Warner Bros. classics on 4K

Are you a movie buff? Know someone else who is? In a world of streaming we tend to think the movies we love will always be available, but they aren't. Physical media is the best way to collect the movies you love, and Warner Bros. has been rolling out some great classic titles with a 4K upgrade. Check out the titles available below, and click on the title links or images to make a purchase. You'll get a great movie and help support Hotchka at the same time!

AMADEUS

Disciplined Italian composer becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Amadeus received eleven Academy Award nominations and won eight Oscars - Best Picture, Best Directing Best Actor (F. Murray Abraham), Best Screenplay based on Material from Another Medium, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Sound.

In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The restoration and mastering of the Amadeus original theatrical cut was completed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with the participation of Paul Zaentz.

Amadeus Digital release and Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contain the following new and previously released special features:

• The Making of Amadeus (New)
• Amadeus: The Making of a Masterpiece

Mini Review

Amadeus is inarguably one of the greatest films ever made, one of the greatest stage-to-screen adaptations ever made. The film opens up the story but it still really remains a story about two characters, Amadeus and Solieri, both played to perfection by Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham. The film has had an interesting history as a longer Director's Cut has basically been the only version of the film available for many years. The new 4K restoration by the Film Academy goes back to the shorter theatrical release, the version that was awarded the Best Picture Oscar. Those expecting a razor-sharp image with this release may be let down, though no fault lies in the restoration. The film was soft-looking when it was released, perhaps due to being shot primarily with candlelight. The HDR encoding lets the color palette do the work of bringing the transfer to life, effectively color-matching footage that was assembled from different sources, retaining a fine film grain to retain what the film looked like upon its release. The opening titles suffer the most though with a soft, almost blurry font, but once you get past that everything else is golden. It's also surprising that the audio did not get an immersive Dolby Atmos remix, instead retaining the theatrical 5.0 mix (in a DTS-HD 5.1 container), keeping most of the soundtrack front and center, allowing the surrounds to kick in with all of that glorious music. While this release may seem to have its shortcomings, it's actually a beautiful representation of the movie audiences saw on the big screen in 1984, one that the Academy Awards felt was a significant achievement to be awarded the Best Picture Oscar.

BLAZING SADDLES

Ribald, tasteless and hilarious ... this classic spoof of the Western genre by director Mel Brooks pokes fun at everyone and everything. A corrupt governor grants a reprieve to an African American convict if the condemned man agrees to serve as sheriff of a small Western town, believing that new sheriff will only live long enough to serve the needs of the governor and his nefarious railroad-baron backer.

Blazing Saddles received 3 Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Madeline Kahn); Best Music, Original Song; and Best Film Editing. In 2006, Blazing Saddles was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Previously released and new material includeS

• Audio Commentary with director Mel Brooks
• Inappropriate Inspiration: The Blazing Saddles Effect (NEW)
• Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks' Wild Wild West
• Back in the Saddle
• Deleted Scenes

CONSTANTINE

Based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels and written by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello, Constantine tells the story of John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), a man who has literally been to hell and back. When he teams up with skeptical policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) to solve the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists just beneath the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles Caught in a catastrophic series of otherworldly events, the two become inextricably involved and seek to find their own peace at whatever cost.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fan-favorite superhero thriller, the newly remastered film will also include new bonus content featuring Keanu Reeves and Francis Lawrence reflecting on the making of the film 20 years later. The 4K restoration of Constantine was completed at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) and was sourced from the original camera negative. The restoration was overseen by director Francis Lawrence.

Constantine Digital release and Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contains a new special feature along with previously released special features:

• New Feature - Two Decades of Damnation
• Commentaries
• Channeling Constantine
• Conjuring Constantine
• Holy Relics
• Shotgun Shootout
• Hellscape
• Warrior Wings
• Unholy Abduction
• Demon Face
• Foresight: The Power of Pre-Visualization
• A Writer’s Vision

Constantine Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contains the additional previously released special features:

• Director’s Confessional
• Demon Face

DIRTY HARRY

Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood stars as no-holds-barred San Francisco cop Dirty Harry Callahan in this action thriller that began an action franchise. When detective Harry Callahan is assigned to pay extortion money to a serial murderer, the payoff goes wrong. Now with the life of a 14-year-old girl at stake, Callahan refuses to allow anything -- including the law -- to keep him from stopping the killer.

