JFK - Special Edition Director's Cut
by Oliver Stone
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Walter MatthauDirector: Oliver Stone
Writer: Oliver Stone
Producer: A. Kitman Ho
Producer: Arnon Milchan
Producer: Clayton Townsend
Writer: Jim Garrison
Writer: Jim Marrs
Writer: Zachary Sklar
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 2.35:1
Running Time: 189 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1997-04-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of JFK - Special Edition Director's Cut
Movie Review: A great film, an interesting if flawed theory, a so-so Blu-Ray
Summary: 4 Stars
The film:
Plenty of ink has been spilled with regard to Oliver Stone's "JFK." I won't add much to a critical debate of it. I think it is enormously entertaining as a movie, is a valuable exercise in stirring up doubts and passions about a critical period in our history, and is a superb exercise in style - no other film better captures the "through the looking glass" feel that anyone who has researched this topic must feel. I watch this film every other year or so, and I never tire of revisiting the dense, compelling world Stone has created. This or that aspect of the film's thesis may be outdated or inaccurate, but that's not the point. The point is to stir up doubts, and plenty of the material Stone has presented in this drama still succeeds at that.
The Blu-Ray:
The video transfer is a faithful and restrained HD version of this film. It preserves quite well all of the wildly different film stocks that Stone employs. Black and white material is quite detailed and has a lovely grain structure. Color footage varies in lighting and filters depending on the year portrayed and the mood. So some material is quite hazy, while other material is relatively sharp. All of it is a good upgrade over previous DVD editions. The audio is a good Dolby TrueHD 5.1ch mix that presents dialogue and John Williams' wonderful score very well.
Extras are where I have some problems with this disc. Several features from previous DVD editions (and there have been MANY) did not make it into this one, and the ones we have are of a generally low quality. The best of the bunch is 1 hour of cut and extended scenes. They are presented in 480p SD, with the option of a Stone commentary. Many are just extensions of existing scenes, however. A 90-minute film called "Beyond JFK The Question of Conspiracy" is a making-of with critical review and interviews of experts. It admirably tries to present all sides, but the production values are terrible. A new 30-minute doc about declassified documents post 1992 is kind of meandering and tough to follow. Unfortunately it ends up sounding like a conspiracy nut (it is narrated by the editor of a conspiracy magazine) happily confirming his own previously held opinions. Finally, we have an 11-minute shot on video interview with Fletcher "Mr. X" Prouty. A/V quality is terrible and for the most part nothing terribly interesting is said. In the end, as far as extras go, there have been much better productions by various outlets (BBC, History Channel, CBS, PBS) that you would do much better to watch than these extras. The best extra on this disc is Stone's commentary.
The packaging is a "digibook," a nice idea that doean't really deliver. We get some pap about the movie's critical reception, and some biography pages of the director and actors. Which is to say, nothing that isn't better done than it is on the Internet. We also do NOT get a list of materials on the Blu-Ray. Kind of irritating, if you ask me.
***********
This is a must-own for Oliver Stone fans. It's one of his best films, easily. It is taut (quite a thing to say about a 3.5 hour film), moving, thrilling, and provocative. It caused a huge stir upon its release and had a real effect on the government, inspiring Congress to act to release documents. It's definitely one of the most important films of the 1990s, and any cinema fan should own it.
It's not a perfect edition. The Video is good but not great, owing to the stylistic choices of Stone himself. It's way better than the DVD, though, and may be the best it can look on Blu-Ray. What is not better than some previous DVDs are the extras in this edition. So buy this edition for the film itself, not for the supplements.
One final note: there are two anniversaries coming up - 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the film itself. 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination. Take it for what you will, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that there will be a new edition of this movie on Blu-Ray during one of those years. This edition will probably have an entire extra disc of extras filmed in HD and produced at a much higher level. The film itself may also look better, given inevitable advances in film transfer technology and the learning curve of a new format (think of how DVD looks now vs. in 1997...). So "caveat emptor" for the inevitable double dip (or is it sextuple dip at this point?).
Summary of JFK - Special Edition Director's Cut
Director Oliver Stone added 17 minutes of previously unseen footage for the "director's cut" edition of his hypnotic courtroom epic about the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. That fateful day in Dallas set in motion a sequence of events that would only intensify the mystery behind Kennedy's death, causing New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) to begin an investigation that would gradually become a personal obsession. Bravura filmmaking combined with controversial treatment of historical facts and audacious speculation, this breathtaking revision of history presents a mesmerizing parade of shady figures and conspiracy theories, unfolding like a classic mystery based on history's greatest unsolved crime. A technical triumph boasting Oscar-winning cinematography and editing, Stone's film is guaranteed to grab the viewer's attention with its daring take on the JFK controversy. The stellar supporting cast includes Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Jack Lemmon, Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, Kevin Bacon, and Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald. --Jeff ShannonDrama DVD Video
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