It's astounding how timeless 1980's The Elephant Man is. David Lynch's studio debut, set in Victorian England and based on the true story of the hideously deformed John Merrick (John Hurt), boasts as much emotional impact today as it did when it was first released. Much of that timeless quality is credited to the Oscar-nominated Art Direction and Costume design, but particularly to the choice of shooting on true black-and-white film stock instead of eliminating the color in postproduction (according to co-executive producer Mel Brooks in a retrospective interview). That could account for the lack of radiance in the gray tones -- the grays don't have the shimmer we've come to expect from digital transfers -- but again, it only heightens the old-fashioned feel of the film. Lynch's trademark ambient industrial sounds emerge from all directions in the Dolby 5.1 transfer, giving dimension to the intriguing, carefully arranged sound design. It would have been nice if Lynch himself had appeared in the interview segment, but Oscar-nominated makeup artist Christopher Tucker, who also narrates the brief photo gallery and gives a tour of his shop, fills the gap nicely.

This special edition transfer to DVD comes with an array of impressive special or bonus features. They include a photo gallery, two 45-minute documentary/featurettes ("Acting Carrie" and "Visualizing Carrie"), a Stephen King piece on the writing of Carrie, "Carrie: The Musical," and the usual theatrical trailers. The picture is presented in widescreen anamorphic format (1.85:1 aspect ratio), and the soundtrack options include English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, with subtitles available in Spanish and French. Closed-captioning is also included. Sound and picture quality are fairly sharp considering that this DVD version comes from a '70s movie.

Devil-may-care navy pilot Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station for advanced training. Here he vies with Tom Kasansky (Val Kilmer) for the coveted "Top Gun" award. When not so occupied, Mitchell carries on a romance with civilian consultant Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis). Shaken up by the death of a friend, Mitchell loses the Top Gun honor to Kasansky. Worried that he may have lost his nerve, Mitchell is given a chance to redeem himself during a tense international crisis involving a crippled US vessel and a flock of predatory enemy planes. The story wasn't new in 1986, but Top Gun scored with audiences on the strength of its visuals, especially the vertigo-inducing aerial sequences. The film made more money than any other film in 1986 and even spawned a 1989 takeoff, Hot Shots. An Academy Award went to the Giogio Moroder-Tom Whitlock song "Take My Breath Away."