Released as part of the celebrations marking composer Richard Rodgers' centenary in 2002, this Rodgers and Hammerstein collection contains the film versions of State Fair (1945), Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), The King and I (1956), South Pacific (1958), and The Sound of Music (1965). By the time these pictures were made, the Broadway originals had become the standards by which all else was judged in a golden age of musical theatre. And while film versions tend to dilute the books, there are still threads of darkness for those who require a more varied texture. But it's the fabulous songs which really count.

Rodgers' partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein was cemented by their 1945 cinematic joint effort State Fair, rushed into production by 20th Century Fox in response to MGM's all-conquering Meet Me in St Louis and with a similarly folksy theme. Directed by Walter Lang, it's a charmingly flimsy affair with some delightful numbers. Oklahoma!, directed by Fred Zinnemann, features Agnes de Mille's renowned choreography, irresistible songs and two outstanding performances from unlikely musical actors: film noir siren Gloria Grahame playing against type as Ado Annie, the girl who can't say "no", and Rod Steiger as the menacing but tragic Jud. Carousel, the morally dubious tale of fairground barker and wife-beater Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae) who gets a chance to redeem himself after death, is crammed with great melodies including the tear-jerking anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone". South Pacific, which contains perhaps the most spine-tingling songs penned by Rodgers and Hammerstein--"Some Enchanted Evening" is just one--a wartime love story which also manages to touch on racism and morality; anything but lightweight. Both The King and I and The Sound of Music, of course, have become cinematic legends in their own right, thanks in no small part to their leading ladies, Deborah Kerr and Julie Andrews.

On the DVD: Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musicals glow as freshly as if they were made yesterday in four of these DVD transfers, with the other two a disappointment in comparison. South Pacific, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music are offered in widescreen, giving the full benefit of the original Cinemascope presentations. Oklahoma!'s titles are presented in widescreen, but unforgivably the film then reverts to a disappointing 4:3 format which hardly does justice to the big sky settings of the Scope original. The sound quality is also disappointingly muffled for Oklahoma! and State Fair, both of which are crying out for a good polish. --Piers Ford

Made in 1989, Roger and Me is a loose, smart-alecky documentary directed and narrated by Michael Moore. Here for the first time, the man who won unexpected Oscar glory with Bowling for Columbine exposed audiences to his devastating wit and a working-class pose. When his hometown is devastated by the plant closure of an American corporate giant (making record profits, one should note), the hell-raising political commentator with a prankster streak tries to turn his camera on General Motors Chairman Roger B Smith, the elusive Roger of the title, and the film is loosely structured around Moore's odyssey to track down the bigwig for an interview.

While Moore ambushes his corporate subjects like a blue-collar Geraldo Rivera, a guerrilla interviewer who treasures his comic rebuffs as much as his interviews, his portraits of the colourful characters he meets along the way can be patronising. The famous come off as absurdly out of touch (Anita Bryant appears for some can-do cheerleading, and hometown celebrity Bob Eubanks tells some boorish jokes), and the disenfranchised poor (notably an unemployed woman who sells rabbit meat to make ends meet) all too often appear as buffoons or hicks. But behind his loose play with the facts and snarky attitude is a devastating look at the victims of downsizing in the midst of the 1980s economic boom. This portrait of Reagan's America and the tarnish on the American dream comes down to a simple question: what is corporate America's responsibility to the country's citizens? That's a question no-one at GM wants to answer. --Sean Axmaker