Martin Scorsese Casino 4K is now available as a special 30th anniversary SteelBook, hitting shelves this week and offering fans a refreshed way to experience the famed director’s classic. Released alongside several other notable films, this anniversary edition provides both new and returning viewers with a vibrant look at a pivotal entry in Scorsese’s celebrated filmography.
Scorsese’s Casino Celebrates Three Decades in 4K
This week coincides with Martin Scorsese’s birthday, and fans are treated to a significant release: Casino is out in a 30th anniversary 4K SteelBook. The edition enhances the viewing experience with upgraded visuals, adding enduring value to any collector’s or fan’s library. This film is another collaborative success between Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci, featuring memorable performances that have ensured Casino’s long-lasting appeal. Showcasing Scorsese at his creative peak, Casino continues to captivate audiences who appreciate expertly crafted cinema.
Other Notable Releases on the 4K Scene
Beyond Casino, film enthusiasts have multiple choices as several classics and collections get new 4K releases. Highlights include Airport: The Complete Collection, Out of Africa, a visually enhanced version of Dark City, Rent, and the nuanced period drama Howards End. For anime fans, My Hero Academia: Season Seven, Part Two, and the TV documentary The Americas broaden the spectrum of genres hitting shelves this week. The Yellowstone: The Complete Series set rounds out television offerings, aiming to please diverse audiences.
Spotlight on the Criterion Collection Releases
This week also brings a fresh slate of Criterion Collection films, focusing on influential directors and cinematic milestones. The Eclipse Series 47 shines a light on Abbas Kiarostami, tracing his evolution from Tehran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. Kiarostami mastered a unique voice, moving fluidly across genres and addressing social complexity through children’s dramas and documentaries. His early work experimented with narrative form, bringing the classroom to life as a space for examining societal tensions during critical periods in Iranian history.
The Criterion Collection describes his work as follows: “Long before he became one of the most renowned artists in world cinema, the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami began his cinematic career at Tehran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (a.k.a. Kanoon), where he honed his distinctive style and themes. During his first decades as a filmmaker, Kiarostami moved freely among documentary, narrative, and even animation, and between joyous short films made for children and subtle works exploring the struggles of adolescents. Often using the classroom as a laboratory, he probed social and political tensions in Iranian society during the turbulent years before and after the 1979 revolution. Spanning his very first short, Bread and Alley (which the director called the “mother of all my films”); other underseen early revelations, like Experience and The Traveler; and nonfiction masterpieces such as Homework, the graceful, warm, and playful works collected here find moments of transcendent poetry within everyday life, and use deceptively simple premises to express universal truths about the human condition.” – Criterion Collection
Classic International Cinema Returns in High Definition
International cinema is also gaining new recognition through this week’s releases. Luis Buñuel’s psychological drama Él, produced during his time in Mexico, gets renewed attention. The Criterion Collection captures its essence with:
“Spanish surrealist master Luis Buñuel’s fiendish tale of love gone wrong is among the most perverse and unsettling films he made during his two decades of exile in Mexico. Folding his own neuroses into an adaptation of Mercedes Pinto’s autobiographical novel, Buñuel crafts an expressionistically stylized nightmare in which a young woman (Delia Garcés) discovers that the outward sophistication of her new husband (Arturo de Córdova) masks disturbing depths of jealousy and paranoia. A characteristically raw indictment of religious and social hypocrisy, Él stands as the director’s greatest excursion into melodrama, a vivid portrayal of society’s inability to restrain the irrational urges of the human id.”
– Criterion Collection
Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels is also being released, recognized not only for its thrilling World War I aerial action sequences but also for technical breakthroughs in early sound and color. As noted in the Criterion Collection materials:
“A high-flying feat of adventure filmmaking and a testament to the audacious, spare-no-expense vision of Howard Hughes, this landmark aviation epic remains exhilarating both for its daredevil aerial sequences and its nervy pre-Code punch. With the onset of World War I, two British brothers recruited into the Royal Flying Corps (Ben Lyon and James Hall) find their bond tested by their differing attitudes toward the war and their love for the same woman (Jean Harlow in her bombshell breakthrough). The product of a notoriously long and dangerous production that resulted in the deaths of multiple crew members, Hell’s Angels broke new technical ground, making use of early sound and color technologies, and capturing some of the most thrilling dogfight scenes ever filmed.”
– Criterion Collection
The Ongoing Appeal and Impact of 4K Releases
The expansion of 4K offerings, especially for legendary films like Martin Scorsese Casino 4K, demonstrates the continued demand for physically robust, high-quality home media. By restoring visual fidelity and offering anniversary collections, studios connect new audiences to historic works, while giving longtime cinema fans fresh reasons to revisit established favorites. With releases like these, classic films gain renewed vitality, underlining the importance of film preservation and access.
This wave of 4K and special edition releases marks a continued celebration of film history, from the dynamic direction of Martin Scorsese to landmark works by international auteurs like Abbas Kiarostami and Luis Buñuel. This week, collectors and movie lovers alike have much to anticipate, and the resurgence of classics ensures that influential movies remain part of current cultural discussions.
