Burn After Reading [Blu-ray] by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton: DVDNear.com

Burn After Reading [Blu-ray]

Burn After Reading [Blu-ray]
by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Brand: Universal Studios
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2008-12-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios

Movie Reviews of Burn After Reading [Blu-ray]

Movie Review: Fun as Fargo, but don't get the Blu-ray because of Pitt and Clooney
Summary: 5 Stars

The same repeated four-letter word that I eventually found tiresome in "District 9" is uncommonly effective in this film, allowing us to look inside characters whose pasts otherwise would suggest their differences are insurmountable to one another. Yet each of these characters--from a former Greek orthodox priest to a rock-brained, uncoordinated "Hard Body" employee (Pitt) to a middle-aged bimbo (Francis McDormand) whose life would be complete with $25,000 for cosmetic surgery to Princeton graduates (John Malkovich) and over-sexed government operatives (Clooney) to physicians to CIA brass--are recognizable, pathetic, self-centered human beings seeking satisfaction in the very places that destroy them. It's a fallen world--not merely in need of redemption but of enlightenment and knowledge that can't be taught, even in a language more rich and expressive than the profane one they all embrace.

The closest character to a redemptive figure in this film, which I watched on Good Friday, is the former Greek orthodox priest (at a time when we hear of even higher percentages of deviant unholy celibates). He alone acts for what he perceives to be the good of someone he genuinely cares about, and he alone would be the most likely candidate capable of receiving and reciprocating genuine love. Yet in a world where selfishness and chance account for all human actions, the poor selfless priest doesn't have a prayer. He's mistakenly identified as the wrong lover of the wrong woman, whom he tries to help, and he's spared from a fatal gunshot wound only because of the lousy aim of drunken ex-CIA agent John Malkevitch, who takes after him into the street with a tool and pounds him to death.

Doubtless, many negative ratings reflect the disappointment of fans of Pitt and Clooney, who play, against type, mindless dolts and 3rd-rate wife-swappers respectively. Moreover, the Coen Brothers go to great lengths with make-up (or lack of it) to show that, as with the mono-vocabulary, these are limited beings, more grotesque than holy (more grotesque, in fact, than the thin-waisted aliens of District 9).

I'll admit that 5 stars is a bit generous, but the reviews of less than 4 stars stem more from extra-filmic concerns like Brad Pitt being snuffed with much film time remaining or George Clooney suddenly becoming decidedly non-genteel. But this film is as much of a gem as--in some respects better than--"Fargo," more indebted to the master, Alfred Hitchock, than any other films in recent memory (it was Hitch who shocked and disappointed audiences throughout the world when he had his popular star erased in the shower scene half-way through the film). But the shot setups, camera angles, lighting--they're all carefully planned and executed with the precision and cinematic know-how of Hitchock.

And though I don't wish to question "Fargo"'s unique achievement, "Burn After Reading" goes further than the quaint regionalisms and unlikely protagonists of "Fargo" just as it surpasses any of the recent comic-book, overkill, shoot-em-up juvenilia of Quentin Tarentino. The Coen brothers simply refuse to make concessions to the audience in terms of satisfying and titillating them with formula fairy tale stuff. Instead, they construct a vision of life that, for all of its grim but frequently very funny impact (how can you help but not recognize your worst, duplicitous self?), is a vision of the human carnival, of an existential world devoid of the Hollywood-scripted absolutes and deus ex machina that amount to no more than fantasy and projection.

At the end of the tale, it is only Linda (McDormand) who realizes her dream. We wish her well, knowing she's likely to be the worse for it. But what none of us knows, including the characters and the head of the CIA, is how such a comedy errors--deadly, bloody, fatal ones--ever happened. The CIA chief asks, "What can we learn from this?" Then, in his concluding remark, vows never to do it again. The only problem, he adds, is that he has no idea what they did.

Indeed, the Coen brothers seem to be saying, if Grace were ever needed for a world that can't get its act together, the time was never more critical than now.

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Summary of Burn After Reading [Blu-ray]

BURN AFTER READING - Blu-Ray Movie

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Burn After Reading [Blu-ray]