Rating: 
Summary: At last!!! Why so long??
Review: It's a pity it took so long to get this classic on DVD for so long a time; but good things are worth waiting for, are they not?Anyway...one reviewer, James V. Schrode, lamented that the movie was not released in widescreen. Well, James, that was simply because "Sunset Boulevard" was released to the theaters back in 1950....four years before widescreen movie screens were invented!!
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: My 13 year-old son viewed this and was riveted by the acting of Gloria Swanson and Bill Holden. He had never seen an "old" movie where quality is the standard. I am constantly impressed by the self-confidence of Gloria Swanson to act in a movie that is descriptive of a silent movie star (which she was) who was passed over by technology. Her performance is magnificent. I'm very pleased that May West turned down the part. This is a movie to buy and keep. It is like a good piece of classical music that you will pull out several times a year and never get tired of it.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Gothic
Review: Deep in the ruins of a once glamorous mansion, lurks the living ghost of Norma Desmond, the siren of the silent screen, for whom time has stopped. Left alone with her memories of Old Hollywood, she waits to make her return. William Holden plays the down on his luck writer who stumbles into this house, haunted with the ambitions of Norma (Gloria Swanson) to make her great return (not comeback! I hate that word!) to the people she left behind. Holden becomes the reluctant giggolo who helps her rewrite the script of "Salome", Desmond's return vehicle. The film seethes with dark secrets and the bitterness aimed at Hollywood, the great dream factory. This is Billy Wilder's crwoning acheivement as a director. A masterpiece that " . . . should be studied frame by frame." The big disappointment with this release is the lack of a widescreen edition. The transfer to DVD has some flaws but it shouldn't stop you from enjoying the most magnificent movie ever made about Hollywood.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning restoration
Review: It may have taken a long time, but it was worth the wait. This perfectly restored version must have be done frame by frame. I have a 52" television which is quite unforgiving with old or poor quality films, but this dvd was absolutely perfect- not a single scratch or mark has been left- I noticed masses of details that I'd never seen before, even when at the cinema.
I hope that the restored print will be released for cinemas too. Its not available in the UK yet, so is only good for people with chipped DVD's, but if you can play it, buy this now.
A fitting tribute to one of the best films ever made.
Rating: 
Summary: Nosferatu in the Hollywood Hills
Review: "There's nothing tragic about being 50," gigolo Joe Gillis tells the freshly face-lifted Norma Desmond in "Sunset Blvd." For once, Gillis gets it right. Certainly nothing wrong with being 50 if you happen to look as good as Paramount's restored version of Billy Wilder's creepy Hollywood classic. Filmed on unstable silver nitrate, the 1950 "Sunset" no longer existed as printed when Paramount decided to revive the black comedy for its archives and this new DVD "Special Collector's Edition." The movie so closely identified with the studio survived only as flawed acetate copies of the original internegative. They were converted to digital at 2,000 lines -- a resolution double that of high definition. Restoration specialists went through the film frame by frame, buffing out scratches and removing the dirt. After several years' work, the results were transferred back to 35mm prints, and DVD. ("Roman Holiday" had a similar rescue, and these restoration efforts are detailed on that DVD but not on "Sunset.") Like tarnished star Norma, who can't be expected to play 25, the rescued "Sunset Blvd." images have their ups and downs, but their inner beauty can't be denied. Purists can quibble over the homogenized digital video -- the amount of grain, lack of resolution and shimmering -- but the rest of us will be too busy savoring this tale of bad craziness in the Hollywood Hills. The film is presented full frame (1.33:1), as Wilder shot it. Sound is mono -- mostly OK, sometimes darn good. Dialogue is crystal clear. Ed Sikov, author of "On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder," does the feature commentary with a chatty, often awkward tone that will put off some Students of Film. He's clearly reading from notes. But Sikov has the film down cold and views it with a great eye -- check out his description of Norma (Gloria Swanson) as a claw-handed Nosferatu in the shot at 20:45. (This is "a monster movie at times," Sikov notes.) Or how he calls attention to former silent actress Norma disdainfully brushing away a boom mike that ruffles her feather during the visit to Stage 18. Of particular interest to "Sunset" buffs will be the re-creation of the original opening that was laughed out of theaters by heartland preview audiences. Silent clips accompany script excerpts in which Joe's body visits the L.A. morgue and makes chat with the local stiffs.
