DVD corner

“The Pianist” HD DVD – Roman Polanski’s blunt, unflinching masterwork exposes a harrowing corner of the Holocaust, strips it bare of sentiment and offers an unnerving meditation on the horror of war and on one man’s fight for survival. Polanski, a Polish Jew who experienced the Holocaust firsthand as a 7-year-old boy in the Krakow ghetto, has the critical insight necessary to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), one of Poland’s premiere composers and pianists who died in 2000 at the age of 89. Winner of three Academy Awards, the film opens in 1939 with the 27-year-old Szpilman playing a Chopin nocturne for a Polish radio station when Nazi bombs destroy it and the Germans dig in for the long haul. Horror has always been Polanski’s forte, a major thread that carries through much of his work. And so, for the rest of the movie, he holds back nothing, letting loose with a wrenching, often brutal series of images delivered with a matter-of-fact frankness that gives the film such power, it’s often humbling and difficult to watch. Through all the rubble, death, senseless murder and devastation, Polanski never loses sight of Szpilman’s journey, which is at once physical, as he fights to find food, and spiritual, as his faith – tested time and again by the Nazis – is sustained by the beauty and truth he finds in music. In the film’s best scene – an instant classic that comes near the end of the movie – all of Szpilman’s rage, exhaustion, frustration and long-repressed passion are flung free when a German officer (Thomas Kretschmann) asks him to play the piano at the house in which Szpilman is hiding. It’s the most poignant, powerful moment caught on film in years and Brody gives it his all, throwing himself into the sublime release of music and allowing us into the internal life of the artist as the artist himself hurls everything he has – everything that’s right with the world and everything that’s left in his soul – straight into the face of madness. Rated R. Grade: A+

“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” Blu-ray – A violent, $150 million sci-fi action blockbuster that finds Arnold Schwarzenegger back in fine form in what’s arguably the most famous role of his career – the T1. Now on Blu-ray, the film is pure meat-and-potatoes fun, offering audiences precisely the sort of wrecking-ball entertainment they’ve come to expect from the franchise. The movie is almost unforgiving in its leanness and its huge action pieces – in one scene, a whole city block is demolished. The villain is of particular note. She’s a leather-clad Terminatrix (Kristanna Loken) who is armed with just the right mix of blond good looks and street-smart savvy to stir the film’s intended audience of hungry young males. Rated PG-13. Grade: B+

“3:10 to Yuma” DVD, Blu-ray – This beautifully acted, expertly staged remake of the 1957 classic is infused with the sense that there still is more to be discovered in the Old West. Based on Elmore Leonard’s short story, itself inspired by the 1952 movie “High Noon,” the film’s plot is as lean and as simple as you’d expect from Leonard, but none of that simplicity translates to the characters, who are complex and human in ways that make for a satisfying, emotionally rich narrative. Christian Bale is Dan Evans, whose failing cattle ranch is fueling an already tense situation at home. Though his youngest boy adores him, his eldest son, Will (Logan Lerman), and Dan’s wife, Alice (Gretchen Mol), have lost faith in him – Will looks at him in disgust, Alice with pity, neither of which exactly makes Dan feel like the man he longs to be. Into his life comes Russell Crowe’s Ben Wade, an infamous outlaw with a string of robberies and murders behind him. When Wade is captured, Dan gets an opportunity to regain the respect he has lost; a railroad official (Dallas Roberts) offers him $200 to help bring Wade to justice. Given the viciousness of Wade’s posse, which is led by the chilling Charlie Prince (Ben Foster in an Academy Award-worthy supporting performance), it’s a risky proposition, but Dan’s desperation to turn his life around is so great, he nevertheless accepts it. What follows is just as action-packed and as disastrous as you’d expect, but what you might not expect is the odd bond that grows between Dan and Ben. With Dan choosing a life of good and Ben a life of evil, each is fascinated by the other, which allows director James Mangold to mine unexpected depths from a movie that, in the wrong hands, could have relied solely on action and thus wouldn’t have allowed for the terrific performances Mangold pulls from Crowe and Bale. Rated R. Grade: A

“The Waltons: Complete Sixth Season” – An antiseptic balm of family highs and woes. Set in Depression-era Virginia, this genial drama follows John Boy and the rest of the Waltons through another year of hardships, with this season being the last to feature all 11 family members, as Will Greer (Grandpa) died during the hiatus between seasons six and seven. This time out, in the years between 1939 and 1940, war is the focus, but so is Ellen Corby’s return as Grandma (heroic), Curt generating some drama of his own (he’s off to war), and Mary Ellen having a child after getting hitched in the fifth season (she doesn’t waste time). Richard Thomas returns as John Boy for a couple of episodes, thus securing his financial future by holding out for the proper paycheck. After all, even on Walton’s Mountain, where purity strains to ring clear, one has to pay the bills and egos aren’t out of the question. In the end, the show remains an acquired taste. Grade: C

“Warner’s Romantic Classics Collection” – Includes five films, the best of which is the 1945 drama “The Clock,” in which Vincente Minnelli directs Judy Garland and Robert Walker into and out of each other’s arms at the height of World War II. Minnelli, Garland and Walker transcend handkerchief material to excellence. Another war of sorts builds in the 1988 romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey,” in which Amy Irving is forced to choose between Peter Riegert and Jeroen Krabbe (she chooses, it’s tough). Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue star in the Maine-based 1959 drama “A Summer Place,” in which they achieve, at best, a low simmer. 1973’s “Blume in Love” finds George Segal frantically fighting to win back the rigid wife (Susan Anspach) he rejected with funny results. Meanwhile, 1956’s “Miracle in the Rain” follows “The Clock” in that it finds a couple (Jane Wyman and Van Johnson) meeting in the throes of World War II only to promise that they’ll never part. They part, but who wants to bet that they’ll meet again? Grade: B

“Zodiac: Director’s Cut” DVD, HD DVD – David Fincher’s meticulous, nearly three-hour drama is about the quest to bring down the famed serial killer Zodiac, who wreaked havoc in Northern California in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The effort to capture him was formidable, but since the killer never was caught, there’s the sense going into the film that perhaps Fincher might pull an Oliver Stone and close the books with his own theories. He doesn’t. As such, there is no payoff in the telling and the movie’s ending, as a result, is unsatisfying. Some of the acting follows suit. As San Francisco Chronicle political cartoonist Robert Graysmith, Jake Gyllenhaal is especially flat; you can feel his fatigue, which becomes ours. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards fair better as two detectives, though Dermot Mulroney and Chloe Sevigny are wasted. The film’s memorable performance comes from Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery, the Chronicle reporter who covered the case. Sheathed in mischief, he gives his scenes a bounce they otherwise would have lacked. Rated R. Grade: C

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.