Sparrows

Starring:Mary Pickford, Roy Stewart, Mary Louise Miller, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charlotte Mineau, Spec O'Donnell, Lloyd Whitlock, Billy Butts, Monty O'Grady, Jack Lavine, Billy 'Red' Jones, Muriel McCormac, Florence Rogan, Mary McLain, Sylvia Bernard, Seesel Ann Johnson, Camille Johnson, A.L. Schaeffer, Mark Hamilton
Director: William Beaudine, Tom McNamara
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Mary Pickford is the cinema's true Peter Pan. She played spunky waifs and adolescent spitfires well into adulthood and remains best remembered as the crusading orphan raging against ruthless villains and natural disasters with pluck, courage, and hope. Sparrows is quintessential Pickford, the tale of a ragtag collection of orphans made virtual slaves by a gnarled, swamp-dwelling Simon Legree. As the big sister/mother hen of the grimy brood, she takes it upon herself to lead them out of this fetid hell through the alligator-infested swamp, with their vicious master in hot pursuit. It's Oliver Twist as a mustache-twirling melodrama, pure sentimental pulp that verges on mawkish but for Pickford's innocence and sincerity and William Beaudine's rousing direction. He turns the climactic chase into a thrilling escape, dodging alligators and leaping across muddy bogs (according to Pickford, who used no stunt double, those are real alligators in the water) but transcends his entire career in one astounding scene. As Pickford cradles a dead child in her arms, Jesus steps forth from a painting and carries his lamb into Heaven, transforming death into a soaring moment of salvation. The restored prints, from the Mary Pickford Foundation, is beautiful and features an organ score by the great Gaylord Carter. The DVD also features a short documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and two early D.W. Griffith shorts starring Pickford: Wilful Peggy (1910) and The Mender of Nets (1912). --Sean Axmaker
Description
Mary Pickford's silent masterpiece is an AFI official selection for "100 Years, 100 Stars." Hidden deep in the Southern swamps, the Grimes family operates a "baby farm" where unwanted or "lost" children are cruelly worked and underfed. Mollie (Pickford) leads them through a harrowing escape. Also includes 2 early Mary Pickford shorts directed by D.W. Griffith: "The Mender of Nets" (1912, 16 min.) and "Wilful Peggy" (1910, 17 min.).

The Dreams of Sparrows
Average customer rating:

iraqis on iraq

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN OR HOW THE TRUTH HURTS

"Baghdad is hell."

Excellent, honest, refreshing, must see. Beware false reviews...

This is how all docs should be

The Dreams of Sparrows
Director: Hayder Mousa Daffar , and Haydar Daffar
Manufacturer: GO-KART RECORDS
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ASIN: B0007WQHGM
Release Date: 2005-05-24

Description

The Dreams Of Sparrows follows Iraqi director Hayder Mousa Daffar and his team of contributing filmmakers as they share their vision of life in Baghdad under the US occupation. The film is dedicated to Sa'ad Fakher, associate producer, killed during the production. This is the historic first feature documentary from the IRAQeye Group, a collaboration between American and Iraqi filmmakers. After the capture of Saddam, DAFFAR'S search for the truth takes him through all walks of life in Iraq, and finally into the arts and culture of Baghdad, drawing the viewer into powerful encounters with Iraqi painters, writers and filmmakers. As the film continues, the interviews veer towards the politics of occupation and resistance, concluding with the battle over Falluja and the devastating death of one of the crew members. In somber self interviews made after the production, the filmmakers reveal the dramatic changes in their beliefs caused not only by the situation in Iraq, but also the process of documenting it. "All artists, in Iraq or in the world don't care about anything, just looking for the beauty in this world, and truth" - Hayder Mousa Daffa

Customer Reviews:

iraqis on iraq.......2007-01-25

A group of Iraqi filmmakers directed by Hayder Mousa Daffar document life in Iraq since the fall of Saddam and the entrenchment of the American occupation. I could not detect the slightest ideological slant in this film, the gist of which is captured in the words of one person who said that he had one sentence for Americans: "Baghdad is hell, really is hell." Based upon this film, you can be sure of two truths, that Iraqis hated Saddam and are glad he is gone, and that they detest the American occupation and will be glad when we are gone. After all, observes one man, "why would America be here if they did not expect to benefit?" International diplomacy is not rooted in altruism. In a tragic metaphor of the situation in Iraq now, associate producer Sa'ad Fakher was killed when he fled Iraqis who shot at his car, only to be massacred in a hail of bullets after he turned around and drove straight into an American ambush. His friends counted 122 bullet holes in his car. In Arabic with English subtitles.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN OR HOW THE TRUTH HURTS.......2006-02-19

