DVD's capability for extra features adds an enjoyable addendum to the pleasure of watching movies on a superior quality format. Of course, overkill is never far off, as anyone who survives the mortifying prospect of "Pearl Harbor" 's 12 hours of DVD add-ons will testify.
Why Michael Bay's history-twisting, syrupy, effects-fest should garner such attention is one thing, but more pertinently, who is it aimed at? Effect's freaks? Hardcore Ben Affleck fans? Couch potatoes with an eye for the masochistic?
Where some films prosper fantastically in the home video arena, "Pearl Harbor" 's indulgent DVD release smacks of a desperate studio attempt to recover from the film's under-whelming boxoffice performance and its critical lambasting.
Pearl Harbor's deluge of added material is not an isolated occurrence, with more studios increasingly eager to cram stuff onto their DVD's. "Shrek" will feature an equally challenging 11 hours of material, while "Star Wars: Episode One" 's DVD debut will let fans salivate over six.
So, will quality win out over quantity? Discs like "Gladiator", "Lawrence of Arabia", and "Seven" have seen excellent, informative supplements that won't threaten a waking day.
Done right, a DVD not only celebrates and augments a viewer's knowledge and enjoyment of a film, but can also allow a film to be critically re-appraised.
The recent DVD of Ridley Scott's "Hannibal" goes a long way in establishing that movie as a dark, tragic, and slyly witty romance in its own right, rather than an inferior followup to "Silence of The Lambs". "Hannibal" offers an easily consumed selection of quality extras.
Why should a soulless, cinematic train wreck like "Pearl Harbor" get such lavish attention while such celebrated classics like Scorsese's "Goodfellas" get nothing - with the added indignity of being split in half on a two-sided disc?
