Slam Nation: The Sport of Spoken Word [2 Discs] [DVD] [1998]

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Lindsay Anderson was among the most intelligent and provocative British filmmakers to emerge in the last half of the 20th Century, but the DVD era hasn't been especially kind to him, with most of his work unavailable in the digital format (and barely extant on home video at all). Thankfully, that's began to change; If . . . and O Lucky Man! finally made their way to North American DVD in 2007, and in early 2008 the Criterion Collection released a superb edition of Anderson's debut feature, 1963's This Sporting Life. Arguably the boldest, most singular films to come from the British "Angry Young Man" school of the early Sixties, This Sporting Life has been given a superb widescreen transfer letterboxed at 1.66:1, and enhanced for anamorphic play on widescreen monitors. The rich, gritty details of Denys Coop's black and white camerawork are beautifully rendered, and the images look every bit as good here as they did on the big screen. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo and sounds full and crisp, with the imaginative sound mix sounding quite impressive in this release. The dialogue is in English, with optional English subtitles for the hard of hearing but no multiple language options. Disc one of this set contains the feature, with an optional audio commentary track featuring film critic Paul Ryan (who has edited a book of Anderson's writings) talking about the picture with assistance from David Storey, who wrote the film's screenplay as well as the novel upon which it was based. A second disc includes a number of bonus items, including Is That All There Is?, a 1993 documentary by Anderson in which he looks back at his life and career over the course of a seemingly ordinary day (it would prove to be the last film he completed in his lifetime), as well as two early documentary shorts, 1948's Meet The Pioneers and 1952's Wakefield Express. Lois Sutcliffe Smith, a close friend of Anderson's, helped produce Meet The Pioneers and got him the job making the film; she appears in an on-camera interview sharing her memories of making the movie and Anderson's earliest days as a director. And finally, Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man? is a profile produced for BBC Scotland that offers a fond but unsentimental look at Anderson's life in the arts. Criterion's edition of This Sporting Life not only offers an excellent presentation of a landmark film, but paints a fascinating portrait of a gifted and uncompromising artist, and is strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in British cinema.