DVD New Releases - Contrasts and Struggles

Among the leading DVD new releases of 3/20 are Rocky Balboa, the latest installment in Sylvester Stallone’s popular movie series, boxing against would-be contenders and Eragon, a sci-fi fantasy story of a young boy and his pet dragon battling evil in a corrupt kingdom.

Rocky Balboa had its theatrical release in 2006, exactly 30 years after the original Rocky was released. It marks a long waited return of a popular film franchise of 5 movies that were released from 1976 to 1990. Sylvester Stallone plays Rocky, a boxer vying for championship against all odds, in each. Combining fierce action and the irrepressible struggle to extend one’s capacities to overcome adversity, the Rocky series remains a popular icon to boost the human spirit. As a yet greater testament, Stallone appears in greater physical appearance in 2006 than he did the 1976 version. Work hard and, perhaps, you can also preserve your youth and vitality.

Though knights of old courageously battled fierce dragons, as in Dragonslayer, Eragon is a sweet film of a boy growing in a kingdom filled with evil. He finds a dragon’s egg and raises the dragon from a hatchling. Based on a book from a popular sci-fi trilogy, The Inheritance, Eragon is the latest of a group of medieval-based fantasies including Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. With its outstanding special effects, Eragon has a PG rating, suitable for family viewing. It’s a good way to introduce fantasy and good will to your children while enjoying it as well.

An almost forgotten relic from the past gets a DVD release. Maude was producer Norman Lear’s follow-up to his popular All In The Family series, a surprise hit of the early 1970’s centering on a bigot from Queens named Archie Bunker and his family. All in the Family was so popular that when the show finally ended several years later, Archie’s (an TV wife Edith’s) living room chairs were donated to the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC. In contrast, Maude was an outspoken liberal living in Westchester. Maude was portrayed by Bea Arthur, a theater actress, who later gained more fame in another popular TV series, The Golden Girls. What’s particularly interesting about these shows was that the humor was directly based on common, ethnic stereotypes resulting as wildly, direct-hitting satire. In today’s era of ethnic and sexual correctness, Maude and All in the Family remain as museum pieces from a more open society. Were times better then? View the first season of Maude and let us know.

Easter is around the corner. After last week’s release of John Paul II, this week offers us the 2006 theatrical release of The Nativity Story. As narrated from mother Mary’s perspective, the story covers the two-year period of Mary and Joseph’s life, which culminates in their leaving Nazareth and journeying 100 miles to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. Aiming more at a human, traditional approach than the spectacular King of Kings exploring the events leading to the birth of the boy rather than the events that made the man an influential icon of modern spiritual faith and thought. St. Peter, on the other hand, is about what happens after Jesus’ death. Starring Omar Sharif, this 3 hour epic helps depict the events that led to the foundation of Christianity.

There’s definitely more than a week’s entertainment until next week. Feast on these new DVDs and consider some of the perspectives of humanity’s struggles against ill will. Send us your comments.

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