One of the epidemics that has broken out in home video over the past year is something I casually refer to in conversation as "backstuffing". This practice involves a studio making their latest new release look like it's packed tighter with extras than a five-disc deluxe package by listing things in as verbose a manner as is possible. They'll include things like "high-definition video (1080p) and uncompressed" blah-blah in as many characters as they can stuff. In contrast, Paramount's splendid Blu-ray of The African Queen goes the other direction and leaves it nice and simple by listing Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen as the only extra. The truly breathtaking restoration and the firing-on-all-guns doc are it, and that's more than enough.
Consider my long hunger for this title being properly released and curated more than satisfied. Embracing Chaos spends precious little time retelling the story (something I hate in making-of's), and instead employs talking heads from national treasures Martin Scorsese and Norman Lloyd to archived interviews with cinematographer Jack Cardiff and director John Huston. The doc does such a brilliant job telling the story behind how it came to happen and how it ended up being made that Film Studies profs would do well to hastily rework their syllabi here at the end of the term. Paramount's African Queen disc has secured an inarguable spot at the top of the lists of both year's best vintage restorations and vintage film packages thus far, even excluding the bells and whistles boxed version (which I have not examined).
The DVD edition is a mere $3 less than the $23.99 that Amazon is asking for Blu-ray, so don't even consider the DVD. I list links to a great deal of movies I review, but this one is a must-buy, must-watch, must-not-put-off. Watching Scorsese geeking out big-time while recounting how what happened when just brought a warm, contented smile to me, and that's just the tip of it here. I love the story behind the movie and am just lukewarm on the movie itself, but this is a case of voting with one's dollars. Want more 50-year-old movies restored like this? Then buy this movie on Blu-ray and hold off on the fresh-from-theaters thing you'll regret.