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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Sam The Man (Docurama DVD)

Sam The Man

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Feature: C+

 

 

There is a real problem in independent feature production these days that is embarrassing, which involves very independent projects trying to be boutique product instead of trying to be original and trying things from scratch.  One of the reasons for this laziness is that thousands of people (Dogme movement a factor or not) are getting excited about digital video in a way that we could say is a huge overreaction.  Gary Winick’s Sam The Man (2000) is a watchable-at-best production that makes every possible mistake with this pitfall.

 

First, a few myths to expose:  One, digital is not always High Definition.  Two, plenty of great material was shot on analog NTSC and PAL video for decades before the arrival of any digital.  Three, digital is equal to or better than film, as only the new 4,000 line HD is beginning to come close to 16mm film overall.  Four, the ease of digital should make productions easier.  Instead in that case, it makes most of the productions more predictable, lazier, flatter, duller, plus does not make it cinematic in the least.  It instead is like watching an on-location stage play, not a film and when shot in New York or Los Angeles, it shows the same most overused locations in cinema and television history.  Many hipsters, including older people who should know better, keep perpetuating these myths.  You wonder if some one is not being paid off here and there.

 

Winick is not part of that crowd, and he brings a fine cast here.  Sam (Fisher Stevens) is another writer with writer’s block, complicated by his relationship with fiancée Cass (Annabella Sciorra) who he is starting to drift away from.  Ron Rifkin, Maria Bello, Luiz Guzman, Rob Morrow and Griffin Dunne also star, bringing the project up a notch.  The problem is that nothing truly new is here.  This is not as horrible as most of the projects we have seen like this, but it could have been so much more.

 

The letterboxed 16 X9/1.78 X 1 image quality is predictably limited via the 480 lines of the DV format, still in the NTSC zone.  Wolfgang held keeps the cameras going in better than usual directions and angles than is usual for such projects, but nothing memorable either.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo, but is again not as bad as such productions we usually run into.  Extras include a commentary by Stevens and Winick, deleted scenes (5:24), outtakes (9:38), and a featurette (15:20) that show that these people were more sincere in doing this.  The point of this critique is that good intentions go bad, no matter the talent, when the director lacks enthusiasm.  Film or video is irrelevant, enthusiasm and love is.  If Winick can get it together, he can be “Gary The Man” for his next project.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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