Black Panther is a fictional superhero that first appeared in Marvel Comics in July 1966 inFantastic Four #52. Black Panther’s real name is T’Challa, king and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Along with possessing enhanced abilities achieved through ancient Wakandan rituals of drinking the essence of the heart-shaped herb, T’Challa also relies on his proficiency in science, rigorous physical training, hand-to-hand combat skills, and access to wealth and advanced Wakandan technology to combat his enemies.

There was consideration given to making a film about Black Panther as early as 1992, but plans didn’t come to fruition until 2010 when an animated TV miniseries voiced by the likes of Djimon Hounsou, Jill Scott, Carl Lumbly, Kerry Washington, and Alfre Woodard. The character didn’t appear on screen until Chadwick Boseman impersonated him in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Boseman’s has the lead in the 2018 megahit centered on the character.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther has strong writing, spectacular special effects, knockout production values and costume design, and is easily the best acted superhero movie in some time.

The principal players are:

Boseman (42, Marshall) is T’Challa who gains enhanced strength by ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb when he becomes king upon the death of his father.

Michael B. Jordan (star of Coogler’s Fruitvale Station and Creed) is N’Jadaka, T’Challa’s cousin, a black ops soldier who seeks to overthrow T’Challa.

Lupita Nyong’o is Nakia, T’Cahlla’s former lover and a war dog as well as an undercover spy.

Danai Gurira is Okoye, an “extremely proud” Wakandan and traditionalist from the Border Tribe, who is the head of the Dora Milaje, the all-female special forces of Wakanda, who serve as T’Challa’s bodyguards.

Martin Freeman is Everett K. Ross, a member of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who has an uneasy peace with T’Cahlla.

Daniel Kaluuya is W’Kabi, T’Challa’s best friend and confidant.

Letitia Wright is Shuri, T’Challa’s sixteen-year-old sister and the country’s tech designer.

The supporting cast includes Angela Bassett as the Queen Mother of Wakanda, Forest Whitaker as a Wakandan elder statesman, and Andy Serkis as a gangster-smuggler.

Black Panther is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film, 1986’s The Sacrifice, has been given a 4K restoration and Blu-ray-only release by Kino Lorber.

The film, which the Russian director made in exile, was filmed in Sweden where the story of impending nuclear annihilation takes place. Erland Josephson (Scenes from a Marriage) stars as the patriarch of a wealthy Swedish family whose birthday celebration turns to horror as word of the outbreak of World War III reaches his Baltic island. The film’s celebrated cinematography is by Ingmar Bergman’s longtime collaborator Sven Nykvist. Tarkovsky won three awards for the film at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, but did not live to see the film’s nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the BAFTA awards, having died on December 29, 1986 at the age of 54.

Tarkovsky’s death from a rare form of lung cancer was later thought to be due to poisoning by the KGB. Anatoly Solonitsyn (Andrei Rublev, Solaris), Tarkovsky, and his wife Larisa all became ill from exposure to chemicals during the filming of 1979’s Stalker. Solonitsyn died of the same rare form of lung cancer in 1982 at the age of 47 as did Larisa Tarkovsky in 1998 at the age of 59.

Also included in the release is the standard DVD of Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, a documentary on the making of the film and a booklet taken from excerpts of Tarkovsky’s diary documenting his last year.

Kino Lorber has also given The Outlaw, with its 2K restoration, a Blu-ray-only release

Begun in late 1940 by Howard Hawks, producer Howard Hughes took over production of The Outlaw and Hawks went to work on Sergeant York. Completed in 1942, the film premiered at a San Francisco theatre in February 1943 but was withdrawn from further distribution due to trouble with the censors. When the same theatre showed it again in April 1946, the theatre owner was arrested for showing an “indecent” film. It was released in England and Mexico in November 1946 but not given U.S. distribution until September 1947. By that time, the film’s publicity was so overwhelming that it couldn’t help but become a box office hit despite its mostly bad reviews.

Most of the publicity centered on newcomer Jane Russell’s cleavage. The censors were so busy staring at Russell’s bosoms in her low-cut blouses, especially when she bent over, that most of them missed the then-more-daring homoerotic underpinnings in the film’s central triangle consisting of Thomas Mitchell as Pat Garrett, Walter Huston as Doc Holliday, and Jack Buetel as Billy the Kid. The film went into its long-delayed release with Russell given sole star billing despite-the-fact that hers was essentially a supporting role in the film. Both she and Buetel were under exclusive contract to Hughes and while he successfully nurtured her career, he refused to allow Buetel to be loaned out to other studios interested in casting him, thus destroying his career.

Neither Russell nor Buetel, both of whom were inexperienced, were given much help by Hughes and their performances are both rather lackluster. Mitchell and Huston, however, are excellent in their roles despite-the-fact that both were too old for them. The real-life Garrett and Holliday were both around 30 at the time of the film’s setting while Mitchell was approaching 50 and Huston 60. The film was, however, a happy reunion for Huston and Mitchell who previously worked together as the title characters in 1941’s The Devil and Daniel Webster until Mitchell, due to an accident on the set, had to drop out. He was replaced by Edward Arnold.

This week’s new releases include Game Night and A Fantastic Woman.