Rating:
Summary: A true Hollywood masterpiece
Review: Sunset Boulevard is, to this day, one of the most unique films ever done. From its voiceover narrative by a dead man (Holden) seen floating face-down in a swimming pool in the opening sequence, to its singular performance by Swanson (a woman who could, on film, convince a viewer that up was down), director Wilder was at peak form in this production. There is an essential truth to the script that holds even today: that an actress, at fifty, is finished, done, futureless. Everything about this film works--from the darkly shadowed lighting of interior scenes to the secondary performances (particularly director Erich von Stroheim as Swanson's butler) to the mind-sets of all the characters depicted. Swanson is scarily good as the former silent-film star, for which she got a best-actress academy award nomination. (She should have won but the award went to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday--a good performance but not better than Swanson's. But rarely do the truly deserving actors or films get the nods they should from the academy.) This is one of the films that actually deserved its awards for story and screenplay. If it had appeared in, say, 1951, no doubt it would have taken the best picture award. But coming up against All About Eve, there was no contest. It was a great year for movies. If you've never seen Sunset Boulevard, it's not to be missed. If you have seen it, but not for a while, see it again. It's a classic, in every way.
My highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Ready for its Close Up
Review: This is one of the greatest films ever made and everything everyone says on here about it is true.
When I first saw it years ago, I thought it was the coldest-blooded black & white film I'd ever seen: the pathetic delusions of a faded actress, the overwhelming self-loathing of her failed writer/gigolo, the use of has-been actors playing has-been actors. I thought, "Man, how'd they get away with this?"
(I'd read that Billy Wilder told the studio he was making a delightful musicial comedy to be called HILL OF BEANS and they studio execs were surprised to see SUNSET BOULEVARD on the marquee as they arrived for the premiere). The Special Collector's Edition has some wonderful extras, but don't expect too much from the "original opening" sequence: the script is included but the soundless scenes are mostly second-unit stuff (nothing more of William Holden but his foot getting a toe tag--but I'm quibbling).
This is an awesome film that will stand the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: to the reviewers who complained about not having widescreen
Review: Do you not realize that a lot of older movies weren't filmed in the widescreen trend that most modern moview are filmed in? This dvd presents Sunset Boulevard in it's original aspect ratio with amazing clarity, so there's reason to complain.
Rating:
Summary: A real masterpiece
Review: I have read a lot of informations and critical reviews about "Sunset Boulevard" but I have never seen this film until buying from amazon.com. This film is a real masterpiece. The cast, screenplay, scenes are magnificient and amazing. I recommend you to see this film with great feelings. This film is good as three beautiful films I have seen before. The first is Citizen Kane, the second is Rebecca and the third is "Sunset Boulevard".
Rating:
Summary: A DVD for all Those "Wonderful People out There in the Dark"
Review: I would dare to say SUNSET BLVD. is one of the ten most legendary American films of the 20th century and unlike it's tiresome overrated 1950 rival ALL ABOUT EVE (which outrageously stole the year's Best Picture Academy Award) it is a legend that seems to grow every year. This film is flawless and can be joyed on many levels, as a gothic chiller, perverse and/or tragic romance, lavish film noir, or black comedy. This is Billy Wilder's finest hour on film despite such other achievements as DOUBLE IDEMNITY and SOME LIKE IT HOT. William Holden is outstanding as the failing screenwriter who falls into the role of gigolo but Gloria Swanson gives a stunning performance like no other film turn you have ever seen. Chewing the scenery and never once seeming false or unbelievable, Swanson's Norma Desmond is second only to Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara as the American film's most unforgettable screen heroine. And it still works after half a century. Norma Desmond is STILL BIG, it's the screen that's gotten smaller!
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