The Backwoods - Gary Oldman

(aka 'Bosque de sombras' or 'BackWoods')

Directed by Koldo Serra
UK / France / Spain 2005

Word of advice: When and if you find yourself wandering around blindly in the middle of nowhere, do try your best to keep your nosy suburban fingers out of the locals' business. Big city do-gooders Paddy Considine and Gary Oldman have to learn this painful lesson the hard way in Koldo Serra's tense 2006 psychological shocker Bosque de sombras (aka The Backwoods). Fortunately for us, their inability to stay out of the other people's private affairs results in a thoroughly gripping tale of marital discourse, the ultimate price of sin, and really big shotguns. Those in search of something dipped in a tub of reddish brown horror, I'm afraid, will not take kindly to the film's deliberate pacing, its ambiguous nature, or it's soggy, unsatisfying resolution. Sadly, despite a collection of strong performances and a gilded box of fierce, unrelenting suspense, most will find this to be yet another insufferably boring Spanish production sporting a few famous faces. Fans of Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, on the other hand, may appreciate Serra's serious approach to an otherwise lifeless exploitation script.

Excerpt from The Film Fiend located HERE

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Theatrical Release: May 18th, 2006 - Cannes Film Festival

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DVD Review: Lions Gate - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Lions Gate Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:37:12
Video	2.35:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.25 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 (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Lions Gate Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Edition Details: • Previews from LionsGate DVD Release Date: April 15th, 2008 Keep Case Chapters: 12

Comments:

Cheeky indeed of Lionsgate to flog this single-layered, bare-bones, interlaced-transferred DVD at more than double digit dollars. Right after we praised them for their righteous and reasonable Alain Delon, Bunuel and Godard sets. Stay the course will you LionsGate! The image, from Studio Canal, on this DVD is thin, moderately hazy in spots, non-progressive (see 'combing' example - last capture) but doesn't look too shabby on a CRT. It is anamorphic is the 2.35 widescreen ratio and sports optional subtitles (In English or Spanish). Audio (Spanish and English spoken) is unremarkable and the 5.1 track is fairly wasted. A 2.0 channel is offered as well.

No extras save some 4:3 letterboxed trailers of gore stuff. The price is quite appalling for what you are getting.

The film? - well, Oldman was the selling point for me, but his film selections and roles continue to vary across the board. This is certainly one of the head-scratchers. One could say a typical outdoorsy-couples-stumble-across-wolfgirl-thereby-enraging-the-locals type saga. Intriguing? - yeah, although those keen enough on the premise may be the most disappointed in the eventual direction. Other than that it has some redeeming moments but not enough to endorse. Pass.

Gary W. Tooze

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