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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cat.no: D 012306
- Cert: 15
- Running time: 181 minutes
- Year: 1991
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 42 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Languages: English, French, Italian
- Subtitles: 8 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99
- Extras : Scene index
Director:
- Oliver Stone
(Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Heaven and Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Platoon, Salvador, Talk Radio, Wall Street, U-Turn)
Producer:
- A. Kitman Ho and Oliver Stone
Screenplay:
- Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar
(based on the books “On the Trail of Assassins” by Jim Garrison
and “Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy” by Jim Marrs)
Music:
- John Williams
Cast:
- Jim Garrison: Kevin Costner (American Flyers, The Big Chill, Bull Duhram, Dances with Wolves, Fandango, Field of Dreams, Madonna: Truth or Dare, Night Shift, No Way Out, A Perfect World, The Postman, Revenge, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Silverado, Sizzle Beach USA, Tin Cup, The Untouchables, The War, Waterworld, Wyatt Earp)
Lee Harvey Oswald: Gary Oldman (Air Force One, Basquiat, Dracula, The Fifth Element, The Firm, Leon, Murder In The First, Romeo Is Bleeding, The Scarlet Letter, Sid And Nancy, True Romance)
Liz Garrison: Sissy Spacek (Badlands, Carrie, Crimes of the Heart, If These Walls Could Talk)
Willie O’Keefe: Kevin Bacon (Apollo 13, Criminal Law, Diner, A Few Good Men, Footloose, Murder in the First, National Lampoon’s Animal House, The River Wild, Sleepers)
Clay Shaw: Tommy Lee Jones (Batman Forever, Blown Away, The Client, Cobb, The Fugitive, Heaven and Earth, House of Cards, Men In Black, Stormy Monday, US Marshals, Under Siege, Volcano)
plus: Laurie Metcalf, Michael Rooker, Jay O. Sanders, Donald Sutherland, Sally Kirkland, Edward Asner, Jack Lemmon, Vincent D’Onofrio, Joe Pesci, Walter Matthau, John Candy, Lolita Davidovich, Frank Whaley and a guest appearance by Jim Garrison himself as Earl Warren.
JFK are the initials of the American president gunned down next to his wife. The identity of the assassin still remains a mystery, although it’s alleged that the American government know a lot more than they’re letting on. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) seeks to find out the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but he’s being spun a web of lies and conjecture as everyone wants to have their say.
Since the fateful day of November 22nd, 1963, the topic has been discussed far and wide. Was it Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman) in the Texas Book Depository, or a man behind a bush on the grassy knoll? By the time this film came out, the event had been talked about non-stop for almost thirty years and what it needed was a fresh and interesting approach – the type that can be applied by Oliver Stone with his flair for a quick-cut style of filming and a top-rated cast as displayed above.
The picture quality is very good for a non-anamorphic DVD and it has an average bitrate of 5.28Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 7Mb/s. However, it could have been a whole lot better. The film is presented in the original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 and since Warner often tend to slightly-windowbox their films for the home, to avoid the usual overscan that affects most TVs, you get the chance to see damn-near all of the picture.
The sound comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround) form as recorded, but won’t tax your speakers too hard.
Extras : Chapters : The best thing that can be said of this disc is that it has 42 chapters covering the 3hr length of the film. However, like a number of Warner’s early discs, the chapter selection menu is incredibly poor offering only five choices, requiring you to seek out the rest yourself!
Languages/Subtitles : There are three language options in the form of English, French and Italian, while subtitles are available in eight: English (and for the hard of hearing), Italian (and for the hard of hearing), French, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
Menu : A static menu with a shot of Kevin Costner. That’s it.
The version of the film on this disc is the original theatrical version, which seems bizarre since on video we have already been treated to a widescreen director’s cut containing 17 minutes extra footage and a box-set which also included a documentary, Beyond JFK: A Question of Conspiracy. Such extras would have made for a worthwhile release here, but alas, no such luck here.
For an event that occured over 35 years ago, it’s maddening to find that Warner couldn’t be bothered to include any extras at all here or sort out an anamorphic transfer. The Region 1 DVD may not be anamorphic either but at least they saw the director’s cut version. In fact, since DVD is supposed to be able to hold plenty of information on one disc, why can’t this disc contain both versions and use seamless branching to insert those extra scenes ?
My advice would be to wait for an eventual Special Edition if you care about extras, although £15.99 for a three-hour film alone will hardly break the bank. FILM CONTENT : **** PICTURE QUALITY: **** SOUND QUALITY: **** EXTRAS: 0 ——————————- OVERALL: ***
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.