Great Movie - Horrible DVD (4:3)
Added 5/30/2010
This is a review of this DVD version of the film. I purchased this version because several people mentioned that the movie was filmed in 4:3 (approx) and that the 4:3 DVD contained nearly the full picture while the wide screen theatrical release was chopped on the top/bottom to simulate wide screen.
When you view the DVD it says it has been formatted to fit your TV screen.
I also purchased the German version from Amazon.de which is wide screen (16:9) and that version clearly shows more of the image. In the opening scene where the three farm workers are kneeling on the ground, you can clearly see that this DVD is a Pan/Scan version of what is shown on the German DVD. The German DVD also has an English audio track but it is PAL so it won't play on North American DVD players but there are ways around that if you have a multimedia device.
4 stars for the movie but 1 star for this DVD
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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"We can't die because we've already died."
Added 4/3/2010
How you react to this film will likely depend on whether you've gone through traumatic experiences.
Two years ago I bought a coyote hat for a friend who badly wanted one. Two weeks before I would have given it to him, he died. I haven't gotten over this, and probably never will. Six months ago, I went through an agonizing experience I'd brought on myself, and emerged from it no longer afraid of death.
This is what Max Klein experiences. Faced with imminent death, he suddenly sees its lack of power over us -- there is no /reason/ for or to our existence, or what happens to us -- and loses his fear. The transformation is so extreme and indescribable that he disconnects from the people around him, walking around with a bemused indifference to -- and occasional anger at -- what the rest of the world considers important, calling himself and another survivor "ghosts", because, in a sense, he has "passed through" death. I won't discuss the film more than this, because it's the kind of film each person will have a distinctly individual reaction to.
I have reservations, though. The ending is not well-motivated -- why Max eats the strawberry and reacts the way he does is not clear (at least to me, on first viewing). Worse, we don't see much of Max before his transformation. Though Jeff Bridges gives us, in a just a few seconds, the impression that Max's values are not much different from other people's, and that he hasn't given much thought about life and death, it would have been nice to see how much, and in what ways, he changed. But in the context of a film about our reaction to death and how that reaction informs our lives -- a film likely to rip out your heart -- these are minor points.
"Mythbusters" fans will find the scene in which Bridges demonstrates to Perez why she is /not/ responsible for her son's death very amusing, though it isn't intended to be. The TV series was several years in the future.
I say to all those "reviewers" who think the latest blockbuster is "the greatest film ever made", or who find dramas "boring" -- come back when you're 60, and beg forgiveness for your shallow opinions.
PS: This transfer is not widescreen, and is taken from a projection print. (There are occasional scratches and bits of dirt.) It's a film worth an HD transfer from the negative.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Big Heap of Muck
Added 3/22/2010
I thought the script was poor & the directing was horrible. Jeff Bridges, who can be great, was the worst I've ever seen him. Even the cinematography was poor. The script was psychologized in a dour, trite & phony way. I didn't buy anything about it. The closest thing to being good was Rosie Perez's acting, which was good considering the script. I thought it could have been a truly uplifting movie about someone surviving a crash who realizes the beauty of being alive. Instead it was a big heap of muck.
0 out of 8 people found this helpful.
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It's the reaction to the event, not the event, that tells the story
Added 3/19/2010
This powerful movie shows the effects of a traumatic event--a survived plane crash and near death experience--on the survivors, their families, and the caregivers who try to help.
At the center is Jeff Bridges, a wonderful actor who brings depth and conviction to the role. He is a revelation. The all-star cast is just as strong: Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Tom Hulce, Benicio Torres. This story is about Bridges' journey back to his family and friends. Back to his life.
Unlike so many movies, there are no bad guys, just people trying to cope with a traumatic experience, according to their convictions, trying to do the best they can.
Maybe fear of death is what keeps us plugged into the machine, or maybe it's that when Bridges lost his fear of death he checked out. That's up to you to decide, and it's one of the strengths of this movie. Like the most important life-changing events, the plane crash is only the vehicle for change, not the change. It's the reactions to the events that define who we are and how we live our lives.
Beautifully crafted, highly recommended, and definitely one of my all-time favorites.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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A moving story enhanced by terrific performances
Added 3/4/2010
I don't actually own many DVD's but FEARLESS is one that I've owned for several years. It's a tossup for me as to which is stronger: the storyline, or the actors' performances. (It's one of the rare movies that I've never thought: "this actor would have been better as that character.") There is so much to like about this movie; so many little moments of "good" that make it all add up to "great".
For example: I can find Rosie Perez somewhat annoying in other performances. But here she's got perfect restraint - she's superb as the grieving (and guilt-stricken) mother who's lost her little boy in the airplane crash. There's a scene where she and Max (Jeff Bridges' character) go to a mall at Christmastime, and she sees a baby boy in his mother's arms. And she comes close to the little boy and sniffs delicately at his hair, and puts her hand up to touch his curls (but doesn't touch). The other mother is turned or is turning away the whole time, looking at racks of clothing; at the last moment, when Perez raises her hand to touch the little boy's hair, she walks out of the frame. Rosie Perez's expression, watching that child in his mother's arms, is one of those exquisite little moments.
