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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

directed by Clint Eastwood
USA 2006

 

“It seems hard to believe there is anything left to say about World War II that has not already been stated and restated, chewed, digested and spat out for your consideration and that of the Oscar voters. And yet here, at age 76, is Clint Eastwood saying something new and vital about the war in his new film, and here, too, is this great, gray battleship of a man and a movie icon saying something new and urgent about the uses of war and of the men who fight. Flags of Our Fathers concerns one of the most lethal encounters on that distant battlefield, but make no mistake: this is also a work of its own politically fraught moment.

What do we want from war films? Entertainment, mostly, a few hours’ escape to other lands and times, as well as something excitingly different, something reassuringly familiar. If Flags of Our Fathers feels so unlike most war movies and sounds so contrary to the usual political rhetoric, it is not because it affirms that war is hell, which it does with unblinking, graphic brutality. It’s because Mr. Eastwood insists, with a moral certitude that is all too rare in our movies, that we extract an unspeakable cost when we ask men to kill other men. There is never any doubt in the film that the country needed to fight this war, that it was necessary; it is the horror at such necessity that defines Flags of Our Fathers, not exultation.

In this respect, the film works, among other things, as a gentle corrective to Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, with its state-of-the-art carnage and storybook neatness. (Mr. Spielberg, whose company bought the film rights to Flags of Our Fathers, is one of its producers.) Where Saving Private Ryan offers technique, Mr. Eastwood’s film suggests metaphysics. Once again, he takes us into the heart of violence and into the hearts of men, seeing where they converge under a night sky as brightly lighted with explosions as any Fourth of July nocturne and in caves where some soldiers are tortured to death and others surrender to madness. He gives us men whose failings are evidence of their humanity and who are, contrary to our revolted sensitivities, no less human because they kill.”

Excerpt from Manohla Dargis' review at the NY Times located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 20 October 2006

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DVD Review: Paramount (2-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to David McCoy for the Review!

DVD Box Cover

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Distribution

Paramount

Region 1 - NTSC

Runtime 132 min
Video

2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.99 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 Dolby Digital 5.1 English, Dolby Digital 2.0 surround English, Dolby Digital 5.1 French
Subtitles English, Spanish and none
Features Release Information:
Studio: Paramount

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1

Edition Details:
• preview for Letters From Iwo Jima
• An Introduction by Clint Eastwood
• Words on the Page
• Six Brave Men
• The Making of an Epic
• Raising the Flag
• Visual Effects
• Looking Into the Past
• theatrical trailer

DVD Release Date: 22 May 2007
slim double keepcase

Chapters 21

 

 

 

Comments:

Video:
The movie has been slightly adjusted from the one-disc release (reviewed HERE). The bit-rate is marginally higher (0.01 Mbps difference), and you now get 21 chapters. For the most part, the video looks identical.

Audio:
The two-disc set offers the same audio and subtitle options as the one-disc release. The aural qualities are practically the same, too.

Extras:
--Disc 1--
The only extra on Disc 1 is a preview for Letters From Iwo Jima and the soundtracks for the two Iwo-Jima movies.

--Disc 2--
“An Introduction by Clint Eastwood” has the director explaining his motivations for making the movie.

“Words on the Page” provides details about the writing of the book on which the movie was based.

In “Six Brave Men”, the actors talk about how they approached their roles.

“The Making of an Epic” is a broad overview of the production.

“Raising the Flag” focuses on the movie’s re-enactment of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.

“Visual Effects” shows how a lot of the complex digital animation was created and inserted into the frame.

“Looking Into the Past” is a compilation of vintage newsreel footage that provides a bit of a summary of the promotional tour that took place after the flag-raising.

Finally, you get the movie’s theatrical trailer.

--Miscellaneous--
This time around, Flags of Our Fathers gets a cardboard slipcover.

 - David McCoy

 



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DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution

Paramount

Region 1 - NTSC




 

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