New to Rent By Mail for February 13 2024

ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (1973)

With its mesmerizing visuals, Easy Rider-style social commentary and electrifying rock soundtrack, Electra Glide in Blue is the quintessential ’70s cult classic. Robert Blake (Busting, TV’s Baretta) creates a vivid character of almost mythic proportions as a small motorcycle cop in Arizona who’s promoted for exposing a murder. Eventually his basic virility runs him afoul of the sheriff and he’s busted back down to his bike, the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide. With classic irony, he finally comes into deadly conflict with a group of hippies…the very people who most nearly reflect his own values. The brilliant cinematography of Conrad Hall (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and an uncompromising screenplay by Robert Boris (Steele Justice) highlight this stunning film debut for producer/director/composer James William Guercio. Featuring fine supporting turns by Billy “Green” Bush (The Organization), Mitchell Ryan (High Plains Drifter), Elisha Cook Jr. (I Wake Up Screaming) and Royal Dano (Spaced Invaders). (BLU-RAY)

TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (1985)

William Petersen (Manhunter, TV’s CSI) and Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Mississippi Burning) face off in a deadly game of cat and mouse in this riveting action-thriller directed by cinema legend William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer). Full of style and grit, this raw tale of corruption and revenge boasts one of the most harrowing car chases ever caught on film and a shockingly explosive ending. Federal agent Richard Chance (Petersen) has a score to settle, and he’s through playing by the rules. Whether that means blackmailing a beautiful parolee, disobeying direct orders or hurtling the wrong way down a crowded freeway, he vows to take down a murderous counterfeiter (Dafoe) by any means necessary. But as the stakes grow higher, will Chance’s dark obsession with vengeance destroy him? The ultimate ’80s neo-noir. (BLU-RAY and 4K ULTRA HD)

DREAMS (1990) (Criterion Collection)

Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power-plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance. (BLU-RAY and 4K ULTRA HD)

EPSTEIN AND FRIEDMAN COLLECTION: COMMON THREADS/WHERE ARE WE/PARAGRAPH 175 

For more than 30 years, Oscar®-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have borne powerful witness to gay life, creativity, and activism — documenting lost aspects of LGBTQ+ history and chronicling unfolding events with humor, compassion, and fierce urgency. The Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Collection includes three of their most essential works in new restorations: Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt (1989, winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), Where Are We? Our Trip Through America (1992) and Paragraph 175 (2000). Common Threads uses the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt to explore the cross-section of identities affected by HIV/AIDS, as well as efforts to combat the stigma, misinformation, and political obstruction that deepened the crisis. Where Are We? Our Trip Through America follows Epstein and Friedman as they chronicle an 18-day road trip through the American south. They interview a large variety of people along the way, stopping to ask them questions about their hopes and regrets. Paragraph 175 fills a crucial gap in the historical record by revealing the lasting consequences of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.(BLU-RAY)

AMERICAN POP (1981)

Journey into an explosion of sight, sound, song and superb storytelling as brilliantly conceived byanimation innovator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, The Lord of the Rings, Wizards). From a turn-of-the-century immigrant vaudevillian to a rock superstar, AMERICAN POP is the story of four generations whose lives revolve around the beat of American popular music. Featuring a mind-blowing soundtrack bursting with the hit music of The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Mamas & The Papas, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Benatar, Lou Reed, Bob Seger and more. Packed with energy, excitement, electricity and enthusiasm, Bashki's work is a ground-breaking, kaleidoscopic animated trip. (BLU-RAY)