And again, in the last ten minutes of the story, Max (Jeff Bridges, in the role that should have won him the Oscar), at the end of his tether, says to his wife, from whom he's become estranged: Help me. And Isabella Rosellini just looks at him, with an expression of - well, it's very hard to put in words, she's been angry with him, and she's also puzzled yet somehow hopeful, then the doorbell rings and breaks the moment.
And that ringing doorbell leads to who I sometimes think is my favorite character in this movie: Tom Hulce as the lawyer. Tom Hulce is fantastic, so funny, and SO lawyer-like, I felt like I knew him (I work in the legal field so I found all his dialogue and the accuracy of his performance {sadly} all too true.) His brief appearances, I think there are three in total, bring some lightness into this serious and very emotional story.
Hulce's last scene, which begins softly humorous as usual, segues into a finale between Jeff Bridges and Isabella Rosellini that is one of the best-directed moments of this film (remembrance of the airline crash) that should move the viewer to tears (it certainly gets me every time I've watched it).
I mustn't fail to mention Benicio Del Toro as Rosie Perez's husband, he's excellent, and everyone who played a passenger on the doomed flight, even in the briefest amount of screen time, are excellent, too.
I've also read the book FEARLESS and can say the author did an expert job adapting the screenplay from his book. He jettisoned everything from the novel which didn't add to the heart of this story and frankly, he improved it. And he was extremely fortunate in this cast, and having Peter Weir as director. This film is definitely something special.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Great Movie - Horrible DVD (4:3)
Added 5/30/2010
This is a review of this DVD version of the film. I purchased this version because several people mentioned that the movie was filmed in 4:3 (approx) and that the 4:3 DVD contained nearly the full picture while the wide screen theatrical release was chopped on the top/bottom to simulate wide screen.
When you view the DVD it says it has been formatted to fit your TV screen.
I also purchased the German version from Amazon.de which is wide screen (16:9) and that version clearly shows more of the image. In the opening scene where the three farm workers are kneeling on the ground, you can clearly see that this DVD is a Pan/Scan version of what is shown on the German DVD. The German DVD also has an English audio track but it is PAL so it won't play on North American DVD players but there are ways around that if you have a multimedia device.
4 stars for the movie but 1 star for this DVD
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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"We can't die because we've already died."
Added 4/3/2010
How you react to this film will likely depend on whether you've gone through traumatic experiences.
Two years ago I bought a coyote hat for a friend who badly wanted one. Two weeks before I would have given it to him, he died. I haven't gotten over this, and probably never will. Six months ago, I went through an agonizing experience I'd brought on myself, and emerged from it no longer afraid of death.
This is what Max Klein experiences. Faced with imminent death, he suddenly sees its lack of power over us -- there is no /reason/ for or to our existence, or what happens to us -- and loses his fear. The transformation is so extreme and indescribable that he disconnects from the people around him, walking around with a bemused indifference to -- and occasional anger at -- what the rest of the world considers important, calling himself and another survivor "ghosts", because, in a sense, he has "passed through" death. I won't discuss the film more than this, because it's the kind of film each person will have a distinctly individual reaction to.
I have reservations, though. The ending is not well-motivated -- why Max eats the strawberry and reacts the way he does is not clear (at least to me, on first viewing). Worse, we don't see much of Max before his transformation. Though Jeff Bridges gives us, in a just a few seconds, the impression that Max's values are not much different from other people's, and that he hasn't given much thought about life and death, it would have been nice to see how much, and in what ways, he changed. But in the context of a film about our reaction to death and how that reaction informs our lives -- a film likely to rip out your heart -- these are minor points.
"Mythbusters" fans will find the scene in which Bridges demonstrates to Perez why she is /not/ responsible for her son's death very amusing, though it isn't intended to be. The TV series was several years in the future.
I say to all those "reviewers" who think the latest blockbuster is "the greatest film ever made", or who find dramas "boring" -- come back when you're 60, and beg forgiveness for your shallow opinions.
PS: This transfer is not widescreen, and is taken from a projection print. (There are occasional scratches and bits of dirt.) It's a film worth an HD transfer from the negative.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Big Heap of Muck
Added 3/22/2010
I thought the script was poor & the directing was horrible. Jeff Bridges, who can be great, was the worst I've ever seen him. Even the cinematography was poor. The script was psychologized in a dour, trite & phony way. I didn't buy anything about it. The closest thing to being good was Rosie Perez's acting, which was good considering the script. I thought it could have been a truly uplifting movie about someone surviving a crash who realizes the beauty of being alive. Instead it was a big heap of muck.
0 out of 8 people found this helpful.
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