Building a DVD library--the Warner way: the Warner Home Video backlist, with more than a dozen of the American Film Institute's 100 Best American Films, is a treasure trove for collectors.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.
• Position: Entertainment

THE DVD REVOLUTION may have reached the point where it can be said to have conquered VHS as the dominant home video medium. Already, major studios are announcing that many of their new releases will be exclusively in DVD format, and numerous rifles on their backlists will soon become collector's items insofar as VHS versions are concerned since, once they have been sold out, they will not be reissued in videocassettes. Meanwhile, major rental chains are converting more and more to DVDs, especially for new releases. It is not unforeseeable that VHS will soon join vinyl records as ancient history, limited to stubborn holdouts.

The uncontested leader of the DVD revolution has to be Warner Home Video, which spearheaded the drive to make the discs a sales vehicle, whereas VHS was designed primarily as a rental medium. By bringing DVD prices down to an affordable level and convincing movie buffs that, thanks to their virtual indestructibility, the discs were eminently collectible, Warner largely is responsible for the exploding sales market, especially when teamed with plummeting prices for DVD players that made them the hottest electronics item during the 2002 holiday season. In 2002, for the first time, sales of home videos surpassed rentals, market research showed.

As for buyers, the current big releases naturally were the first to come into home libraries, along with kids' favorites. Then, as the studios began opening up their backlist vaults and issuing classics, cult films, and whatever else they figured collectors might be interested in owning, sales soared. Once again, Warner Home Video has been in the forefront, aided immeasurably by its unsurpassed roster of classics, as evidenced by the fact that, of the American Film Institute's 100 Best American Films list, 13 were on the Warner backlist, including five of the top 10.

So, if you are starting to amass a DVD collection of classic and near-classic movies, Warner is the logical place to start. Let's take a look at over two dozen that are among the best--or, at least, most-enjoyable--American motion pictures from the last six decades. A half-dozen others that normally would be on the list were featured on these pages recently and can be referenced as well--"Cabaret," "Doctor Zhivago," "Bonnie and Clyde," "Klute," and "Mister Roberts" in the May 2002 issue of USA TODAY and "Citizen Kane," the American Film Institute's number-one rated film of all time, in January, 2002. ("Bonnie and Clyde" ranked 27th; "Doctor Zhivago," 39th.)

ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS

Casablanca (103 minutes, $19.98), number two on the AFI list, not only captured the 1943 best picture Oscar, but Michael Curtiz won for best director and the trio of Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch took the best screenplay award. However, Humphrey Bogart lost out to Paul Lukas (for "Watch on the Rhine") as best actor and Claude Rains was topped by Charles Coburn ("The More the Merrier") as best supporting actor. Inexplicably, Ingrid Bergman was ignored by the nominators, but the Bogie-Bergman-Paul Henreid love triangle arguably remains the choice for the most romantic in movie history. The DVD features a brand-new introduction by Lauren Bacall, Bogart's widow, who also hosts the documentary "You Must Remember This."

Gone with the Wind (233 minutes, $24.98), number four on the AFI list, walked off with 10 1939 Academy Awards, including for best picture; director, Victor Fleming; actress, Vivien Leigh; supporting actress, Hattie McDaniel; and screenwriter, Sidney Howard. Once again, though, the male lead--in this case, Clark Gable--lost out as best actor (to Robert Donat for "Goodbye Mr. Chips"), and Olivia de Havilland was beaten by costar McDaniel in the supporting actress category. Margaret Mitchell's epic Civil War novel was richly translated by producer David O. Selznick, as evidenced by its nearly four-hour length, and the picture retains its popularity today, despite (in this writer's admittedly minority opinion) saccharinely sappy performances by de Havilland and, especially, Leslie Howard as the supposedly romantic Ashley Wilkes. Surprisingly for a film of this stature, there are no special features on the DVD.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (133 minutes, $26.99), number 20 on the AH list, took five 1975 Oscars, for best picture; actor, Jack Nicholson; actress, Louise Fletcher; director. Milos Forman; and adapted screenplay, Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman; while Brad Dourif was beaten by George Bums ("The Sunshine Boys") for best supporting actor. This stirring battle between man and implacable authority within the confines of a mental hospital is prototypical Nicholson in full antiestablishment mode, and plays equally well as comedy and drama. The two-disc special edition features a "Making of ..." documentary and audio commentary by Forman and producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, as well as some added scenes from the cutting-room floor.

Amadeus (180 minutes, $26.99), number 53 on the AH list, captured eight 1984 Oscars, including best picture, director (Milos Forman), adapted screenplay (Peter Shaffer), and, in a classic example of how the right role can lift a previously unstarlike character actor to moviedom's heights, F. Murray Abraham ran off with the best actor award as court composer Antonio Salieri, doomed to pale by comparison to the musical genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Special features abound, such as a "Making of ..." documentary and audio commentary by Forman and Shaffer. Most important to film and music lovers, though, are the 20 minutes of not-before-seen restored footage in this special two-disc director's cut and the remastering in Dolby sound of Mozart's magnificent compositions.

Unforgiven (131 minutes, $26.99), number 98 on the AFI list, won a quartet of 1992 Academy Awards, including best picture, director (Clint Eastwood), and supporting actor (Gene Hackman), though Eastwood's shot at a daily double failed when Al Pacino ("Scent of a Woman")...