Amazon.com essential video

Richard Donner’s 1978 epic about the Man of Steel showed how a film about a superhero could be a moving and romantic experience even for people who long ago gave up comic books. Beginning on the icy planet Krypton, the story follows the baby Kal-El, whose rocket ship lands in Smallville, Kansas. He is found there by a childless couple and raised as the shy Clark Kent (the young Kent is played by Jeff East). The film is perhaps most touching in these sequences, with expanses of wheat fields blowing in the wind and with a young man who can’t figure out what part in destiny his great powers are meant to play. The second half, with Reeve taking over as Clark/Superman, is bustling, enchanting (the scene (more…)

Amazon.com

Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson’s live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien’s trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo’s inheritance of “the One Ring” of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf’s triumph over the evil army of orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Rosenman’s accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosp (more…)