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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 06299 DVD
- Running time: 89 minutes
- Year: 1997
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 31 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing, French, Dutch
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £5.99
- Extras:Trailer
Director:
- Jonathan Mostow
(Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers, Breakdown, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, U-571, TV: From the Earth to the Moon)
Producers:
- Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis
Screenplay:
- Jonathan Mostow and Sam Montgomery
Music :
- Basil Poledouris
Cast :
- Jeff Taylor: Kurt Russell
Warren ‘Red’ Barr: J.T. Walsh
Amy Taylor: Kathleen Quinlan
Earl: M.C. Gainey
Billy: Jack Noseworthy
Sheriff Boyd: Rex Linn
Al: Ritch Brinkley
Deputy Len Carvey: Kim Robillard
Bartender: Jack McGee
Breakdownis one of those rare films, likeThe Bourne Identity,that somehow I knew exactly how it was going to start and that, coupled with an excellentpremise, meant I knew I was in for a cinematic treat.
As the movie begins, Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan)are driving across country and in the back of beyond to get to a new location and new jobs. Eeriemusic seeps out of the speakers as theirs is the only car out on the road and the seemingly-randomlines amongst the opening credits give way to a rather barren A-Z of the road.
While taking his eyes off the road for a second, they rejoin the highway to find a beaten-up hicktruck in front of his shiny new car, causing Jeff to brake and swerve. A cuss from the other’s ownerand they’re on their way. As if by chance, they happen across the hicks at the next chance to takea stop. All is not lost just yet though, until… their car breaks down. Without a garage or any kindof sign of life for miles, they’re stuffed until a friendly truck driver, Red Barr (the late J.T. Walsh,one of those prolific actors who never got the A-list recognition he deserved when he died of a heart attack,aged 54), stops and offers them a lift to Belle’s Diner, five miles down the road so they can call atow-truck.
But as there’s two of them, and one needs to stay with the car just in case, Amy goes off with Red.Thirty minutes later, Jeff’s sick of waiting around and has a look under his car to find it’s somethingfar more simple than he thought, because it’s a new car and the problem isn’t down to the usual wear andtear. Problem solved, Jeff sets off to meet his wife except… she’s not there. And no-one saw her either.
Pardon? How can that be? None of this is making any sense to Jeff. He’s advised to head for the nearesttown which is 20 miles away, but on the way comes across Red’s truck and forces him to stop. On askingwhat’s happened to his wife, Red denies all knowledge of them having met, or the whereabouts of his wife.As a police car stops in the course of their fruitless conversation, the officer doesn’t appear to beof much help either, suggesting his wife might have left him and sends the trucker on his way, recommendingJeff files a missing person’s report at the not-so nearby police station.
What follows as Jeff travels from place to place in search of his wife, and encounters the hicks onmore than one occasion, is a masterpiece of suspense. He’s put in the most incredible of frustratingsituations as he eventually gets towards the truth, and to go into detail about that here would robyou of its fascinating content.
What stops this film getting full marks is that, despite the great car/truck chases and altercations,it does use cliched situations – mostly towards the end – and doesn’t have the greatest of dialogueexchanges between Jeff and Amy before she disappears, but these can be forgiven for the excellencethat is onscreen, and given the kind of things that happen to Jeff, you never know what really couldhappen when you venture down the wrong path. After all, the characters in Deliverance also wentthrough some nasty experiences, but life can lead you into some strange situations.
I could also add that as director Jonathan Mostow has proved with Breakdown that he can makea taut, engaging thriller, just what was he playing at with the nonsense that wasTerminator 3last summer?
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, there are occasional scratches on the print, mostly during theopening credits, but nothing that would concern the majority of viewers from the usual viewing distance.Mostow also puts in an expert job of framing the movie in this ratio, whether it’s the chase sequencesor the tension building up while all is quiet. I know that as this is seven years old, now, it’s beenon TV a couple of times and shown no wider than 16:9. It really is high time that the terrestrial channelsgot with reality and realised that viewers are used to 2.35:1 through DVDs, and a pseudo-2.35:1 effectfrom pop videos and adverts, so stopped cropping in this way. BBC2 and Channel 4 used to show films properly,several years ago, but stopped a while back, and more recently even Sky One have started to broadcastfilms in their correct ratio, such as Terminal Velocity andPulp Fiction.
Soundwise, the Dolby Digital 5.1 is used to great effect, like the picture framing, for the scorebringing in tension at the right time while going all guns blazing as the action hots up. Rears areused equally well here too, and there’s a great example of noise and directional effects at the startof chapter 17 as a train crosses the track with the camera seemingly having its nose pushed up againstit.
The only thing this DVD release is lacking is worthy extras. All we get here is a trailer in 4:3,the framing of which shows that it doesn’t look as bad as expected due to the film being shotin Super 35, but, still, why tamper with the original? Oh, and if you haven’t seen the traileryet, don’t watch it until you’ve seen the film as it gives too much away.
Other than that, the menu is still and silent, there are subtitles in English for the hard of hearing,French and Dutch, and whoever put in the chapters excelled themselves with a total of 31.
BTW, the German DVD included a behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews with cast and crew and aphoto gallery. I know this is only a budget release now, but Fox still could’ve made an effort.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
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.