We all took the DVD boom era for granted

Between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, home releases were often imaginatively packaged with extra content. Let’s take a look back at the DVD craze…

Nostalgia is a reality-warping entity, and something from a few years ago isn’t as good as you remember it. Some old computer games you once enjoyed may not hold up as well today as they once did. Many old-school situation comedies are best left in the past. have you really tried angel joy recent?

On the other hand, the DVD boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s was truly a remarkable era for movies. So much so that, if you are a reader of a certain age, you may not realize how wonderful it was until the end of that era. The advent of movies on digital versatile discs around 1996 meant that movies suddenly looked better than they ever had on analog VHS tapes, and the medium itself was lighter and cheaper to produce and distribute.

However, not everything was rosy in the early days of DVD. The image quality of some transfers is far from perfect (this isn’t obvious if you have a small CRT TV); some early releases required you to flip the disc over to watch the rest of the movie; Warner Bros. (at least in the UK) seem to like to use “snapper” Fish” cardboard boxes, if you take a breath in them, they fall apart.

Read more: What early adopters of the DVD format had to endure

However, DVD also brings new ways of packaging and presenting movies. In the VHS era, making-of documentaries were often sold on individual tapes or box sets. Even so, these files tend to be brief and were originally produced for television; home releases RoboCop For example, in 1988, with The Video Collection The production process of “RoboCop”, A fun little short that lasts just under 22 minutes.

Compared to the 1998 DVD release of John Carpenter’s horror masterpiece, That thing, It includes a nearly 90-minute making-of documentary. Filled with feature-length contributions from Carpenter, special effects genius Rob Bodine, cinematographer Dean Candy, actors and more, this is one of the most complete (and nerdiest) making-of features of its era.

that thing’The DVD release also includes deleted scenes (other content not often seen in the VHS era), trailers, storyboards, and more. Then there’s the audio commentary track – originally invented in the LaserDisc format, but only becoming more widely adopted in the DVD era. thing It includes a good-natured chat between Carpenter and star Kurt Russell, where you can almost hear the clinking of glass beer bottles in the background.

Of course, countless other films contain similar soundtracks, and it’s impossible to mention just a handful of the best here. John Boorman gives a brilliant, dry review of his 1974 hit Zardos I thought of it immediately — especially the moment he vaguely mentioned how he convinced star Sean Connery to don a wedding dress in a scene: “Let’s just say, I was very persuasive,” he said explain.

(The rise of audio commentary tracks became so widely understood in the 2000s that British comedian Rob Brydon used the concept as the basis for a short-lived TV series, Director commentsin which he plays fictional director Peter Delane.

The early DVD era also ushered in a surprising wave of creativity, both on the discs and their packaging. some versions of evil dead Packaged in a rubbery, artificial flesh Book of the Dead box. God knows how much the latter cost to produce; whoever conceived, sculpted, and crafted it owes our eternal gratitude.

These boxes usually come with a booklet (special mention goes to the original release booklet) fight club It contains quotes from the harshest reviews), postcards and other ephemera. Anchor Bay releases Michael Mann’s 1986 thriller hunter Inside was a small booklet that looked like an FBI case folder, with a red “CONFIDENTIAL” seal on the front.

Alternate and extended cuts also became common in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There is another strange one Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, It was released shortly after the 2004 feature film. Host: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, And so many story ideas (including an entire subplot about a fictional terrorist group) were abandoned that it was cut into a single 90-minute version. (Not in great shape, but still an interesting antique.)

Granted, some “unrated” or “extended” versions – e.g. American Pie and enemy of state — are little more than marketing gimmicks, sometimes launched without the director’s consent. as we Explored in the works for 2022Director Simon West has written on social media about an “unrated extended version” of his action thriller United Airlines Contains parts that “he didn’t feel the need to participate in” and that he preferred the original theatrical cut.

Read more: Strange appearance of extended DVD cut without director’s approval

However, some of the alternate or extended cuts released at this time are of great value to fans of the film. this Alien tetralogy The set, which contains no fewer than nine discs, has since achieved near-legendary status among fans of the series. It contains theatrical and extended cuts from all four productions alien films that have been released so far, and a daunting array of extras. this Quadruple Studies The disc also contains something else that came out in the heyday of DVDs: hidden Easter eggs. For example, one CD contains a hidden interview.

(One of the most charming Easter eggs of the early 2000s appears on Christopher Nolan’s DVD release commemorate;With a little digging, you can unlock the movie’s secret sequence cuts.

Unfortunately, the DVD craze didn’t last forever. The optical disc market peaked in 2005, when the U.S. market was worth approximately $16 billion. In 2007, Netflix came along, and while the change took a while to happen, DVD (and later Blu-ray) sales gradually declined as the number of people subscribing to the streaming service soared. As a result, studios began cutting back on the number of extras they thought they would put into the DVD version.

Of course, DVDs and Blu-rays aren’t completely gone – far from it – but rich extras and sheer creativity are less common now than they were some 20 years ago. Where the big studios once funded impressive making-of documentaries and box sets with booklets and postcards, these types of releases are now more the preserve of smaller companies like Second Sight or Arrow.

this alien Movies provide a valuable indicator of how studios approach the release of major films. 2012 alien prequel Prometheus is packaged as angry gods, A riveting feature-length documentary directed by Charles Lauzirika. Lauzirika has been involved with the Alien franchise for a long time. He has previously supervised Alien 3: Assemblage Clip and produced equally excellent making-of documentaries, which first appeared in the aforementioned Alien tetralogy put.

Perhaps tellingly, Lauzirika didn’t get the chance to make a documentary for the next film in the series, 2017’s installment. Alien: Covenant. The disc contains deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes documentaries, but nothing more candid and insightful than Angry gods.

Similarly, Alien: RomulusThe disc was just released this week (December 2024 if you’re reading this in the future) and it contains some bonus features and a few alternate and deleted scenes, but nothing quite like Prometheus.

Read more: Alien: Romulus and His Schism dialogue lines

Meanwhile, the YouTube channel alien theory points out another particularly interesting fact Alien: Romulus DVD and Blu-ray. This is the first film in the entire history of cinema alien Franchise – includes Alien vs. Predator Spinoff – Director’s commentary track has not yet been recorded. There may be logistical reasons why director Fede Alvarez or others involved in the production were unable to provide this information. Still, this does feel like a stark contrast to the relative feast of bonus material we’ve seen before alien CD.

The rise of streaming certainly has its positives: more convenience and, for those living in small spaces, less clutter on bookshelves. Nonetheless, it’s hard to look back at the era of DVD craze without feeling a little nostalgic for the imagination and creativity it enabled.

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