Sorcerer

Home Entertainment Round-Up: 5/20/14

We play catch up with the DVDs we've accumulated over the past month with Phil looking at Criterion releases for Riot in Cell Block 11 and Breaking the Waves, the recently remastered Sorcerer, a re-cut version of the documentary Cocaine Cowboys, the fourth and final season of Eastbound and Down, and the latest Paranormal Activity film. Dave looks at straight-to-video efforts Mr. Jones and Bad Country, along with new discs for Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Seven Warriors. And Andrew looks back on A Birder's Guide to Everything and Big Bad Wolves.

Defending the Indefensible: 70s Auteur Flops

As the 1970s came to a close, many of the best filmmakers of the past century nearly had their careers ruined as studios asserted more control over them during the emergence of blockbuster cinema. Here we take a look at some of those special cases: Scorsese's New York New York, Friedkin's Sorcerer, Spielberg's 1941, Cimino's Heaven's Gate, Altman's Popeye, and Coppola's One from the Heart.

Interview: William Friedkin

We talk to master filmmaker William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist and The French Connection about his latest film Killer Joe, and the casting of Matthew McConaughey, his working relationship with playwright Tracy Letts, his thoughts on the NC-17 rating, what he thinks movies are missing these days, why he doesn't make many films, the writing of his memoirs, which Hollywood classic he never liked, and the status of two of his films that have never surfaced on DVD in this in-depth interview.