I bought this DVD to see what the situation in Iraq is from the viewpoint of Iraqi Independent filmmakers. This hard hitting and emotional work is one of the best films I have ever seen. It is truly a great artistic work straight from the heart and soul of director Hayder Mousa Daffar and his assistants. The camera work is excellent, especially considering the conditions under which it was shot. It presents the true suffering of the Iraqi people as their country and world disintegrates around them. Its starts with a scene that depicts the birth of a child and then has a series of many interviews with Iraqis from all walks of life from Taxi drivers to nuthouse inmates to ex-soldiers and the eye opening comments of children and the cries and pleas of desperate women. Acute problems with gasoline and electric shortages and how these people struggle from day to day is graphically depicted and very sad. The fate of the Palestinians is unbelievable.

It is not by any means an anti-American diatribe but really leaves the viewer quite stunned. It is one of the most effective examples of the power of cinema ever created. It is also one of the very best documentaries I have ever seen and it moved me to tears and heartbreak. It is dedicated to the memory of Sa'ad Fakher, a cheerful soul and a musician who was helping with the video. Sa'ad was killed while the documentary was being made. At the very end a gaunt and hollow eyed Hayder speaks into a mirror in summation. This moment captures a feeling of despair that I could barely watch or confront in my own conscience. I really am having difficulty describing it. It is a great work of art and a triumph of Independent film. It is in Arabic and subtitled. All conventional US networks refused to air it. Watch this and watch it again. You will never forget it. If you want a sanitized little piece that makes you feel good about war, look elsewhere.

"Baghdad is hell.".......2006-01-29

The documentary "Dreams of Sparrows" is the first film from Iraqi filmmaker Hayder Mousa Daffar. Daffar states, "I wanted to show the world what life was like in Iraq." Those fortunate enough to stumble across this film certainly gain at least a brief, painful glimpse of daily life in Iraq.

Daffar and his associates interview a number of Iraqis and travel to several locations. Most of those interviewed are optimistic about Saddam's removal from power--although a few interviewed Iraqis start swearing when they hear the name 'George Bush'. But as the film wears on, months go by, and optimism changes to despair as the daily conditions worsen. Those standing in long lines for petrol are interviewed, and the mood isn't pretty. We see glimpses of life in a private girls' school in Baghdad, a temporary shelter for the homeless, a Sadr City insane asylum, and a Palestinian refugee camp. Palestinian refugees were welcomed by Saddam, but were turfed out of their homes after the U.S. invasion. When the film was made in 2003, these Palestinian refugees had spent 8 pitiful months in tents. One man asks, "Where is the democracy and the freedom?"

Members of the General Union of Writers in Iraq present their philosophical interpretations of the current situation, and one man explains the insurgency as an inevitable consequence, "When you provoke a people against their leader, you will start a revolution." There are even a few shots of U.S. troops. Some are protecting a petrol station--others are seen storming a home, and still others are seen chatting with Iraqi children.

"Dreams of Sparrows" has its amateurish moments, but overall it's a fascinating glimpse at a tragic situation. The film begins with a cheesy reenactment (just like those appalling history reenactments), and while it's understood what the filmmaker is trying to say--the film would have been a lot better without the reenactment. A word of warning--there are a few graphic scenes involving humans and animals. The film takes us to the site of mass graves in Fallujah, and dead and starving animals are a common occurrence in the film. In English and Arabic--displacedhuman

Excellent, honest, refreshing, must see. Beware false reviews..........2005-07-20

When I bought and watched this film, I was blown away by the original and raw nature of its content. What one reviewer writes in his thinly veiled marketing for a "competing" film is actually what I found to be great about this movie. It is made by a small independant group, and is, to its credit, not at all overproduced or hollywoodified... After all, shouldn't an honest documentary not be much more than a filmmaker carrying around his camera to show you what he sees? This is an excellent work.

