DVD Event of the Week: Is it Disney's five seperate editions (Blu-ray and DVD) of Pixar's incomparable Wall-E? Or perhaps BBC Warner's Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series starring David Tennant? Or are we talking about Kino International's staggering five disc box set Griffith Masterworks 2, featuring Way Down East and the long out of print documentary D.W. Griffith: Father of Film?

All worthy, to be sure, for my money it's got to be Kino's concurrent Buster Keaton/The General: Ultimate 2 Disc Edition.

As the title suggests, this is an expanded version of a previous Kino package, and as before, its centerpiece is a virtually flawless HD transfer from a 35mm archive print struck from the original camera negative. This time, however, you also get a second disc with some quite wonderful bonuses -- a montage of train gags throughtout Keaton's career, a tour of the actual locations used in the film, and another tour of the authentic General, the Civil War era locomotive of the title.

Of course, none of this would mean much if the film itself wasn't so great; it is, in fact, the silent cinema pretty much at its peak. The story of a young Southerner (Keaton) who's rejected by the Confederate army as unfit and taken for a coward by his girlfriend, it ultimately turns into a brilliantly realized combination of action movie, behind the lines spy drama and slapstick comedy, all photographed and art directed to look like Matthew Brady photos come to life. It's one of those films that if it comes on TV, no matter how many times you've seen it you inevitably get hooked again; here's Kino's trailer for the new edition for a little taste.

As you can see, Keaton is an absolutely mesmeric presence, hilariously, albeit drily, funny and preternaturally beautifully, but as you can hear, there's yet another reason to recommend the set -- the glorious symphonic orchestral score by Carl Davis. Davis pretty much cornered the market on composing new music for vintage silent films in the 80s and early 90s; The General score here was recorded for a Thames Video/HBO restoration in '87, and it's been out of print for at least since the end of the laserdisc era. Kino also offers you the option of choosing a more than serviceable chamber score by Robert Israel and an organ score by theater veteran Lee Irwin, but the Davis soundtrack is the one you'll want to feature, especialy in the new 5.1. surround mix. (And here's hoping Kino resurrects some of Davis' other silent scores, in particular the amazing one for the 1927 Victor Sjöström masterpiece The Wind).

In any case, you can and most very definitely should, order the set here.

Okay, that said, and since things will likely be quiet around here for a couple of days, here's a hopefully amusing little project for us all:

Most Memorable Action/Adventure Set During Wartime!!!

And my totally top of my head Top Five is:

5. The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson,1961)
A ragtag group (Americans, Brits, Poles, Kiwis) of Allied commandos try to blow up an apparently impregnable German fortress. Mad Magazine famously parodied it as The Guns of Minnestrone.

4. The Secret Invasion (Roger Corman, 1964 )
A ragtag group (Americans, Brits) of Allied commandos try to break a turncoat Italian general out of a Nazi prison. With Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, so you know it's got to be good.

3. Castle Keep (Sydney Pollack, 1969)
A ragtag group of American soldiers takes refuge in a spooky castle whose owner, a Count played by Jean-Pierre Aumont , hopes they'll protect it from the Germans.

2. The Keep (Michael Mann,1983)
A ragtag group of German commandos....Actually, I have no idea who does what in this; it seems to be more of a horror film than an action/adventure, but it's so wonderfully incoherent you can't be sure. In any case, it's superficially a remake of Castle Keep even though it really isn't. Okay, it's a mess...I just slipped it on the list as a ringer, and here's the equally incoherent trailer.

And the number one coolest wartime action/adventure flick, it's not even close you knuckleheads so just shut up and keep reading, obviously is

1. The Fastest Guitar Alive (Michael D. Moore,1967 )
A ragtag group of....No, just Roy Orbison, cast (shall we say) against type, as a Confederate spy with a bullet-shooting guitar given the task of robbing gold bullion from the United States Mint in San Francisco, With songs! Produced by the beyond immortal Sam Katzman!! What are you waiting for, fercrissakes?

Awrighty now -- what would your choices be?