Dirty Harry was selected in 2008 by Empire as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. The film was ranked No. 41 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years ... 100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies, and Harry Callahan was selected as the 17th greatest movie hero on 100 Years ... 100 Heroes & Villains. The movie's famous quote "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was ranked 51st on 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes.

Dirty Harry 4K UHD contains the following new and previously released special features:  

• Commentary by Richard Schickel
• Generations and Dirty Harry - NEW
• Lensing Justice: The Cinematography of Dirty Harry - NEW
• American Masters Career Retrospective: Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows
• Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso
• Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Fighting for Justice
• Interview Gallery: Patricia Clarkson, Joel Cox, Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Evan Kim, John Milius, Ted Post, Andy Robinson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Urich
• Dirty Harry’s Way
• Dirty Harry: The Original

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

Can your nightmares be fatal? In this classic of the horror film genre that launched a movie franchise, a hideously scarred man who was murdered by a lynch mob returns years later in the terrifying nightmares of his killer’s teenage children… and the dreaming teenagers are starting to die in their sleep.

The 4K UHD remaster of A Nightmare on Elm Street includes both the 1984 theatrical version of the film and an uncut version of the film that includes 8 seconds of additional unrated footage.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Digital release and Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contain the following previously released special features:

• Ready Freddy Focus Points
• Commentary with Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Ronnie Blakely, Robert Shaye, and Sara Risher.
• Commentary with Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, and Jacques Haitkin.
• Alternate endings
• The House that Freddy Built: The Legacy of New Line Horror
• Never Sleep Again: A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Night Terrors: The Origins of Wes Craven’s Nightmares

NORTH BY NORTHWEST

Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock's greatest thrillers. While leaving New York's Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of raising his hand just as the name "George Kaplan" is paged -- starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him -- and by police who suspect him of murder.

The film is directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Ernest Lehman. North by Northwest stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and Jessie Royce Landis.

North by Northwest was nominated for 3 Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Original Screenplay. In 1995, North by Northwest was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

Legacy and new special features include:

• Audio Commentary with screenwriter Ernest Lehman
• North by Northwest: Cinematography, Score, and the Art of the Edit (NEW)
• Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest
• The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style
• North by Northwest: One for the Ages
• A Guided Tour with Alfred Hitchcock

Mini Review

Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest is an indisputed classic, a tale of mistaken identity taken to the Nth degree. Cary Grant is as charming and debonair as usual, and Ava Marie Saint is radiant, and the film contains two signature pieces of cinema -- the cropduster shooting from the air at a fleeing Grant, and the climactic fight on the faces of Mount Rushmore. In addition to the thrills, Grant and Saint flirt like no one's business, and the final shot of a train entering a tunnel is as Freudian as it gets. The film works so well because it's not just a standard dramatic thriller. It never really takes itself all that seriously, showing the audience that Hitch, Grant and Saint were all having a ball. This new 4K upgrade is stunning.If you didn't know this was a movie from 1959 you'd think it was brand new. The image is sharp and clear, the colors are bold but realistic (the 4K loses the Blu-ray's slightly greenish hue), the details and textures of the materials are so clear you feel like you could touch them, and the image has a fine film grain that retains the theatrical presentation. It also maintains the correct 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio, whereas the Blu-ray presented a 1.78:1 open matte image. This film has probably never looked better. The audio track also gets a very nice Dolby Atmos upgrade from the 5.1 mix, remaining faithful to the original film's mono soundtrack but opening it up, particularly for the overhead speakers during that cropduster scene. And the disk even includes a newly cleaned up DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mono track for the purists (this track has largely been absent from previous home video releases). Most of the extras from the 50th anniversary Blu-ray have been carried over, but some are missing (notably the PBS Cary Grant documentary), but the new feature ads some valuable insights into the making of the film. Definitely one to add to your collection.

THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES

Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood stars in and directs this fast-paced Western about the fight for vengeance by a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered in the last days of the United States' Civil War.

