Columbia Classics: Volume 5 - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
I’m slightly excited about this as I believe this is the first time that we’ve been able to review one of the Columbia Classics box sets and I’ve only held one of them at a friend’s house. Well, this month is that month as we’ve finally been able to grab one of these for you guys and give it a once over. Needless to say, I’m slightly enamored with them. I fully admit that I’m a bit of a sucker for the “big ole box of swag” box sets as long as they’re not housing discs in cardboard sleeves ala Universal or Warner, and the care and detail that went into this set is quite amazing. Each film is housed in it’s own Viva Elite case, complete with 4K and Blu-ray discs (yay! At least we get combo packs here), and housed in fold out chipboard style containers ala the giant Lord of the Rings/Hobbit set. Combine that with some snazzy physical extras, and the stunning remasters for each of the 6 films, and we have a winning combination.

Luckily Sony gives us a little bit of everything here, starting out with 1949’s All the King’s Men, moving up to a Reformation era period piece drama in A Man for all Seasons and gently moving into one of the best films EVER released in the form of Brando’s super star creating hit On The Waterfront. The other half of the collection shifts over to modern day film making, with 1980s era comedy classic Tootsie, romantic tragedy The Age of Innocence, and finishing off with a couple year old remake of Little Women. As I said, a taste of everything, and nothing in this set is anything below a good to great status, with many being top tier films that deserve every accolade possible.

For indivdual film synopsis you can check out the 4K UHD disc reviews below

A Man for all Seasons

All the King's Men

On the Waterfront

Little Women

The Age of Innocence

Tootsie






Rating:[/B]

Various




Video:

For indivdual Video Breakdowns you can check out the 4K UHD disc reviews below

A Man for all Seasons

All the King's Men

On the Waterfront

Little Women

The Age of Innocence

Tootsie











Audio:

For indivdual Audio Reviews you can check out the 4K UHD disc reviews below

A Man for all Seasons

All the King's Men

On the Waterfront

Little Women

The Age of Innocence

Tootsie









Extras:

A Man for all Seaosns
• Audio Commentary with film historians Julie Kirgo, Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman
• Moral Clarity with Bishop Robert Barron
• The Life of ST. Thomas More
• Theatrical Trailer

All the King's Men
• Audio Commentary with film historians Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff
• Force of Will
• Theatrical Trailer

On the Waterfront
• Audio Commentary
• Martin Scorsese & Kent Jones
• Contender: Mastering the Method
• Interview with Director Elia Kazan
• Budd Schulberg: A Righteous Indignation
• Boris Kaufman: A Vision Beyond Borders
• Eva Marie Saint Interview (
• Thomas Hanley Interview
• On the Aspect Ratio
• Photo Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer

Little Women
• NEW Audio Commentary with Actress Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig
• NEW Revisiting Little Women
• A New Generation of Little Women: The superb cast recreated the beloved world of the March family with realism, humor and vulnerability
• Making a Modern Classic: The film combines its modern elements—kinetic camerawork and overlapping dialogue—with the historically authentic bespoke costumes, sets and locations
• Greta Gerwig: Women Making Art: Go behind the camera with Writer/Director Greta Gerwig, discover her process and how she applied her own style to the story
• Hair & Make-Up Test Sequence: A lovely showcase featuring the outstanding costumes, hair and make-up crafted for the film
• Little Women Behind the Scenes: Take a quick look behind the scenes on the set of LITTLE WOMEN
• Orchard House, Home of Louisa May Alcott: Find out more about Louisa May Alcott and visit the real-life Orchard House in Concord, MA

The Age of Innocence
• Interview with Martin Scorsesee
• Interview with Jay Cocks
• Original 1993 EPK
• Moments from the set B-Roll
• Theatrical Trailer

Tootsie
• Audio Commentary featuring Cerise Howard and Rohan Spong
• A Better Man: The Making of Tootsie
-- Good Friends
-- A Better Man
-- Keep it Real
• Deleted Scenes
• Dustin Hoffman Screen Test Footage
• Dustin Hoffman Interview
• Theatrical Trailer










All of this to say, this is a fantastic boxset, and judging by how many films in here that I hadn’t seen, a great way to introduce myself (and yourself) to some classics. Sony has long been the leader in how they treat their catalog titles on both Blu-ray and 4K, but these sets elevated their normal “dang that was good” up to lavishness. The 4K discs look stunning, and the sets include newly remastered variants of the Blu-rays as well, so along with the physical box and the swag, this makes for a VERY appealing set. For those wondering, Sony has a history of releasing the individual titles in their own individual releases, it just may take a while. So if you choose to wait, you very well may get the 1 or 2 titles you really want, but for fans of it all, this is a VERY nice set. Highly recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Various (see individual reviews)
Directed by: Varoious
Written by: Various
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1/1.85:1/1.66:1/1.37:1 HEVC
Audio: Various
Subtitles: Various
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG / NR
Runtime: 1030 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 22nd, 2024