Anti-Nazi Classics: Volume Two (First Run DVD Set)/Beautiful Boy (2010/Anchor Bay Blu-ray)/Carlos (2010/Criterion DVD Set)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+/B-/B-     Extras: C+/C+/B     Films: B/C+/B-

 

 

We may think of terrorism and terrorist attacks as something only independently done or newer than it actually is, with nation-states as capable of it as anything.  Here are three releases that show that diversity.

 

 

The Nazis were terrorists as all fascists rule by fear.  First Run Features has issued the DVD set Anti-Nazi Classics: Volume Two and it collects four key films we have previously covered when the company issued them as singles.  You can read more about them at these links:

 

The Adventures Of Werner Holt + The Axe Of Wandsbek

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9157/The+Adventures+Of+Werner+Holt+(19

 

Council Of The Gods

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4804/Council+Of+The+Gods+(1950/DEFA/Fir

 

Rotation

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4805/Rotation+(1949/DEFA/First+Run)

 

This is a great collection that is the equal of the first volume and is highly recommended.

 

 

Shawn Ku’s Beautiful Boy (2010) offers two fine performances by Michael Sheen and Maria Bello as good parents raising their son (Kyle Gallner) when a mass school shooting happens as he attends classes.  They panic, only to go into total shock when it turns out he is the one who did the shootings then shot himself to death.  Though the course of this is somewhat akin to what you would expect, the performances and pace make this more than just a TV movie of the week affair with very believable work by the leads that those who might be involved directly or too directly with the real thing will take as authentic enough.  It takes more bravery to do what they do here than they might get credit for, so I give them credit with the limits of the project.

 

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is noisier more often than expected, taking away from the results, but there are still some nice and interesting shots here as well as a mix of lower-definition images.  The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix fares a bit better being warm enough for a dialogue-based narrative, but the soundfield is limited.  Extras include Deleted Scenes and feature length audio commentary track by Director Ku, Editor Chad Galster and Director of Photography Michael Fimognari.

 

 

Last but not least is Olivier Assayas’ Carlos (2010) which was released in theaters, but also show as a TV mini-series, which is a first for the business (Gettysburg was a mini-series cut into a feature, so that is not the same) for better or worse, though it was filmed so that is for the best.  Edgar Ramirez plays the title role, the independent terrorist also known as The Jackal (the subject of Day Of The Jackal, but not the Bruce Willis film) in more of a character study than the previous film, showing roughly his life and history, the twists and turns that find him in the middle of geopolitical changes in the 1960s through the 1990s as he goes from job to job fighting for his Marxist causes while working for some of the most powerful and dangerous people in the world.

 

Ramirez is very good in the role, I liked the way he played it for the most part and the breaks between parts work very well, but after 5.5 hours, the film starts to wear a little thin and becomes a little generic despite having many good moments.  The supporting cast is good, the violence handled usually well and the history as relevant as ever.  To its credit, it is also is the first work to deal with what happens to international Marxists after the USSR/Soviet Union and world communism collapses.

 

Knowing the history or being up to date on current events helps and some recent events that have happened (and are still likely happening as you read this) only add to the enjoyment of watching this, but I still fell it may have missed its full potential.  Yet it has turned out very well considering its epic ambitions and is definitely a work everyone should see (in order, of course) once, so take the time and try it out.

 

Extras in this great DigiPak slipcase packaging includes a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and bios of the real-life people, Greil Marcus’ essay What The Film Wanted and Colin McCabe’s essay Sudden Death that raves about the film, while the DVDs add new video interviews with Assayas, Ramirez and Lenoir, the Original Theatrical Trailer, 20-minutes-long Making Of piece on the OPEC raid, scene-select commentary by Lenoir, Carlos: Terrorist Without Borders featurette (one hour) on his career, archival interview with Carlos associate Hans-Joachim Klein by Jean-Michel Bougreau and Daniel Leconte and feature length documentary Maison de France on a bombing attack by Carlos not in the film.

 

This is also available on Blu-ray, which likely outperforms this, but the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Super 35mm film and though stylized downward to be shadier and is nice and clean throughout for the format.  Of course there is also archive footage in various formats, but Directors of Photography Yorick Le Saux and Denis Lenoir co-lensed this and the result matches so well that I have not seen such a seamless job since Ted Moore and Oswald Morris co-shot Guy Hamilton’s 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun.  It makes for a good-looking film, but sometimes it is not as effective, especially since they stuck with one faster film stock.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is towards the front speakers and the lossy format also affects playback, but there are nice surrounds when they kick in and this is recorded well, if not exceptionally well.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo