|
|
| Special Features: |
Full-screen and widescreen letterbox formats.
Interactive menu.
Chapter selection.
Production notes.
Theatrical trailer.
Cast and Crew bios.
|
| Video Format: |
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
|
| Languages: |
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
|
| Captions: |
English, Spanish, French.
|
| Casing: |
1-Disc Keep Case
|
Clint Eastwood's Oscar winning film is a wonderful revisionist look at the old west. Gone is all of the mythical qualities of his man with no name. Writer David Webb Peoples' script is an insightful look at the soul of a man who's soul has been carved up by a violent life. While there is action to spare, the violence in this film really is an indictment of the use of unbridled violence for whatever reason: be it greed, power or unwarranted revenge.
William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a widower running a pig farm with his two children. His late wife took a man who had spent his life killing just about anything that walked or crawled and reformed him. Word comes to him that a $1,000.00 reward has been offered by Strawberry Alice (Francis Fisher) and the whortes of Big Whiskey for the killing of two cowboys who cut a prostitute. Clint reluctantly calls up his ex-partner, Ned (Morgan Freeman) and set off for the reward with a tall-talking greenhorn, the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett).
As the three head to the town of Big Whiskey, they have been proceeded by English Bob (Richard Harris), an effete assassin who deems himself better than anyone else. He brings with him a smarmy journalist (Saul Rubinek) who writes penny novels about "The Duke of Death's" exploits. English Bob runs smack-dab into Little Bill (Gene Hackman), Big Whiskey's no-nonsense, shoot-first sheriff. Little Bill kicks the crap out of English Bob as a warning to any other bounty hunters which may come this way. The warning is lost on William Munny.
This is a powerful film which capped Eastwood's career as both a director and actor. The violence is hard to handle at times. The deaths are realistic and without nobility, they are what they are, the senseless death of another caused by violence. The film isn't a plea for pacifism, but an examination of a world without laws.
Great movie, excellent sound and picture. Why such a film would be released on a DVD so devoid of extras is beyond me.
Picture Quality: 10/10
The lighting in this film is "realistic" in that Mr. Eastwood tried to achieve the look of what the events would have looked like in their time period. The lighting is very subdued. The only other film I've seen that has achieved this quality was Robert Altman's superior "McCabe and Mrs. Miller." The subtleties of the film are all present on the DVD. Excellent job. No pixilation that I noticed.
Sound Quality: 10/10
The soundtrack was remastered in Dolby Digital. Like everything else in this film, the sound is excellent.
Menu: 6/10
The menu is easy to navigate. The chapter selection menu is strange. Instead of getting access to each chapter, the menu lets you access every 5th chapter. Strange.
Extra Features: 2/10
You have a few pages of production notes and cast bios. There was so much publicity when this film was originally released that I know Warner Brothers had access to numerous featurettes for the DVD.. Fans of Clint will be disappointed with this vanilla DVD.
The Final Word:
The movie is great, but Warner Brothers should not be forgiven for releasing such a bland extra-less DVD. I got it for the movie alone, but I sure wish there had been extras.
Rusty White
|
American Red Cross volunteers have been deployed to the hardest hit areas of Katrina’s destruction, supplying hundreds of
thousands victims left homeless with critical necessities. By making a financial gift to Hurricane 2005 Relief, the Red
Cross can provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to those in need.
