Because I just purchased, from Amazon (of course), the biggest movie box set I’ve ever seen: the Fox 75th Anniversary Movie Collection. I had been waiting for its hefty $400-and-change price tag to come down, and it did – to a more reasonable $129. It came a few days ago, and I’m psyched. I know I already said that, and please accept my apologizes for using the vocabulary of a 13-year-old, but I can’t help it. It does put me in mind of the days when I used to order things in the mail, and get positively euphoric upon receipt of those heavenly parcels that always seemed to just match my admittedly high expectations. I’m a preteen again.
But anyway, this set is another addition to my collection of
movie studio compendia, begun a few years ago with my purchase of the United
Artists Collection, and continuing on with a similar release for Universal
Studios. These are all album-formatted anthologies of fifty or so significant
movies from their respective studios, in DVD form, replete with commemorative
booklet and “handsome” packaging. Ok, it’s largely good marketing, but for a tried
and true film buff like myself, it’s total Christmas Morning.
And now, the biggest and baddest of them all – the Fox
collection – is a dream come true. This easily has the largest disc count. I
don’t know the exact number because I’m intentionally ignorant of the titles
beyond what I scanned when deciding to buy (I want to watch the array like I
did with the UA set: surprised with each page turn). But I know it’s a
shitload, so this will probably take me until the end of the year to get
through. I’m planning on blogging about each movie too; so stay tuned to the RR
for a great deal more cinematically themed content. Hey, I am an NYU film major
after all.
I also think these are good collections in the interest of
film literacy – they highlight the significance of studio as film purveyor, and
help us understand films in their historical context of studio ebbs and flows throughout the mid to late 20th century (e.g. heyday
of the 30s/40s; the empty, epic bloat of the 50s; the breakup of the 60s/70s;
the blockbuster mentality of the 80s). And if one were to base his or her film
collection on the acquisition of every major American film from the silent era onward,
one can do little better than to organize his or her archive according to the six
major studios which produced them.
So I’m getting’ ready to see those two illuminating
spotlights, along with their accompanying famous fanfare (which I, and so many other Gen-Xers,
always expected to be followed by the Star
Wars theme). Many, many times. But I’m ready.
Because I love movies.
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