The Lost World DVD

The granddaddy of giant monster movies, The Lost World was one of the most expensive movies ever made in 1925, costing more than a million dollars, and has remained one of the most influential. Every larger-than-life creature feature since--from King Kong to Godzilla and Jurassic Park--owes a debt to this original adventure fantasy based on Arthur Conan Doyle's novel. It's the story of a maverick scientist (Wallace Beery under a bushy beard) who finds a land that time forgot on a plateau deep within the South American jungles and comes back to London with a captured... brontosaurus to prove it. His expedition includes Bessie Love, the daughter of an explorer who disappeared on the previous expedition, and big game hunter Lewis Stone. The ostensible stars of the picture are all upstaged by Willis O'Brien's dinosaurs, simple models brought to life with primitive stop-motion animation (the technique was soon to be perfected by O'Brien for King Kong). Hardly realistic by any measure, these pioneering special effects are still a sight to behold, especially the lumbering brontosaurus which receives the most care from O'Brien, both foraging in his jungle and rampaging through the streets of London. With the coming of talkies, The Lost World became obsolete: all known American prints were destroyed in favour of a sound remake (which became King Kong) and the film only survived in a severely truncated form (even the original negative was lost). For this release David Shepard meticulously "rebuilt" the film using material from eight different surviving prints from all over the world, cleaning and restoring along the way. The result is 50% longer than previously extant prints, still not complete but closer than any version since its 1925 debut. The difference is not merely in restored scenes but in a rediscovered sense of grace in scenes filled out to their original detail and pace. The film moves and breathes once again like a silent film. On the DVD: From the attractive solid slipcase to the wonderful "period" menu interface, this is a delightful DVD package. The film itself looks surprisingly good--a real tribute to the restoration team's efforts--with careful tinting in the style of the period (blues for evening, reds for dawn etc.). The disc features the choice of either an original score by The Alloy Orchestra or a classical orchestral score compiled and conducted by Robert Israel (both enjoyable and effective), 13 minutes of O'Brien's animation outtakes (including a couple of isolated frames that capture O'Brien manipulating his models) and a well-meaning but basic commentary by Arthur Conan Doyle historian Roy Pilot. There's also a text biography of Conan Doyle and a display of original postcards, posters and other promotional items. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com [show more]

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