Though "Grand Prix" was released in 1966, four years after three-strip Cinerama had been laid to rest with "How the West Was Won," the racing drama was filmed in what was dubbed "Super Panavision 70" and released in theaters that had been built or reconfigured for the stunning, ultra-wide-vision process.

That may be the primary reason "Grand Prix" is just now being released as a two-disc Special Edition DVD (Warner). Home theater systems finally have made wide-screen available in your living room. Now you can enjoy a brainless spectacle at home, and yell at whoever's talking on the cell phone without having to worry too much about being pummeled.

Not that you couldn't keep up a conversation through most of "Grand Prix"; it isn't exactly great storytelling. The ever-watchable James Garner stars as a Formula 1 racer looking to turn around a losing streak. When he's involved in an accident in Monte Carlo with a member of his racing team (Brian Bedford), he gets booted off the team and has to earn his way back on the circuit with the sponsorship of a Japanese industrialist (Toshiro Mifune).

Because director John Frankenheimer was under orders to make a movie that could be sold internationally, other members of the cast were stars in their own countries: Yves Montand played for team France, and Antonio Sabato represented Italy. While seeing James Garner and Yves Montand in the same frame is not without appeal, the real rush of "Grand Prix" is the incredible racing footage.

As for the audio, the DVD improves on the theatrical version by remixing the 70mm stereo soundtrack into Dolby 5.1 Surround that has all the sonic impact of the "Nascar" IMAX film. The sound field on a scene filmed as the drivers navigate the streets of Monaco is so expertly designed that you may be compelled to battle the wind.

ALSO RELEASED

One of the best foreign films of the 1990s, "Yi Yi," Edward Yank's extraordinary account of an ordinary Taipei family in crisis, had the great misfortune of being released at a time when American art theaters were giving up on non-English-language films.

The original DVD transfer was awful, rendering its gorgeous compositions flat and muddy.

That has been rectified with a high-definition transfer from the Criterion Collection that restores the film to its theatrical glory.

Also new from Criterion is "Koko: A Talking Gorilla," Barbet Schroeder's compelling 1977 documentary about the extraordinary title character: an ape who left the San Francisco Zoo to go to college. At Stanford, the gentle and intelligent creature was taught sign language by researcher Penny Patterson.

In this amazing film, Schroeder and cinematographer Nestor Almendros completely humanize Koko and then turn the viewer's affection upside down by asking serious questions about the experiment and the way humans relate to animals.