When I first went through the list of new DVD releases this week, I was disheartened. It looked like another week of dressed-up TV reruns and anniversary special editions of movies better left forgotten. But the more I thought about it, the more I slowly came to realize how brilliant the strategy is.
DVDs exist in no small part because they capitalize on the fiction of memory. When we first watch a movie or a TV episode, we tuck it away in the context of our perceptions of that particular time. It could be a date movie, or an event that happened or any number of things. But whatever was happening to us at that time colors our perception of everything.
That caused me to think about revisionism. And it was then I had my epiphany. There’s a reason why characters like Superman and Batman are pushing 70, and are still going strong. They are revised, altered for each generation, so that they remain relevant forever. Smallville: The Complete Sixth Season is the latest installment of the new, improved origins of Superman. I must be getting old, but I don’t recall the Justice League having its foundations in Smallville. Green Arrow and the Martian Manhunter are way ahead of Clark Kent — he still doesn’t know he can fly. Nonetheless, it’s a different take on the origins of the Man of Steel, convoluted though it may be. Superman: Doomsday, on the other hand, brings to life “The Death of Superman,” even if it is animated. It’s a pretty accurate retelling of one of the most ballyhooed comic book sagas in history. And yeah, Superman dies in the end. That’s one way to reconstruct a mythos in need of a facelift.
It’s one thing to revise our heroes to make them more accessible to contemporary audiences. It certainly worked for 300. I’m certain our perceptions of Achilles and Alexander the Great have gone through so many evolutions, the ancient Greeks would not recognize them. That doesn’t deter directors such as Wolfgang Pedersen or Oliver stone, though. If they can’t get the story right the first time, they just backtrack, release a new “Director’s Cut”, and say, “See... this is the story I meant to tell." Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut was supposed to be Oliver Stone’s last ditch effort to get his Alexander the Great biopic right. In order to do that, he scraped everything off the cutting room floor. And it still didn’t work. Wolfgang Pedersen likewise released Troy: The Director’s Cut, hoping people would understand the beauty of his sweeping epic. Neither did that well on those attempts, either. Not to worry. If anybody cares at this point, both are resurrected in Ultimate Collector’s Editions, in Blu-ray and HD DVD, with yet another set of special features.
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