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With coupon I can get this for $50 on B&N right now. Is it worth a blind buy? It seems like some of the films aren't as good as the others. And that some of the extras leave something wanting.

Yes, get it

I don't think you can go wrong for $50. I'd feel there has to be at least a couple of films one would like in this set (for me Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces, and, to an extent, Easy Rider are worth $50) and it's not that the supplements are bad they're just repetitive (I don't know how many times the story about how Bogdanovich almost got fired is told but it was a lot throughout the set.) But the interview with Jack for Drive, He Said is at least worth $5 of the that $50 and there's still some good material.

Just ordered it. Thanks for the pump-up. Is it weird that I'm most excited to see Head?

You won't be disappointed

Definitely a good choice—even if you end up using the Drive, He Said/A Safe Place disc as a coaster.

HEAD is great, and in my opinion features some of the best music The Monkees ever made.

I actually think Drive, He Said is one of the better movies in the set.

I'd be disappointed if I went into A Safe Place expecting it to be an amusing Welles-related curio, right?

You'll be disappointed no matter what, but I think it's worth one viewing.

knives wrote:I actually think Drive, He Said is one of the better movies in the set.

Amen, this was a real pleasant surprise and definitely part of the set's value proposition; looking forward to rewatching. As for A Safe Place...loved the bonus features where the director is desperately unable to consider the possibility that his film is just a piece of a crap. I'll bet the reviews at the time had some suggestions where the Producers could keep the movie safe. Awful.
(these are my opinions and observations btw and in no way imply objective truth)

I learned to appreciate EASY RIDER with this set, a film I was not enamored with the first two times I had seen it in years past. HEAD just gets better each time I see it. I already loved LAST PICTURE SHOW and FIVE EASY PIECES and these discs are the best representations of those films. DRIVE, HE SAID and A SAFE PLACE are definitely products of their time and have trouble transcending that time (in the case of the latter, it has trouble with being watchable, but Jaglom's commentary is kind of fun). I had never seen THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS before and now believe the price of the box could be worth it for that film alone.

Of the three Rafelson movies The King of Marvin Gardens is probably my favorite (too?). I think it just balances out all of the extremes that he was dealing with on the previous two films to make something that works in it's entirety.

Any thoughts or hints from CC on whether this set will be split up and sold as individual titles?

I would guess not, and if so it'd take a few more years until they do. There's been a mixed history re: splitting up boxsets.

Purely speculation on my part, but I'd bet that Criterion only have access to these titles as an unbreakupable box set. I don't think the studio would throw away the rights to a perpetual money spinner like a standalone Easy Rider. If we do see individual releases of some of the other titles, I bet it won't be from Criterion, and I doubt that even Criterion would be interested in issuing a standalone A Safe Place or Drive, He Said.

That's bad new for me, because I really just want The Last Picture Show out of this set. ](*,) It isn't worth $65 to me though.

I'm sure that if you bought the set and sold the other releases individually you could get yourself a solid $40+ back for your purchase, as long as you put up clear eBay listings...

Also for all you know you might wind up, shock, enjoying some of the other films released.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the Last Picture Show commentary that lists Frank Marshall as a participant even though he is never heard from on the track? Is it just a mistake or was he included in the original laserdisc commentary & now removed for some reason?

Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider and The Last Picture show are my favorites on the disc... But I don't really think they hold up very well to repeated viewing. Five Easy Pieces does have some great moments, Jack walking past the barbers college being my favorite... But to be honest, Jacks women troubles and his daddy troubles... As well as his limbo between worlds, feels very dull... Or at the very least its just not that memorable once you watch it for the eleventh time. Every time I watch jack on job site, in the bowling ally, taking his late night walk, It never looses its power. But the more I hear jack play on the piano... The more I realize just what an EASY piece it is. As for The last picture show, It actually has some very weak performances, when the script does not call for a impassioned monologue. As far as the lauded Greg Toland photography... I did not see it! When I think of Tolland, I think of "The Last Voyage"... And no shot in this picture bore even a passing resemblance. Easy Rider really impresses at times... The drug deal, Captain America throwing off his watch as symbol for the abandonment of narrative... Even the stoned campfire stories make me grin... But I feel like I need an intermission everytime that mardigra scene starts. I found "Drive, He Said" to be a VERY good picture and although I was not always fully engaged.... I could not really fault it! At the very least the opening credit sequence is astonishing and makes me think that if jack had not abandoned film making,He would have made some good pictures.
"A Safe Place" was also really charming, I usually throw up a little in my mouth at this many close ups, but however they did it, they did it right because I found it to be, in both movement and image, a truly handsome bit of work... once I muted the volume!!! As for head... I thought it was a masterpiece, It was uproariously funny and I found the fractured narrative to be more cohesive than the plots of any modern romantic comedy... And far more gratifying in its own way than any other film on the disc! (GASP)... "Well how you like DEM apples"?

A Texas Monthly article from 1999

Don Graham wrote:In the fall of 1970 the magic of Hollywood descended on Archer City, Texas, population 1,722. Director Peter Bogdanovich, 31, arrived with the cast and crew to begin shooting Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show, a bittersweet, no-holds-barred story about growing up in Texas in the fifties.

Five Easy Pieces is getting a standalone release in June with a new extra not in the box



EDIT: Extra is apparently in the box but paired with a different film. Still, Criterion is spending time and resources on splitting up boxes already released years ago

I wonder what the impetus was.

"Hey, guys, someone on the Facebook page said that maybe we should split up our box sets?"

Cassavetes bluray standalone likely next, perhaps this set sells even better than that one does.

movielocke wrote:Cassavetes bluray standalone likely next, perhaps this set sells even better than that one does.

I hope so.