This week’s pick is the classic 1966 British colonial film Khartoum directed by Basil Dearden and written by Robert Ardrey. Charlton Heston stars as famed British General Charles “Chinese” Gordon who defended the ancient city against Muslim extremists in 1884-85 Africa. The film also stars Sir Laurence Olivier (The Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmed), Ralph Richardson (Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone), Richard Johnson (Col. J.D.H. Stewart), and Nigel Green (General Garnet Wolseley).

Khartoum is a thundering epic made when epics were the norm in Hollywood. After the success of Lawrence of Arabia, the studio system was looking for another fantastic story which would have the same effect as David Lean’s masterpiece had done. The events surrounding the siege of Khartoum are not widely known however, it was an incident which sparked controversy throughout the British Empire in the late nineteenth century, and threatened the stability of a region which is still plagued to this day by internal conflict.

The film opens with sweeping photography and music which helps to set the stage for a grand story of chivalry and adventure. After years of British rule trying to control various warlords and bandits, an Egyptian army which is poorly armed and trained is led by a Col. William Hicks whose army has marched from Egypt in order to pursue rebels under the command of The Mahdi (Olivier), a religious figure who believes himself to be “the expected one of Mohammad”.

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Like most weeks, this time around we’ve got another bunch of new movies and TV shows hitting DVD and Blu-ray. Some of them are new, some are old and some are hitting Blu-ray for the first time.

Of the ones hitting stores today, we’re most interested in the Blu-ray release of The Road, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, the Criterion edition of Stagecoach, True Blood Season Two, Royal Pains Season One, the western Django and the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s 1960 film Spartacus (pictured above with Woody Strode and Kick Douglas).

Movies

Babysitter Wanted ~ Bill Moseley, Matt Dallas, Bruce Thompson (Blu-ray and DVD)

City of the Living Dead ~ Christopher George, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (Blu-ray)

Clash of the Titans ~ Laurence Olivier, Burgess Meredith, Harry Hamlin (Blu-ray)

Dear John ~ Channing Tatum (Blu-ray and DVD)

Django ~ Franco Nero, Loredana Nusciak, Angel Alvarez (Blu-ray)

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog ~ Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day (Blu-ray and DVD)

Flashbacks Of A Fool ~ Daniel Craig, Olivia Williams, Claire Forlani (Blu-ray and DVD)

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This week’s pick is Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far (1977) which was based on the Cornelius Ryan novel about the Allied airborne invasion of Holland in September 1944. A Bridge Too Far is a sprawling Hollywood epic, filmed in the same tradition as Ryan’s earlier adaptation The Longest Day (1962) which was based on the D-Day invasion in France. A Bridge Too Far has over thirty of the most acclaimed international stars of the seventies, and even today, as the military and civilian individuals involved in what was known as “Operation Market Garden.”

By September 1944, the German army was in full retreat from France and the low countries (Belgium & The Netherlands) as the allied push from Normandy and Belgium began advancing East towards the German frontier. Due to supply shortages having to be driven from the Normandy beach head, to over five hundred miles away, made the advances come to a screeching halt due to Patton and British General Montgomery needing supplies for both their armies in order for the assault into Germany.

Montgomery proposed an idea to American General Eisenhower (Supreme Commander of the allied expeditionary force in Europe) to invade Holland with over 35,000 paratroopers, and seize a series of bridges over the Rhine, and then advance into Germany to capture industrial factories in the Ruhr, which was the industrial heart of Germany, and where most of their war manufacturing plants were located. Like all battles in the middle of long wars, it was hoped that this bold plan was to end the fighting by Christmas. General Browning (Bogarde) was quoted in a meeting with General Montgomery that they might be going “A bridge too far” with such a plan.

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This week sees more new film and TV releases on Blu-ray and DVD. Among the ones we’re more interested in this week are The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Ponyo, The Neverending Story, the Syfy miniseries Alice , Kurt Russell in Elvis, and the original Clash of the Titans (with Sir Laurence Olivier, pictured above).

Check out all the new releases below.

Film

Bitch Slap (Unrated) ~ Debbie Lee Carrington, Michael Hurst, Kevin Sorbo (DVD)

Clash of the Titans ~ Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Maggie Smith (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cold Souls ~ Paul Giamatti, Boris Leskin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey ~ Curious George (DVD)

Gentlemen Broncos ~ Jermaine Clement, Sam Rockwell (Blu-ray and DVD)

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This week’s pick is the 1969 Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Force 10 From Navarone) directed classic Battle of Britain, which depicts the valiant struggle of Great Britain’s Royal Air Force against the onslaught of the numerically superior German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940. The film opens as France falls in May 1940, and the British and their allies avoid capture with the massive evacuation at the coastal city of Dunkirk. With time to regroup and strengthen their home defenses, the British lie and wait for Hitler’s forces to eventually invade England.

The film is told through a collection of fighter squadron groups (English and German) who are veterans in the skies over France and the low countries during early 1940. Like many films of the mid to late 1960′s, Battle of Britain has its fare share of brilliant English and German actors. Screen legend Sir Laurence Olivier leads the cast as Chief Air Marshal H.C. Dowding who helped to coordinate British forces to total victory in the battle.

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