This is how all docs should be.......2005-06-29

This documentary really opened my eyes. It is not made up like a Michael Moore shock dock filled with distorted truths. This is the real deal. It is not an anti or even pro-American piece. It simply shows people thoughts on America and the war from an Iraqi perspective. In an honest style, this movie portray both the good and the bad. Everyone should see it.

Average customer rating:

A Nice Gift From the Past for Lemony Snickett Fans
True heroism never ages.
My first Mary Pickford Movie
Little Mother
One of Pickford's Best

Sparrows
Starring: Mary Pickford , Roy Stewart , Mary Louise Miller , Gustav von Seyffertitz , and Charlotte Mineau
Director: Tom McNamara , and William Beaudine
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
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ASIN: B00000JWWK
Release Date: 1999-09-21

Amazon.com

Mary Pickford is the cinema's true Peter Pan. She played spunky waifs and adolescent spitfires well into adulthood and remains best remembered as the crusading orphan raging against ruthless villains and natural disasters with pluck, courage, and hope. Sparrows is quintessential Pickford, the tale of a ragtag collection of orphans made virtual slaves by a gnarled, swamp-dwelling Simon Legree. As the big sister/mother hen of the grimy brood, she takes it upon herself to lead them out of this fetid hell through the alligator-infested swamp, with their vicious master in hot pursuit. It's Oliver Twist as a mustache-twirling melodrama, pure sentimental pulp that verges on mawkish but for Pickford's innocence and sincerity and William Beaudine's rousing direction. He turns the climactic chase into a thrilling escape, dodging alligators and leaping across muddy bogs (according to Pickford, who used no stunt double, those are real alligators in the water) but transcends his entire career in one astounding scene. As Pickford cradles a dead child in her arms, Jesus steps forth from a painting and carries his lamb into Heaven, transforming death into a soaring moment of salvation. The restored prints, from the Mary Pickford Foundation, is beautiful and features an organ score by the great Gaylord Carter. The DVD also features a short documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and two early D.W. Griffith shorts starring Pickford: Wilful Peggy (1910) and The Mender of Nets (1912). --Sean Axmaker

Description

Mary Pickford's silent masterpiece is an AFI official selection for "100 Years, 100 Stars." Hidden deep in the Southern swamps, the Grimes family operates a "baby farm" where unwanted or "lost" children are cruelly worked and underfed. Mollie (Pickford) leads them through a harrowing escape. Also includes 2 early Mary Pickford shorts directed by D.W. Griffith: "The Mender of Nets" (1912, 16 min.) and "Wilful Peggy" (1910, 17 min.).

Customer Reviews:

A Nice Gift From the Past for Lemony Snickett Fans.......2006-06-29

United Artists in the mid-1920's stood outside the motion picture industry's block booking system. It owned no theaters and did not have enough films to offer them in blocks. This meant each of the UA producers (Griffith, Fairbanks, Chaplin, and Pickford) had to finance each film individually; not an easy thing with the rising costs of producing long features. While Griffith was digging himself into a big hole (which would ultimately cost him his production company) making epic films and trying to top his early successes, Pickford prudently operated on a smaller scale. The irony being that she produced the type of folksy stuff that Griffith had once done so well and so profitably.

"Sparrows" was her last appearance playing a teenager and even though in her thirties she probably would have been physically believable in these roles for a couple more years. Most often described as "Dickensian" because of its gloomy feel and slightly off-kilter production design, "Sparrows" is the original "Series of Unfortunate Events". It is regarded as the least dated of her pictures (maybe of all silents), fitting because it does not seem at all dated. Even the humor seems contemporary with little Molly misquoting bible verses with stuff like: "Let not thy right cheek know what thy left cheek is getting".

"Sparrows" is also more perennially appealing than any silent film but it deals with a serious subject as baby farms are a historical fact and wealthy parents had reasons to fear kidnapping. The kidnapping in "Sparrows" has an eerie similarity to that of the Lindbergh baby, which would not take place until seven years "after" the film.