The film is directed by Clint Eastwood. The screenplay is by Phil Kaufman and Sonia Chernus and is based on the novel Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter. The Outlaw Josie Wales stars Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, and John Vernon.

The Outlaw Josey Wales was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score. In 1996, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The Outlaw Josie Wales 4K UHD contains the following new and previously released special features:  

• Commentary by Richard Schickel
• An Outlaw and an Antihero - NEW
• The Cinematography of and Outlaw: Crafting Josie Wales - NEW
• Clint Eastwood’s West
• Eastwood in Action
• Hell Hath No Fury: The Making of The Outlaw Josie Wales
• Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Reinventing the West

PALE RIDER

With 1985's Pale Rider, Clint Eastwood returned to the Western genre with a vengeance as the movie became the highest grossing western of that decade. Eastwood, who also directed the hit film, plays a nameless stranger who rides into a small California gold rush town (and becomes known as the "Preacher") where he finds himself in the middle of a feud between a mining syndicate and a group of independent prospectors.

The film is produced and directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack. The film stars Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Christopher Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny, Richard Kiel, Doug McGrath, and John Russell.

Pale Rider 4K UHD contains the following new and previously released special features:  

• The Diary of Sydney Penny: Lessons from the Set - NEW
• Painting the Preacher: Bruce Surtees and Pale Rider - NEW
• Clint Eastwood: A Cinematic Legacy – Reinventing Westerns
• Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story
• The Eastwood Factor 

PURPLE RAIN

Rock star Prince makes a spectacular feature film debut in this highly autobiographical blockbuster that won both an Oscar® and a Grammy®. Headstrong, vulnerable young musician The Kid (Prince) struggles with his own inner demons and with his alcoholic father who beats his mother. But the madness infects his music, fueling a sound that transforms the struggling young rocker into a star.

In 2019, Purple Rain was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

For the 40th Anniversary of Purple Rain, the film has been completely restored digitally from an 8K scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative (OCN). The picture was also conformed to the original theatrical release aspect ratio of 1.85:1 to provide the most authentic theatrical presentation framing ever to be released to the home. The digitally restored picture was color graded in High Dynamic Range (HDR). The film’s audio was also restored from the original Dolby Stereo (LCRS) archived 35mm magnetic film source elements containing the separate dialogue, music, and effects (DME) tracks. These restored elements along with the 20th anniversary’s 5.1 multi-channel print master were used to complete a newly remastered 5.1 presentation for the film.

The Purple Rain 4K UHD Disc includes the following previously released special features:

• Commentary by director Albert Magnoli, producer Robert Cavallo and cinematographer Donald E. Thorin
• First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty - featurette
• Let’s Go Crazy – music video
• Take Me with U – music video
• When Doves Cry – Music Video
• I Would Die 4 U/Baby I’m a Star – music video
• Purple Rain – music video
• Jungle Love – music video
• The Bird – music video
• Sex Shooter – music video

Mini Review

Prince makes a stunning acting debut in Purple Rain, drawing from his own life experiences, from his relationship with his parents to his beef with Morris Day, and breathing vibrant life into the character known as The Kid. The film holds up surprisingly well, but it comes to life during the musical numbers, giving Prince the chance to do what he does best. This 40th anniversay 4K has been completely remastered from an 8K source using the best elements available (some may notice a few grittier moments where missing segments of the original negative were replaced with footage from a 35mm print) and framing the image correctly -- perhaps for the first time on home video -- at 1.85:1, accurately representing what audiences saw on the big screen in 1984. The image is crystal clear, looking like a movie of recent vintage rather than one 40 years old. The HDR enhancement makes the colors more vibrant, while the darker scenes have an inky blackness with no visible artifacting. The new DTS-HD 5.1 audio track has been remastered from the achival 35mm Dolby Stereo dialogue, music and effects tracks and combined with the 20th anniversary multi-channel track to complete a new 5.1 track for this presentation. The new track keeps most of the sound and effects fairly front and center, while giving viewers a 'you are there' feeling during the musical numbers (and for purists, the original 2.0 theatrical soundtrack is also included). This 40th anniversary 4K release is truly a stunning piece of work. As for the extras, there is nothing new that hasn't been included on previous home video releases, and a few previous extras have been omitted, but the strength of the audio-visual presentation of the movie itself is well worth the inclusion in your home video library.

