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    Thursday, May 09, 2024

    Need a Father’s Day gift for a film fan?

    Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner and John Travolta are celebrating movie anniversaries with a rash of recent DVD and Blu-ray releases.

    The films — from “The Godfather” saga to “The Untouchables” to “Saturday Night Fever” — might especially appeal to the men in your life, if, say, you are fumbling for Father’s Day gift ideas.

    Hey, if nothing else, they are easy to wrap. Here’s a breakdown.

    ‘THE GODFATHER’ 45TH ANNIVERSARY

    If you’ve never seen Francis Ford Coppola’s original film, released in 1972, you may be sick of hearing that it is “One of the greatest films of all time!” It’s like having the ghost of “Citizen Kane” shoved down your throat, making you feel somehow cinematically inferior if you haven’t seen it.

    But here’s the thing about “The Godfather”: It is one of the greatest films of all time. And it’s not all gangster showdowns. It’s more about family and honor and trust.

    Based on Mario Puzo’s bestseller, Coppola’s film really works on all levels. It’s well-written, well-directed, well-shot and features an exceedingly talented cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, John Cazale and Sterling Hayden.

    It brilliantly chronicles the Corleone family of New York, the high price paid for leading the life of mobsters, and the intertwined destiny of fathers and sons.

    The kicker: “The Godfather Part II,” released in 1974, is also an excellent film. It’s the rare sequel that equals the original. We see the rise of young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) from Sicily to the mean streets of New York. That is interwoven with the further transformation of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), from reluctant youngest son to crime family kingpin.

    Best of all, both films lend themselves to a ridiculous amount of repeat viewings. “The Godfather Part III” from 1990, not so much. Overall, the trilogy garnered 29 total Oscar nominations, scoring nine wins.

    In honor of the 45th anniversary of No. 1, you can find new Blu-ray and DVD versions of all three. The Blu-Ray discs include Coppola’s audio commentary, behind-the-scenes features and a Corleone family tree. The price: $12 each (cheaper at Walmart, Target and the like, or online at Amazon.com).

    ‘THE UNTOUCHABLES’ 30TH ANNIVERSARY

    Before he became safety director of Cleveland in the 1930s, and long before a Great Lakes Brewing Co. lager was named after him, Eliot Ness confronted the mob in Chicago.

    Specifically, he helped take down the notorious Al Capone.

    Brian De Palma’s gripping drama from 1987 may not have all of its facts straight, but it remains a compelling character study calibrating the great divide between good (Kevin Costner’s Ness) and evil (Robert De Niro’s Capone).

    Costner’s Ness is an All-American Boy Scout type who, unlike much of Chicago’s law enforcement at the time, could not be corrupted.

    It helped that Ness’ unlikely team of Treasury Department agents included the young and dashing Andy Garcia, as a dead-eye shooter, and the great Sean Connery, in his Oscar-winning role as the hard-bitten former cop Jimmy Malone.

    De Palma, composer Ennio Morricone and cinematographer Stephen Burum brought a sense of majesty to “The Untouchables” with searing music, sweeping shots of 1920s street scenes, shootouts, mob meetings and bootlegging raids. They also delivered an iconic movie moment with a particularly perilous journey of a baby carriage rumbling down train station steps.

    The anniversary Blu-ray includes a behind-the-scenes look at the production as well as breakdowns of the cast and shooting script. $12.

    ‘SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER’ 40TH ANNIVERSARY

    If gangsters are not your thing, step into the disco craze of the late 1970s.

    “Saturday Night Fever” reflected, and was an important component of, a cultural juggernaut. Radio, fashion and nightclubs all rode the wave, and the film and its soundtrack were hugely successful, propelling the Bee Gees to superstardom.

    It also made a star out of its charismatic 22-year-old lead, John Travolta, whose prior claim to fame was playing the clueless Vinnie Barbarino on TV’s “Welcome Back, Kotter.” (His celebrity was cemented six months after “Fever” hit theaters with the release of “Grease.”)

    Travolta’s Tony Manero, the young man who lives to dance on Saturday nights, instantly grabs us with his opening-credits swagger as he struts down the sidewalk to Stayin’ Alive: “Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk / I’m a woman’s man / No time to talk.”

    The film’s lone Oscar nomination was for Travolta, for best actor. Hollywood dancing god Fred Astaire famously voted for Travolta. But the award ended up going to Richard Dreyfuss for “The Goodbye Girl.”

    The Blu-ray extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, a ‘70s Discopedia, plus commentary by director John Badham, and theatrical and director’s cuts in HD. $12.

    Speaking of 40th anniversaries, 1977 was also the year of “Annie Hall,” “Slap Shot,” “The Turning Point,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Eraserhead.”

    There was also a little sci-fi flick called “Star Wars,” though it has since been rechristened “Star Wars — Episode IV: A New Hope.”

    In addition to disco, CB radios received an inordinate amount of publicity in 1977 thanks to Burt Reynolds and his cop-dodging, highway-hopping, beer-hauling “Smokey and the Bandit.”

    The 40th anniversary edition of that box office behemoth, co-starring Sally Field, Jerry Reed and Jackie Gleason, hits the streets on July 11.

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