The "look" of the film reflects the German expressionist style and should delight Lemony Snicket fans and anyone who gets off on creepy-strange beauty. Set designer Harry Oliver "aged the tree stumps with blowtorches, and the entire picture has that netherworld quality of a slightly stylized environment that could only be created in a movie studio". Watch for the early scene where the baby farm operator crushes the little doll and drops it into the quicksand where it slowly disappears.

You also see a lot of Pickford's technique in Hal Roach's "Little Rascals". Check out the sequence when Little Splutters is leaving and his imprisoned friends are waving goodbye from inside the barn, by passing their hands through the slats. In fact Spec O'Donnell, who plays nasty stepson Ambrose, would later be a Roach regular. He is responsible for the film's first big laugh when he beans Molly with a turnip while she is trying to get the baby to stop crying. It is totally unexpected and even the baby finds it funny.

Also of note is the dream sequence where Jesus comes to take the baby to heaven. Modern special effects could not improve on what they got using a simple matte exposure process. A similar technique worked so well with the swamp scenes that a legend grew up that Pickford and the children were actually at risk from the live alligators used in the scenes. Probably no silent managed a more genuinely suspenseful sequence that when they are crossing a rotting tree limb which is slowly cracking and dipping toward the water full of hungry alligators.

Gustav von Seyffertitz does great as the evil Mr. Grimes (an early Snidley Whiplash) and is one of the best bad guys to come out of the silent era.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

True heroism never ages........2005-10-22

Sparrows is a timeless silent movie about a young girl (Mary Pickford) and her devotion to a small group of orphaned children. They are under the control of the evil Grimes family, and the physical and emotional abuse they suffer is pitiful. The children are helpless with no one capable of liberating them except Mollie the oldest. When the abuse leads to the death of the youngest child, Mollie is moved to an act of courage and manly heroism that any generation can learn from. Excellent movie.

My first Mary Pickford Movie.......2004-11-08

I found this a great movie. It was really good. It held my intrest and contrary to some other reviewers that shall remain nameless. So what if the alligators aren't real it's the 20's and a silent pic for christ sake not the terminator!!!
I highly reccomend this movie to any one who is new to silents.

Little Mother.......2003-07-07

Sparrows is set in a swamp, land where orphans are housed. Their lives are miserable but they feel they cannot escape without being brutally punished. Not all of the children located in the swamp are even orphans; one baby has been kidnapped from a wealthy couple in order for the corrupt heads of the "orphanage" can make a large profit. Finally, the children had had enough torture. Led by the oldest orphan (Mary Pickford), they attempt escape with angry men and the harsh environment on their trail.

Although this movie has its slow moments, Mary is once again successful in holding her audience. It is too bad she couldn't have children. She was great at caring for the orphans in this movie on and off film. The movie is adventurous and fun and one's heart goes out to the children on the screen.

One of Pickford's Best.......2001-03-31

The reason why Sparrows works so well as a film is that there is a genuine sense of threat. This is partly because the sets used for the film, although constructed on the Pickford-Fairbanks backlot, are remarkably convincing. The baby farm, where Mary Pickford and her group of orphans are held prisoner, looks old, rundown and dirty, while the swamp surrounding the farm looks fetid, diseased and fully of dangers. The quicksand, which was actually made from sawdust and cork ground up with water, seems ready to swallow up the unwary. The alligators guarding the swamp are real, but their apparent proximity to Pickford and the children is an illusion brought about through clever splicing of two separate images.

The sense of menace which pervades the film also owes a great deal to the performance of Gustav von Seyffertitz as Grimes the owner of the farm. His limping gait means that he creeps everywhere, becoming a looming presence. His looks can be compared to those of Max Schreck in Nosferatu, but von Seyfferitz's performance is not that of a monster from a horror film. The threat that his acting suggests is more realistic than the threat of a nightmare.

Sparrows is a film with a great deal of suspense mixed with some fine humour and emotion. Pickford, as usual, gives a sympathetic performance. She is feisty, resourceful and courageous.

The black and white print used for this DVD is in very good condition. The only slight query I have is with regard to its length. Sparrows is often listed as being between 81 and 84 minutes in length, yet the print for the Milestone DVD runs 107 minutes. It could be that DVD print includes additional material, alternatively it could be that it runs slower than other prints.