SE7EN

Two cops (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) track a brilliant and elusive killer who orchestrates a string of horrific murders, each kill targeting a practitioner of one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Gwyneth Paltrow also stars in this acclaimed thriller set in a dour, drizzly city sick with pain and blight. David Fincher guides the action – physical, mental and spiritual – with a sure understanding of what terrifies us, right up to a stunning denouement that will rip the scar tissue off the most hardened soul.

Se7en received an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing (Richard Francis-Bruce) at the 68th Academy Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Andrew Kevin Walker) at the 49th British Academy Film Awards.

The 4K restoration of Se7en was completed at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) and was sourced from the original camera negative. The restoration was overseen by director David Fincher.

Se7en Digital release and Ultra HD Blu-ray disc contain the following previously released special features:

• Commentaries –
  • The Stars: David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman
  • The Story: Richard Dyer, Andrew Kevin Walker, Richard Francis-Bruce, Michael De Luca, David Fincher
  • The Picture: Darius Khondji, Arthur Max, Richard Francis-Bruce, Richard Dyer, David Fincher
  • The Sound: Ren Klyce, Howard Shore, Richard Dyer, David Fincher
• Deleted Scenes –
  • Car Ride in from Gluttony
  • My Future
  • Raid on Victor’s
  • Spare Some Change?
  • Tracy Wakes from Light Sleep
  • Pride
• Alternate endings –
  • Animated storyboards of un-shot ending
  • Original “Test” ending
• Still Photographs (featurettes) –
  • John Doe’s Photographs
  • Victor’s Decomposition
  • Police Crime Scene Photographs
  • Production Photographs
  • The Notebooks
• Production Design (featurette)
• Mastering for the Home Theater (featurette)
• Exploration of the Opening Title Sequence: Early Storyboards (featurette)
• Exploration of the Opening Title Sequence: Rough Version (featurette)
• Exploration of the Opening Title Sequence: Final Edit (featurette)
• Exploration of the Opening Title Sequence: Stereo Audio Commentary One – The Concept – Designer Kyle Cooper (featurette)
• Exploration of the Opening Title Sequence: Stereo Audio Commentary Two – The Sound – Brant Biles & Robert Margouleff (featurette)
• Theatrical EPK

THE TERMINATOR

Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) travels from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). Sent to protect Sarah is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who divulges the coming of Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that will spark a nuclear holocaust. Sarah is targeted because Skynet knows that her unborn son will lead the fight against them. With the virtually unstoppable Terminator in hot pursuit, she and Kyle attempt to escape.

The film is directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. It is produced by Hurd and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton and Paul Winfield.

In 2008, The Terminator was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

The Terminator 4K special features include:

• Deleted Scenes
• RESURRECTED! Optional Commentary with James Cameron
• Creating The Terminator: Visual Effects & Music
• RESURRECTED! The Terminator: Closer to the Real Thing
• RESURRECTED! Unstoppable Force: The Legacy of The Terminator

TWISTER

Don’t breathe! Don’t look back! Just run for your life when a destructive force of nature comes howling straight toward you, destroying everything in its path – when you’re running from a Twister. Academy Award® winner Helen Hunt stars as Dr. Jo Thornton-Harding, who as a small girl watched her father sucked to his death from her family’s storm cellar by a massive tornado. Now a storm chaser, a scientist who risks her life to study the dark side of nature by taking her data-transmitting instruments directly into the path of a deadly storm, Jo chases the largest tornado ever to strike Oklahoma as her marriage implodes and rival scientists will stop at nothing to steal her breakthrough.

Twister was nominated for two Academy Awards® – Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. On March 25, 1997, Twister was the first theatrical feature film to be released on the DVD format.

The 4K remastering process was overseen by director Jan de Bont.

The Twister 4K UHD Disc includes the following new and previously released special features:

• The Legacy of Twister – Taken by the Wind (NEW)
• Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited
• Anatomy of a Twister
• The Making of Twister
• Van Halen Music Video – Humans Being
• Commentary by director Jan de Bont and visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier