Why So Blu?

La Bamba, Bowie, Princess Bride 4K & More Coming to The Criterion Collection September 2023

Coming in September to The Criterion Collection: Brett Morgen’s ecstatic tribute to a shape-shifting rock iconoclast, Moonage Daydream; Luis Valdez’s rapturous biopic of a Mexican American musical trailblazer, La Bamba; and legendary director Orson Welles’s feverishly inspired take on Kafka, The Trial. Plus: Rob Reiner’s charming, endlessly quotable fairy-tale classic, The Princess Bride, and Nicolas Roeg’s hypnotic story of survival in the unsparing Australian outback, Walkabout—now on 4K UHD.

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THE PRINCESS BRIDE

A high-spirited adventure that pits true love against inconceivable odds, The Princess Bride has charmed legions of fans with its irreverent gags, eccentric ensemble, and dazzling swordplay. A kid (Fred Savage), home sick from school, grudgingly allows his grandfather (Peter Falk) to read him a dusty storybook—which is how we meet the innocent Buttercup (Robin Wright, in her breakout role), about to marry the nefarious Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) though her heart belongs to Westley (Cary Elwes). The wedding plans are interrupted, however, by a mysterious pirate, a vengeful Spaniard, and a good-natured giant, in a tale full of swashbuckling, romance, and outrageously hilarious spoofery. Directed by Rob Reiner from an endlessly quotable script by William Goldman, The Princess Bride reigns as a fairy-tale classic.

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1987 • 98 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

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4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack 

• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features 

• Audio commentary featuring director Rob Reiner, screenwriter William Goldman, producer Andrew Scheinman, and actors Billy Crystal and Peter Falk 

• Edited audiobook reading of Goldman’s novel The Princess Bride by Reiner 

• Program about Goldman’s screenplay 

• Program about Goldman’s tapestry based on his novel 

• Interviews with Reiner, Goldman, and actors Crystal, Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Fred Savage, and Robin Wright 

• Interview with art director Richard Holland

• Programs about makeup, fencing, and fairy tales 

• On-set video diary filmed and narrated by Elwes 

• Five behind-the-scenes videos with commentaries by Reiner, Scheinman, and Crystal 

• Trailer 

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 

• PLUS: An essay by author Sloane Crosley and Goldman’s introduction to his Princess Bride script from his collection Four Screenplays, in a lavishly illustrated, clothbound book

 

Available September 5, 2023

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WALKABOUT

A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to cope in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Along the way, they meet an Aboriginal youth on his walkabout, a rite of passage in which adolescent boys are initiated into manhood by journeying into the wilderness alone. Walkabout is a thrilling adventure as well as a provocative rumination on time and civilization.

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1971 • 100 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

 

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital master, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features 

• Audio commentary featuring director Nicolas Roeg and actor Jenny Agutter 

• Interviews with Agutter and actor Luc Roeg

• Gulpilil—One Red Blood (2002), a documentary on the life and career of actor David Gulpilil

• Theatrical trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 

• PLUS: An essay by author Paul Ryan

 

Available September 12, 2023

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THE TRIAL

A feverishly inspired take on Franz Kafka’s novel, Orson Welles’s The Trial casts Anthony Perkins as the bewildered office drone Josef K., whose arrest for an unspecified crime plunges him into a menacing bureaucratic labyrinth of guilt, corruption, and paranoia. Exiled from Hollywood and creatively unchained, Welles poured his ire at the studio system, McCarthyism, and all forms of totalitarian oppression into this cinematic statement—one of his boldest and most personal, and the film that he himself considered his greatest. Dizzying camera angles, expressionistic lighting, increasingly surreal locations—Welles unleashed the full force of his visual brilliance to convey the nightmarish disorientation of a world gone mad.

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1962 • 118 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.66:1 aspect ratio

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SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

• New audio commentary featuring film historian Joseph McBride

• Filming “The Trial,” a 1981 documentary about the film’s production 

• Archival interviews with Welles, actor Jeanne Moreau, and director of photography Edmond Richard

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by author Jonathan Lethem

 

Available September 19, 2023

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MOONAGE DAYDREAM

An ecstatic voyage through the creative and spiritual universe of David Bowie, Moonage Daydream is a fittingly unclassifiable tribute to the shape-shifting rock iconoclast and his singular sound and vision. Exploding the conventions of the music documentary, director Brett Morgen remixes dazzling, never-before-seen footage of the artist throughout his career, reveling in his otherworldly presence while revealing the restless philosophical inquiry that guided his myriad metamorphoses. Graced with soulful narration by Bowie, this immersive audiovisual head rush transmits the essence of a phenomenon that cannot be explained—only experienced.

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2022 • 134 minutes • Color/Black & White • Dolby Atmos • 1.78:1 aspect ratio

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DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital master, supervised by writer-director-editor-producer Brett Morgen, with Dolby Atmos and stereo soundtracks

• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

• Audio commentary featuring Morgen

• Q&A with Morgen, filmmaker Mark Romanek, and musician Mike Garson at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood

• Interview with rerecording mixers David Giammarco and Paul Massey

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by film critic Jonathan Romney and a collectible poster insert

 

Available September 26, 2023

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LA BAMBA

The brief but incandescent life of rock-and-roll trailblazer Ritchie Valens is immortalized in this enthralling biopic from another Mexican American icon, Luis Valdez, the father of Chicano cinema. With sweetness and swagger, Lou Diamond Phillips embodies the 1950s California teenager who, forged by his fiercely supportive mother (Rosanna DeSoto) and rebellious brother (Esai Morales), rises from his farm-working roots to chart-topping fame in the early days of rock—until one fateful night that haunts music history. Propelled by a hip-shaking soundtrack featuring Los Lobos and Carlos Santana, La Bamba captures the electric vitality of an artist who bridged cultures to create his own American dream.

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1987 • 108 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

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DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Luis Valdez, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

• Audio commentaries featuring Valdez, actors Lou Diamond Phillips and Esai Morales, and producers Stuart Benjamin, Taylor Hackford, and Daniel Valdez

• New interview with Luis Valdez

• Conversation between Valdez and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez from El Rey Network’s The Director’s Chair

• Making-of program featuring cast and crew 

• Audition footage

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and Spanish subtitles

 

Available September 26, 2023