Customer Reviews:

Good Pasolini, not very well known.......2007-06-09

I'm not normally a fan of Pasolini, but this not very well known film from 1966, a kind of bridge between his earlier realistic films (Accatone, Mamma Roma) and the later explorations into the realm of popular myth (the medieval Trilogy), is worth a look. It stars the legendary Italian comic Toto, and Ninetto Davoli, who was Pasolini's lover and would be featured in many of his films. The pair engages in a number of comic misadventures, both in the Italy of the mid 60s (where they walk through what seems to be a huge urban wasteland), and in medieval times, where they appear as disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi trying to convert the birds (!). The movie is shot in a free-form style, has a lot of off the cuff humor, and is a sort of an odd combination between the theater of the absurd, the slapstick comedy of the silent movie era and the political films of Jean Luc Godard. There are also many quotes from thinkers revered by the European left of the time, as well as a talking crow. The movie ends up showing the funeral of longtime Italian communist leader Palmiro Togliatti, though given Pasolini long time support of Italian communism is not clearly what this means.

The art of not talking too seriously about serious matters.......2007-03-12

"Uccellacci e uccellini" aka "The Hawks and the Sparrows" (1964) - directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

This is a movie that begins like no other introducing the cast and the crew in the manner that is charming, original, melodious and promising of even better things to follow. The fun begins actually with its Italian title, "Uccellacci e uccellini". I don't know about you but the sound of the title simply makes me smile, it sounds like the birds themselves whispered or chirped it to the Pasolini's ear. It is possible to make a satirical philosophical fable concerned with the serious and even grave matters as religion, social and political systems and the order of things and at the same time highly enjoyable, often hilarious, sometimes sorrowful, always original, in one word -Pasolinesque. "Uccellacci e uccellini" talks about desires, death, the meaning of life, Christianity, and Marxism but first and foremost, it entertains. It is about a father (Italian clown Toto) and his young and naive son (Nino Davoli) whom Pasolini sends to the endless cyclical journey on the road of life where they soon will be joined by a talking crow, will be catapulted 750 years back in time and by the request of ST.Francis, they would become two saints (Toto with his clown's face makes a great saint) who would teach the birds (the hawks and the sparrows) the word of God, in the birds' language, of course. The birds seem to agree and accept the words of love but as we know the love comes and goes but everyone (including birds) has to eat and the hunger does not help to improve the understanding between the hawks and the sparrows and between the humans and the crows, even the talking crows. Some were born to kill and to eat the others and there is not much could be changed about it. Two men will be magically returned back to the present time, will go to funeral, will see the baby born, will meet a beautiful desirable girl named Luna who reminds them how divine the fresh hay smells and how much fun it is to make love in it... Their journey would end where it began and on and on and on they go around the world in circles turning. As for the talking crows, "Takers and fakers and talkers won't tell you. Teachers and preachers will just buy and sell you. When no one can tempt you with heaven or hell- You'll be a lucky man!"

pasolini in transition - a treat.......2007-01-29

This film is sort of like a bridge between early pasolini (accatone, mamma roma, gospel according to st. matthew) and the pasolini to come (pigsty, teorema, oedipus rex). It is as modern as Godard, yet retains the charm of the italian slums that pasolini so championed in his early films... this is one of pasolini's most blatantly metaphoric films - with a very marxist view of the class system - and yet the comedy of toto combined with pasolini's fascination of the mythic-religous foundation of all stories - makes this one of his more accessible works - i love the talking raven.. Pasolini at his most charming..

