DVDs: 'Mad Men' delivers the mad ’60s
AMC series looks at the decade of excess
The American Movie Classics original series “Mad Men” has won over critics and viewers alike with its stylish look at the lives of the men — and their families — working in the Madison Avenue advertising industry during its heyday of the 1960s.
Everything about this show is top-notch, including the writing, the acting ensemble and the period-perfect production and design values. While I appreciate all of that, there’s another reason why I love “Mad Men.”
Picture this scene from the show: Two women are chatting away in the kitchen when their children run into the room. The little girl is wearing, from her head to her knees, a plastic dry-cleaner’s bag. Horrified, we watch as it’s sucked into her mouth with each breath she takes. Mom yells, of course.
“If the clothes from that dry cleaner’s bag are on the floor of my closet, you are going to be a very sad young lady,” Mom scolds. The kids walk away, presumably to pick up the clothes, but the little girl is still wearing the plastic bag.
The women go back to chatting and smoking.
Yes, it’s horrifying, but it’s also true to the times. Looking back at this era with our modern eyes, there are many surprising and even shocking moments like this in “Mad Men” — pregnant women smoke and drink; kids jump around in cars, sans seat belts; there’s gossip surrounding the new divorcee (that “poor thing”). And everyone — everyone — drinks to excess and smokes.
There is something about a world where people enjoyed the freedom of excesses without the worry of what we know today, that makes us a little envious watching it.
To keep in line with the show’s smoking theme, “Mad Men: Season One” is ingeniously packaged in a tin case that looks like a large lighter.
It is released in a four-disc DVD set ($49.98) and three-disc Blu-ray ($49.99) with commentaries on all 13 episodes, a discussion with composer David Carbonara and “Pictures of Elegance,” a breakdown of the look of the costume, hair and production designs.
“Establishing Mad Men” looks at how the show started as an idea for writer Matthew Weiner while he was working on “The Sopranos”; the way its pilot episode became the hottest audition ticket in Hollywood; and the character development. “Advertising the American Dream” looks at the creative revolution in media during the 1960s.
• Have you played the game where people whisper a phrase to each other and, by the last person, it’s changed?
That’s something like the inventive “Vantage Point,” a thriller done in the fashion of Akira Kurosawa’s great “Rashomon,” where an event is seen through the eyes of multiple people. Here, it’s the assassination of the U. S. president (William Hurt) during a historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain.
The event is then replayed numerous times in 15-minute increments as seen through the eyes of the different witnesses, including a Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid), an American tourist (Forest Whitaker), a police offer assigned to protect the mayor (Eduardo Noriego) and even the terrorists.
This is all very cool, but it does become a bit tiresome after the third or fourth time the action is replayed, which means it may be tempting to hit stop on your DVD player. Keep going. Each segment gives more info and it all pays off in the end.
“Vantage Point” is available now as a single-disc DVD ($28.96), as a two-disc DVD ($34.95) or Blu-ray ($38.96). The multiple-disc sets include a bonus digital copy of the movie; deleted scenes; commentary with director Pete Travis; and a 25- minute making-of with interviews with nearly the entire cast. The Blu-ray also has a nifty feature: a GPS tracker that lets viewers follow each character during the film’s overlapping timeline.
Coming Tuesday
“The Mummy (1932) — Special Edition” ( Universal), “The Mummy” (1999) and “The Mummy Returns” deluxe editions (Universal), “The Ruins” (Paramount), “Stop-Loss” (Paramount), “The X-Files: Revelations” (Fox).•
