C is for Criterion

Have you or haven't you all heard of some home video label that goes by the name of The Criterion Collection?

Well, The Criterion Collection, is some home media distribution company based somewhere in some VERY BIG apple called New York City that focuses on licensing a whole big bunch of so-called "important classic and contemporary films" so they can sell such important classic and modern movies to every single film aficionado in the whole wide world.

To even those not familiar with the Criterion Collection itself, The Criterion Collection label is probably most famous for helping to standardize widescreen movies and special bonus extras supplemental features and commentary tracks and special editions on home video.

And it all started thirty two years ago, so long ago now, in the rather George Orwellian year of 1984 (the same year that saw Ridley Scott's 1984 commercial that gave birth to the Apple Mac computer and also James Cameron's true breakout movie The Terminator), thanks to some folks which consists of Robert Stein and Aleen Stein and Joe Medjuck and eventually Roger Smith. It is during that year that they all found the Criterion Collection company.

Commercial-wise, Criterion pioneered the correct letterboxing aspect ratio presentation of movies and commentary soundtracks and multi-disc sets and special editions and definitive versions; All these ideas and the special features that Criterion introduced over the years between 1984 and now are among the most highly influential media ideas imaginable and so became the de-facto industry-wide standards for premium home video releases whether it be old laserdiscs or regular DVDs or hi-def blu-rays.

For one of many examples, with their eighth Laserdisc, the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it is Criterion that introduced the letterboxed format that added black bars to the top and bottom of the 4 by 3 standard TV set, thereby preserving said movie's original aspect ratio. And from this moment on, Criterion would make letterboxing the very standard presentation that all its movies for movies shot in widescreen aspect ratios must come by.

For another example, Criterion's second catalog title, the original 1933 King Kong classic movie which many 20th century moviegoers usually cite as the greatest fantasy movie of all time (68-70 years before Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies will give King Kong 1933 a run for its money and title as all time greatest fantasy movie), gave birth to the so-called scene-specific audio commentary that is contained within a separate analog channel of the same laserdisc.

And the very first scene-specific audio commentary soundtrack that Criterion's King Kong '33 laserdisc gave birth to is basically film historian Ronald Haver running his mouth about the 1933 King Kong's production, the cast and crew behind it, the script, the production design and also the special effects (whose chief executor, Ray Harryhausen's stop mo teacher Willis O'Brien, or Obie for short, would breath still-unmatched life and personality and soul to a 18 or 24-inch stop mo monkey blown up to a giant who goes by the name of Kong in the actual movie).

And that same Ronald Haver guy also used the scene specific audio commentary on laserdisc to ramble on Casablanca (1942), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Singin' in the Rain (1952), and the Wizard of Oz (1939) on the Criterion laserdiscs of said movies.

Well, typically, such chapter-indexed commentary soundtracks are native to said Criterion laserdiscs and their initial DVD releases, and if so, they all became collector's items when the studios who originally owned the movies  re-released titles that were previously licensed to the Criterion Collection, whether with newly created commentary tracks or without them.

Like I said before, Criterion was born 32 years ago in 1984 with just two titles: Citizen Kane (1941) and the original King Kong classic from 1933. The Criterion King Kong's source negatives came from the Library of Congress in our nation's capital, Washington DC.   

Eventually, The Criterion Collection became famous around the home video world for being Special Edition DVD concept pioneers for they contain special bonus extra supplemental materials such as trailers and commentaries and documentaries and alternate endings and deleted scenes and the very like of them, almost like a so-called 'film school in a box'! The success of the Criterion Collection and their reputations as Special Edition Home Video pioneers would establish the special edition version in the DVD business.

And ten years ago, in 2006, due to the rise of better film transfer and film restoration technologies, The Criterion Collection would publish improved-image editions, along with bonus materials, of early DVD catalog titles like Amarcord from Fredericio Fellini, Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai, and the Brazil of Terry Gilliam. 

Criterion originally released art and genre and mainstream movies on laserdiscs like John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), Ivan Reitman's original 1984 Ghostbusters,  Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 take on Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Dark Lord of the High Octane Michael Bay's The Rock and Armageddon, repsectively.

Nowadays, Criterion increasingly shifted its focus on releasing world cinema, mainstream classic movies, as well as obscure yet critically acclaimed movies. 

As far as film restorations go, the Criterion Collection company would use the best available source materials to produce technologically improved and cleaner versions of movies like the Passion of Joan of Arc, Children of Paradise, and Fritz Lang's M, whose disc releases would contain film cleaning and film restoration demos that compared unrestored images to restored ones.

Incidentally, some of Criterion's previously licensed titles like Hitchock's Rebecca will become unavailable as new product and would be increasingly available as used-sale only products. And when Criterion's license on titles like Silence of the Lambs (with the great cannibal Hannibal Lecter) and the 1987 Robocop and Hard Bolied and the Killer and Ran, aka Akira Kurosawa's Japanese take on Shakespeare's King Lear, would go expired, they may become unavailable now and forever. Also, Criterion would publish improved versions of such other titles like the 1946 Beauty and the Beast, The Wages of Fear and Seven Samurai and Peter Lorre in M. As of two years ago, 49% of the Criterion Laserdiscs will be reissued on DVD or BluRay.

In Addition, Criterion did produced a digitally cleaned version of 1963's Charade, which was then in the public domain, under licence from distributor Universal Studios for their initial edition, and done it again for the eventual anamorphic widescreen DVD reissue of said movie.

And The Criterion Collection does periodically release DVD and BluRay material that are licensed from studios that they previously had to deal with, like Sony and Fox and MGM/UA and Disney and Universal, too. And such releases are done on a general case-by-case basis, too!

The Criterion Collection started making laserdiscs 32 years ago in 1984, beginning with Citizen Kane and the old 1933 King Kong classic, and stopped making them in 1999, ending with Michael Bay's Armageddon (the one where Bruce Willis would lead all these Texas oil riggers to sacrifice their lives trying to blow up a Texas-sized space rock heading to Earth to wipe out humanity just as an Mount Everest-sized one did to dinosaurs like T. rex and Triceratops 66 million years before).

They began making DVDs 18 years ago in 1998 and began making blu-rays 8 years ago in 2008, and continued to do so until the DVD and BluRay formats may phase out in the future.

Happy 32 years, Criterion Collection, and remember Criterion, you ain't going anywhere yet, for you're still up and running as far as Special Edition home video releases on DVD and Blu ray!

Now, I apologize for writing such a too long don't read-worthy description, and yes, sure, you don't have to read all of it, if you want, but anyway, does anyone have a favorite Criterion Collection title between 1984 and now whether on Laserdisc, DVD or Blu Ray?