A comic political oddisey.......2006-04-19

One of the many efforts of this iconoclast comic fable is the election of the protagonist couple, the popular italian comic Toto and Ninetto Davoli, that give to the film a kind of comic disaffectation for what's a transition film in the career of Pasolini, a period marked for his disappointment with the italian comunist party and his rupture with neo-realism. This is possible with " Salo " the most emblematic and risked film of Pasolini: a film that connects with the subversive and visceral humour of slapstick and the scepticism and caustic sense of burlesque of Theatre of absurd, and in its turn plenty of self-irony and humanity. We can find connections too with the manierists painters and the Midde ages' antropomorphic fables. Like the bourgeois protagonists of Bunuel's " Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie " the protagonist couple, father and son, seems to walk without a fixed route; an obvious methaphor about the non-sense of life and Pasolini's escepticism about human condition. This Beckettian odissey around the suburbs of Rome is plenty of stops, and in one of them they find a chatterbox raven that presume to be a follower of Karl Marx ( this is a caricature of demagogues of Marxism and a self-caricature too ). The many stops during the journey works as independent vignettes where Pasolini satirizes with bitter gibe many of the facts that has driven him to this scepticism about world and contemporary political ideologies: the explotation of the Third World by the West; the irruption of a pseudo-culture based on merchandising and the rising of a consumer society; the problem of over-population and analphabetism; the vanity and passivity of the intellectuals and the painful conscience that the class struggle has not solution unless the world radically changes, symbolized in the parable inserted in the middle of the film about hawks and sparrows. It has been said that some images of " Hawks and sparrows " reminds Chaplin's " Modern times ", like the shot that closes the film: exactly, but here with an opposite sense to Chaplin's famous movie. This is not the sunrise of a future that the protagonists daydreams 'll be better. Immediately after Toto and Ninetto have dined their feathered travelling partner ( we read, the death of marxist ideology ) they continues their uncertain journey in a twilight hour. In short, as the opening credits illustrates with lyric comicity: the earth as it appears on the moon.

Not a bad DVD edition, but better look for " Connoisseur Video " copy.

Good film, rubbish dvd.......2004-05-05

Scott Richardson (above) writes that this is one of Waterbearer's better quality DVDs. In which case I certainly won't be buying any of their others!
It is a shame such a low quality product should represent the work of such a great director. Let's hope somebody brings out a remastered version, restored to full length, with chapter stops (how much effort would it take to put them in!) and removable digital subtitles. And it would be nice to hear that Morricone soundtrack clearly.
Come on Waterbearer, try a bit harder.

Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 2 (Accatone / The Hawks and the Sparrows / The Gospel According to Saint Matthew)

Average customer rating:

Yet more misfires from Waterbearer
1 masterpiece, 1 exceptional film & 1 controversial fable

Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 2 (Accatone / The Hawks and the Sparrows / The Gospel According to Saint Matthew)
Starring: Franco Citti , Franca Pasut , Silvana Corsini , Paola Guidi , and Adriana Asti
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Manufacturer: Water Bearer Films, Inc
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ASIN: B00009Y3PG
Release Date: 2003-07-22

Customer Reviews:

Yet more misfires from Waterbearer.......2004-02-02

Unfortunately, Waterbearer didn't correct any of the problems that plagued their first set of Pasolini DVD's: the transfers are all sub-par, with burned-in subtitles (that are sometimes very wrong: did you know that one of the ten commandments is "thou shalt not steel"?) and no chapter stops. The discs are overpriced, especially considering that, despite what it says on the back of the case, none of the discs appear to have undergone any restoration whatsoever.

Pasolini was a master filmmaker, and it's a shame that only one of his films (The Decameron) has a quality Region 1 release. The others (the six released by Waterbearer and Vanguard's release of Medea) are poor transfers that simply don't do justice to this great man's life work.

For now, however, Pasolini fans stuck in Region 1 (I understand superior editions of most of his films exist in Region 2) are limited to these sub-par releases. If you're a Pasolini fan, I'd advise you to buy the discs used, because what Waterbearer's asking for these discs is ridiculous.

1 masterpiece, 1 exceptional film & 1 controversial fable.......2003-11-30

This three-film box set includes Pasolini's exceptional debut film (ACCATTONE), his first masterpiece - one of the greatest films I have seen (THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW), plus his controversial political fable (THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS). I have written about these DVDs individually elsewhere at Amazon.com. Each disc includes the same half-hour 1970 documentary on Pasolini, but no other features. The Pasolini Foundation in Rome, which controls all rights to these films, supplied the prints: good quality for ACCATTONE and HAWKS but not for THE GOSPEL (my Amazon review offers a suggestion on how to adjust your TV to make it look better). The Pasolini Foundation also had the U.S. distributor release the DVDs without any chapters (i.e., in one continuous track), to encourage people to watch each picture in its entirety. Despite those limitations, all these films are very much worth seeing.

DVD:

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