The Sweet Hereafter - Sarah Polley

(aka "De beaux lendemains" )

directed by Atom Egoyan
Canada 1997

A cold, dark hillside looms above the Bide-a-Wile Motel, pressing down on it, crushing out the life with the gray weight of winter. It is one of the strongest images in Atom Egoyan's ``The Sweet Hereafter,'' which takes place in a small Canadian town, locked in by snow and buried in grief after 14 children are killed in a school bus accident....To this town comes a quiet man, a lawyer who wants to represent the residents in a class action suit. Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm) lacks the energy to be an ambulance chaser; he is only going through the motions of his occupation....This story is not about lawyers or the law, not about small-town insularity, not about revenge (although that motivates an unexpected turning point). It is more about the living dead--about people carrying on their lives after hope and meaning have gone. The film is so sad, so tender toward its characters. The lawyer, an outsider who might at first seem like the source of more trouble, comes across more like a witness, who regards the stricken parents and sees his own approaching loss of a daughter in their eyes.

Excerpt of review from Roger Ebert located HERE

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Theatrical Release: November 21st, 1997

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DVD Review: New Line (Platinum Series) - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	New Line Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:52:08
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.61 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English, French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: New Line Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Feature length commentary with Atom Egoyan and Russell Banks • Video discussiion with Banks and Egoyan on the book and the film • Q & A interviews with members of the cast • The Charlie Rose Show interview with Atom Egoyan • Robert Browning's poem The Piep Piper of Hamelin with illustrations by Kate Greenaway • Isolated score by composer Mychael Danna • U.S. and Canadian theatrical trailers • Biographies and filmographies DVD Release Date: May 27th, 1998 Snapper Chapters 17

Comments

Wow! That's all that I can say after watching New Line's release of The Sweet Hereafter. Although the now defunct New Line released this film as part of their Platinum Series in the earliest days of DVD, this edition holds up as well as most releases a decade later. The film itself is a masterpiece, but I won't waste time here simply repeating what most critics have already said about it. Instead, let's talk about the considerable attributes of the disc. Image wise the release sports an anamorphic transfer that preserves the theatrical look quite well, maintaining the color palette that Egoyan used for the dark indoor and bright, vibrant outdoor shots.

Like the image, the audio is also borderline flawless. Sporting a 5.1 Dolby mix, if there were any distortions or manipulations, then I missed them. The extras too are as extensive as they are informative. Instead of delving into each individually, I'll simply sum them up by saying that the commentary, the writer/director discussion on the adaptation and the Charley Rose interview all manage to reveal something different about the film and the book from which it was adapted. In sum, this is a wonderful release made all the more impressive by the fact that it came out at the dawn of the DVD age. I consider this to be an essential purchase and recommend to all.

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