Given the fact that Kevin Costner is the focus of this week’s poll, it feels right to let you know that his 1988 sports comedy favorite Bull Durham is getting a deluxe special edition release on Blu-ray and DVD via the Criterion Collection next month.
In case you haven’t seen the film, here’s a brief synopsis:
Classic baseball comedy stars Kevin Costner as “Crash” Davis, a veteran minor league player who is hired by a class-A North Carolina team to catch and mentor a cocky young pitching phenom (Tim Robbins). As Crash tutors the rookie about the game and life, both get romantically entangled with a sexy baseball devotee/groupie (Susan Sarandon)–resulting in on- and off-field confrontations. With Trey Wilson, Robert Wuhl, and the legendary Max Patkin.
This special edition — which has been approved by director Ron Shelton — includes the following special features:
• New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Ron Shelton.
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack.
• Two audio commentaries, featuring Shelton and actors Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins.
• New conversation between Shelton and film critic Michael Sragow
• Program from 2001 featuring interviews with cast and crew, including Shelton, Costner, Robbins, and actor Susan Sarandon.
• Appreciation of the film from 2008 featuring former players, broadcasters, and sports-film aficionados.
• NBC Nightly News piece from 1993 on the final season of baseball at Durham Athletic Park, where Bull Durham takes place and was shot.
• Interview with Max Patkin, known as the Clown Prince of Baseball, from a 1991 episode of NBC’s Today.
• Trailer.
• PLUS: Excerpts from a 1989 piece by longtime New Yorker baseball writer Roger Angell, with new comments from the author.
The Criterion Collection special edition of Bull Durham will be available on July 10th. There’s no better way to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary!