Top Picks: 'Captain Phillips' on DVD and Blu-ray, PBS's celebration of Britain's National Theatre, and more
Outlaws on the run
The world fell in love with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when Paul Newman and Robert Redford helped to romanticize the waning days of America鈥檚 old Wild West in the 1969 movie about the outlaws. Now 鈥檚 鈥淎merican Experience鈥� tells the story of the real-life train and bank robbers on the run from the Pinkerton detective force, which pulled out every stop to chase them down, until the duo met their grim end in Bolivia. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid airs Feb. 11 at 9 p.m.
Engineering marvels
Explore the greatest feats of technological engineering with PBS鈥檚 interactive Engineering Map of America. The site, the latest installment of the 鈥淎merican Experience: Mapping History鈥� project, offers dozens of videos of mechanical marvels, from the Alaska pipeline to the Golden Gate Bridge and from the New York underground to the Panama Canal. People can upload videos and photographs to show the effect of engineering on daily life. Check it out at
or download the app on iTunes.
Jazz with soul
Jazz singer sings like he means it, like he鈥檚 lived it. He鈥檚 a genre-bending practitioner of real soul music, the kind that makes you feel, not just move. For Porter, it鈥檚 all about heart, not just beats. His latest two releases from Blue Note records, the 2014 Grammy-winning 鈥淟iquid Spirit鈥� and the smooth-jazz favorite of 2012, 鈥淏e Good,鈥� channel singer-songwriter Bill Withers鈥檚 down-home style of soul singing with jazz and gospel underpinnings. The result is timeless, funky, and irresistible.
British theater
Lovers of great theater have a feast in store on Feb. 14 when 鈥檚 鈥淕reat Performances鈥� celebrates the legacy of Britain鈥檚 National Theatre, which has premi猫red works by Tom Stoppard, Peter Shaffer, Harold Pinter, and David Hare. The program highlights a half century of luminaries performing modern and classical masterworks. National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage offers past and present performances by stars such as Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench, and Ralph Fiennes.
iPhone still lifes
If you love to take photos with your smart phone, you鈥檒l be inspired by Minneapolis graphic designer Brock Davis. He captures simplistic and whimsical still lifes with his iPhone by staging everyday objects (often food and kitchen items) in unexpected ways (think mint leaf positioned as a flame above a match, or a popcorn kernel exploding into a thought bubble of popped corn). Check it out at .
Real pirates
Captain Phillips, an Oscar nominee for Best Picture and now available on DVD and Blu-ray, stars Tom Hanks as the captain whose cargo ship was taken over by Somali pirates in 2009. The tension-filled movie does a good job of fleshing out the back story of the hijackers. First-time actor Barkhad Abdi, who has been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, gives a fine performance as the leader of the pirates.
