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Would love The Last Picture Show to be next.

I could see that happening. But the other best film in that set, The King of Marvin Gardens (for me more interesting than Five Easy Pieces), seems pretty unlikely to be broken out of the box.

I just wish they would unbox Easy Rider. By which I mean rerelease the box without Easy Rider in it.

The complete Monkees TV series is being released on blu-ray along with Head, so this may be the reasoning for Criterion starting to split up the BBS box set.

I wonder if WB will be able to get the special features from Criterion, maybe in return they'll license them more titles.

Easy Rider getting a standalone edition in May

While still available from Criterion directly, this box appears to be out of stock elsewhere online and may be about to go OOP

Can't help but wonder if the Lean set will meet the same fate.

I suspect both the sets will be around for quite a while yet barring any rights issues. Offering the "popular" films separately allows them better revenue from those titles than strictly relying on people willing to plunk down big bucks for the full sets. Other than "The Last Picture Show", I really don't see them offering any of the others as separate spines from either of those.

I suspect that "Brief Encounter" will do quite well solo, and with an extra boost due to Todd Haynes' nod to it in "Carol."

DeprongMori wrote:I suspect both the sets will be around for quite a while yet barring any rights issues.

The BBS set does have a probable rights issue, Head. But, yes, Brief Encounter being unboxed does not mean there's a similar problem with the Lean set.

Noiradelic wrote:

DeprongMori wrote:I suspect both the sets will be around for quite a while yet barring any rights issues.

The BBS set does have a probable rights issue, Head. But, yes, Brief Encounter being unboxed does not mean there's a similar problem with the Lean set.

Brief Encounter was originally released as a separate spine number, so they are just putting it back into print.

That certainly makes more sense than what I had thought. Is there confirmation of a rights issue with Head or is it just an assumption because of the Rhino release?

I watched Five Easy Pieces and I thought it was terrific. Nicholson's first great performance. The supporting cast was excellent. Solid script, with some very memorable scenes (loved the diner scene), with a perfect ending. Bobby spent the whole film trying to get away from Rayette with not much success until the end. Plus, it is a good looking film. Thank you Laszlo Kovacs. I don't buy that this doesn't hold up as some have stated.

The King of Marvin Gardens is equally as good IMHO if you haven’t seen that.

I have not. Will do so soon.

In the "great minds think alike" category, I just rewatched Five Easy Pieces last week after not seeing it for several years. A wonderful film that cleverly reveals the complexity of its lead character throughout. I was amused to discover that both the "chicken salad sandwich" restaurant and the "Red Rooster Cafe"/gas station seen at the end are still in business! I, too, strongly recommend Rafelson's follow-up The King of Marvin Gardens which I think may be better than Pieces.

Roger Ryan wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 5:35 pm In the "great minds think alike" category, I just rewatched Five Easy Pieces last week after not seeing it for several years. A wonderful film that cleverly reveals the complexity of its lead character throughout. I was amused to discover that both the "chicken salad sandwich" restaurant and the "Red Rooster Cafe"/gas station seen at the end are still in business! I, too, strongly recommend Rafelson's follow-up The King of Marvin Gardens which I think may be better than Pieces.

For what it's worth, the Red Rooster Café and other buildings on Vancouver Island seen at the end of the film were demolished, though another "Red Rooster Café" was opened on the same site.

And I agree, great film. I believe this and Head are the only discs in the BBS set I've watched more than once, so it's probably time for another viewing of Marvin Gardens.

Gregory wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 9:29 pm ...For what it's worth, the Red Rooster Café and other buildings on Vancouver Island seen at the end of the film were demolished, though another "Red Rooster Café" was opened on the same site...

Right, which is why I specified "still in business" (the gas station is now a Chevron instead of a Gulf) - despite the loss of the original buildings, I still found it surprising a gas station and cafe (under the same name) exists after fifty years. The "chicken salad sandwich" restaurant is a Denny's and that one appears to be the original building.

Five Easy Pieces throttled me when I first encountered it, almost at random, on cable TV in high school. It felt like it tied so closely to my angsty adolescent feelings at the time that I was surprised when I rewatched it a couple of years ago and found it even richer. I wasn't as enthralled with The King of Marvin Gardens, which I first saw when I bought this boxed set, but maybe I just need to see it again -- it just really wasn't at all what I was expecting. The last shot has certainly stuck in my mind. As with the rest of the films in the set, including the bad ones, it's truly wild to imagine a time when these were basically "studio films."

It’s hard to see Rafelson not be able to repeat his creative success after this period. It’s a shame.

I thought No Good Deed was one of the better Hammett adaptations, and certainly the best of Rafelson's noirs. I probably even like it more than Five Easy Pieces!

Easy Rider getting a UHD release in December.

The issue with "Easy Rider" from the boxset only having a lossy mono track - was this fixed with the US standalone release from 2016? It seems the UK Criterion did replace the Dolby Digital track with a PCM track. Wanted to know if the US release did the same or not.

According to blu-ray.com, there are 3 tracks in the box set version (per the listing at the top):

English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

However when reading the actual review, it does say Dolby Digital 1.0...

Checking the disc itself, the menu says Uncompressed Monural, though that is incorrect, as it is just Dolby DIgital Mono.

And now that I've just told you everything you already knew... I don't have an answer to your actual question.

The new 4K restoration of The Last Picture Show will get a 4K UHD release in France from Sony in October. I'll be surprised if they don't release it in other European territories as well, but maybe Criterion will break it out of the box set in the US?