Mel Brooks is certainly one of the funniest and most creative people on the planet. He’s one of a small handful of performers who has won the top four entertaining awards – Emmy (for his guest appearances on “Mad About You” as Uncle Phil), Oscar (as a writer), Grammy (for “Recording 'The Producers': A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks”), and Tony (for the musical version of “Producers”). Just as important many of the films in the collection appear on lists of the top comedy movies of all time.
"Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein", and "Spaceballs" are already available on Blu-Ray but the other six movies are being released in high definition formats for the first time. The extra features appear to be the same as the ones in the earlier DVD releases and there are no extras for “The Twelve Chairs”. The extras are ordinary DVD resolution (NTSC 480i). All of the movies are widescreen and decent quality transfers.
It’s kind of disappointing that the production company made the decision not to add any additional features. Commentaries and trivia tracks for the movies which don’t have them would have been appreciated and would make this collection more appealing to collectors who have already purchased the movies on VHS and DVD and considering whether or not it’s worth it to purchase them again.
Many Blu-Ray enthusiasts are quick to immediately upgrade their entire movie collection from DVD to Blu-Ray but the increased quality is more of an incremental than revolutionary improvement. The resolution of Blu-Ray is certainly better, there’s no denying that. But the scripts, acting, and jokes are still the same as the VHS and DVD versions. Sure it’s nice to see a panoramic vista of the old west as Cleavon Little rides into town in “Blazing Saddles” – but is it worth paying extra, especially if you already have the movie on DVD? One place where Blu-Ray does really shine is in action movies with lots of special effects and to me “Spaceballs” is noticeably better in Blu-Ray.
An eight movie collection (without “Spaceballs”) is already available on ordinary DVD, but without the collectors book. It’s about a third of the price of the new collection, so certainly a better choice if you don’t think Blu-Ray is worth the extra cost and don’t care for the special book and packaging. You can always purchase “Spaceballs” separately on either DVD or Blu-Ray.
If you’re a big Mel Brooks fan you’ll love the new Blu-Ray collection. But if you want to save a couple of dollars, stick with the DVD set.
Links
Order The Mel Brooks Collection (Blu-ray)
from Amazon.com.
Order The Mel Brooks Collection (DVD - 8 movies)
from Amazon.com.
Order individual Mel Brooks movies
from Amazon.com.
About the author
Philip Chien has been a Mel Brooks fan since the 1970s.
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