Criterion Blu-ray/DVD dual edition: May 27, 2014
Red River becomes the first Howard Hawks film ever released by Criterion. The film is being released in a Blu-ray/DVD dual-format edition on May 27, 2014. Retail price is $49.95.
NOTE and UPDATE: Criterion will now also be issuing Red River as a straight DVD release, due out July 8, 2014. Retail price is $29.95. The DVD will contain all the extras of the dual-format edition except the two items at the end of the list below, after "PLUS" -- the booklet with the essays and the reprint of the source novel. Criterion is apparently revising its decision to go with Blu-ray/DVD dual-format editions only, because most such releases are now getting or will get a straight DVD issue as well, with fewer extras but less expensive. END UPDATE.
Extras:
* New 4K digital restoration of the rarely presented original theatrical release version, the preferred cut of director Howard Hawks, with monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
* 2K restoration of the longer version of Red River
* New interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich about Red River and the two versions
* New interview with critic Molly Haskell about Hawks and Red River
* New interview with western scholar Lee Clark Mitchell about western genre literature
* Audio excerpts of a 1972 conversation between Hawks and Bogdanovich
* Excerpts from a 1970 audio interview with novelist and screenwriter Borden Chase
* More!
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and a 1991 interview with Hawks’s longtime editor Christian Nyby; a new paperback edition of Chase’s original novel, previously out of print
New cover by Eric Skillman
What's especially good about this release is that it contains both versions of the film -- the one commonly seen, with diary pages superimposed on the action to explain transitions between scenes, and Hawks's preferred version, featuring narration by Walter Brennan in place of the diary, which has a somewhat longer running time and hasn't been seen in years.
Criterion's release of Red River isn't too surprising. It's one of a number of independent films originally released by United Artists, now owned by a company called Castle Hill and previously released on DVD by Warner Bros., that Criterion has obtained the rights to and has been bringing out on its label. (Others include To Be Or Not to Be and Foreign Correspondent.) What's more surprising is that this is the first Howard Hawks movie Criterion has ever had. A long-overdue honor.
Link to the Criterion page:
http://www.criterion.com/films/28046-red-river