DVD reviews: The Story of Film | The Execution of Private Slovik

SERIOUS TV programmes dedicated to cinema have become rare in recent years, which is why Mark Cousins’s epic 15-hour documentary series The Story of Film seemed such an unusual and welcome event when it screened towards the end of last year.

Repackaged across five DVDs, it’s the sort of project that treats film seriously, but also makes it accessible, drawing connections between disparate works from around to world in a way that makes us think about movies as more than just escapist entertainment while also deepening our understanding of why they work so well as escapist entertainment.

Taking us on a continent-hoping journey from the birth of celluloid to its demise in the digital age, it traces the way film grammar, styles and storytelling techniques have evolved over the years as filmmakers have sought new ways to express the stories that matter to them most. Broadening the scope far beyond Hollywood – but also finding space for unusual mainstream reference (there’s a great little bit about Starship Troopers) – it explores how cinema repeatedly reinvents itself, reflects and responds to reality, and how our responses to cinema change as a result. It’s a brilliant achievement.

The Execution of Private Slovik

Transition Digital Media, £12.99

Sticking with TV, The Execution of Private Slovik is an early example of how TV can sometimes rival its cinematic cousin for delivering sophisticated and hard-hitting drama. Made in 1974, The Execution of Private Slovik was a major event when first broadcast in the US. It’s a proto-docudrama exploring the death-by-firing-squad of a US army deserter during the tail-end of Second World War, and stars Martin Sheen as Eddie Slovik, a young ex-con who resented being drafted after getting his life in order, but whose plan to get himself court-martialled led the government and military to make an example of him (he became the first US soldier shot for desertion since the Civil War).

The film, perhaps tinged by Vietnam, bravely defies the simple view of the Second World War as a “just war” to focus on the nature of cowardice – institutional, personal and moral – in relation to combat; and Sheen mesmerises as Slovik.

• To order these DVDs, call The Scotsman on 01634 832789