The essay “Hail to the Lions: Gold Ninja Video’s Fury of Achilles” lamented about the lack of special edition treatments given to physical releases of pre-neo-peplum era sword and sandal films. However, post-Gladiator neo-peplum films benefitted from the DVD boom of the 2000s and saw releases spread across a variety of forms: standard, special, outlet exclusive, and ornate boxset editions. The physical releases of Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 film Troy demonstrates this spectrum of editions during the aughts, with its DVD Director’s Cut boxset edition showcasing Caligula levels of luxurious excess.
The 2000s was, perhaps, the first and only golden decade of the DVD medium. The 90s saw the emergence of the platform, with most DVDs being extremely barebones, with “interactive menus” as the primary special feature. The later 2000s saw the introduction of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, which would eventually usher in the end of the DVD medium.
Though home viewers had traded in their VHS players for DVD players (very likely in the form of a Playstation 2), they had not quiet yet swapped in their CRT TVs for plasma and flat screen TVs. To accommodate both types of home systems, DVDs were often released in fullscreen and widescreen editions. In addition, each of these editions might seen a standard edition with no features, or a special edition with additional supplemental material, often spread across multiple discs. On top of this, retailers (such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart, etc.) also put out their own exclusive versions.
Troy saw two disc full and widescreen editions along with a three disc full/widescreen edition that was exclusive to Best Buy. Present in the two disc version was a folded insert that contained images from the movie along with the film’s chapters. A DVD insert was common place – almost expected! – back in this era, but like video game manuals, they would be phased out in the next decade.
The aughts also saw the proliferation of extravagant boxset releases. Often times these were anniversary releases of older films, but presented in ornate packaging and including many physical extras, such as mini-books, faux-lobby cards, fold-out posters, and other trinkets. The reason for these over-the-top releases was to entice buyers to give up older (probably VHS) versions of movies they already owned. Why own a classic on pan-and-scan VHS when you could have the ultimate DVD collectable edition? This can be exhibited in the 2002 luxurious re-re-re-release of Ben-Hur.
The practice wasn’t exclusive to re-releases, but also afforded to contemporary films, including neo-peplum. For example, Scott Snyder’s 300 was released in a boxset that contained a Spartan helmet. A European edition of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven came in a 4 disc fold out digipack with slipcase. Troy is another neo-peplum on the receiving end the luxurious treatment.
Troy: The Director’s Cut comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a close up of Achilles on the cover.
The box flips open like a giant pocket or satchel. There are three smaller boxes inside: a folded digipack for the DVDs, a small hardcover booklet, and other paper flip pocket/satchel.
The outside of the digipack shows Achilles running toward the camera, shield full of arrows.
The digpack opens first to reveal some smooching.
Then opens all the way to show the two DVDs that make up the movie and supplemental material. Both discs simply say “Disc 1” and “Disc 2” so one has no idea what is on what until you put the DVD in.
The next item is a small, hardcover book titled The Art of Troy Director’s Cut.
Inside are production photographs, maps, sketches, models and concept drawings, with some pages printed on transparent vellum paper. There isn’t any associated textual commentary, though art pieces have proper attribution credits.
The last item in the boxset is the smaller flip envelope that mimics the outer casing. The back of the box calls this the “Director’s Portfolio.” There is a plethora of inserts contained within.
The first is a personal message from director Wolfgang Petersen himself! Well, it’s not so personal since it’s addressed to “Dear Movie Fan.” It’s a small missive that state he first had to deliver a studio cut of the film, but once released and successful, he could go and release the version he wanted to. In other words, the studio gets to cash in twice!
Next is a letter from lead star, Achilles himself, Brad Pitt, to Wolfgang Petersen and producer David Benioff with production ideas of what the characters should look like and why.
A four page stapled excerpt from the book Troy: Embedded in the Trojan War, written by Petersen’s son Daniel Petersen is included. Daniel was present for the Troy shooting, acting as an assistant to his father. The four pages contain some of his musings and observations.
The next item is an except of Wolfgang’s shooting script.
This is the most useless item in the boxset as it has no practical functionality other than a curio for someone who has never seen a script with handwritten notes on it before. Either the script in its entirety should be present (so thus it has a practical use) or it should be absent.
Finally, there is a set of ten postcards that show various scenes of production.
These postcards, unlike the script, are a nice addition to the boxset.
The only let down in the boxset is the script. All the other trinkets present in the Director’s Cut boxset are rather nice, informative, or contain some neat pictures and/or artwork. Do the accessories add to the moving going experience? Not really. Are they neat? Absolutely.
Getting into the 2010s, studios began to shift away from these extravagant boxset releases. Certainly there were some nice Blu-Ray sets, but Blu-Ray wasn’t enjoying the success or longevity as DVD had, mostly due to be overtaken by streaming services. Physical media is on the decline while digital is on the rise.
Boutique labels still deliver the goods on on cult films with luxury releases. Simply take a look at this unboxing article of Severin Films’ All The Haunts Be Ours boxset.
Major studios, however, seem to be taking a cue from the budget release companies by releasing/re-releasing films in multi-film discs. While certainly economical for a consumer, there is not much love for the collector. Although there is an irony to this specific three pack release pictured here: it seems the director’s cut of Troy is now the preferred, canonical version instead of the theatrical version.
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