Skip to content
Traveta reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 08283
- Running time: 110 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 28
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: Spanish
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $29.95
- Extras: Director and cinematrographer commentary,making-of featurette, storyboard comparisons,theatrical trailers, scene selections, interactivemenus.
Director:
- Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay:
- Guillermo del Toro, Antonio Trashorras and David Munoz
Cast:
- Jacinto: Eduardo Noriega
Carmen: Marisa Paredes
Casares: Federico Luppi
Jaime: Inigo Garces
Carlos: Fernando Tielve
Conchita: Irene Visedo
Alma: Berta Ojea
El Puerco (Pig): Fransisco Maestre
Marcelo: Jose Manuel Lorenzo
Santi: Junio Valverde
The back of the boxtouts this is the Spanish equivalent ofThe Sixth Senseor The Others. I would have to agree with them but it should have saidthat it is better than them. The Devil’s Backbone succeedswhere Sixth Sense failed in providing a sense of fearin everyone. Everyone in the film is scared no matterwhat they show. Most are afraid of a living man butthe children are afraid of both the man and the ghost.
The Devil’s Backbone tells the story of a boy’s schoolin Spain during the Spanish Civil War. A young boynamed Carlos is suddenly left there against his will.During his first day he encounters the school bullynamed Jaime. Throughout the film though he sees aghost who seems like a child and Carlos becomescurious. He finally discovers that it is a child, achild that “ran away” from the school named Santi.
Carlos befriends the bully who reveals the death ofSanti. The kids are all afraid of caretaker, Jacinto, whohas a plan of his own as there is gold buried withinthe school.
I don’t want to tell you too much eventhough I might have. It’s a very good film and it’stoo bad this wasn’t a wide release or anything becauseit deserves the same ammount of success of The Sixth Sense or The Others.
Into the disc. The picture is very good. I wassuprised at how bright it was and how the dark sceneswere very black. I expected a lot of compressionartifacts in the dark scenes but there were none. The sceneswhere the school is in darkness look very good. Therewere also some scenes where the desert and a clearblue sky were shown that looked great. This isprobably one of the best transfers I’ve seen sinceO Brother, Where Art Thou?The only gripe is that I noiced compression artifacts in one scene. ONE SCENEwhich was only a few seconds so I’m not going to dock it at all.
The sound on the disc is also very good. My only gripeis that they should have included an english dub aswell since alot of people don’t really like to “read”a film. I only say this because I want this movie toreach a larger audience than it might. But the Spanishtrack is great. There are a lot of vibrations when theghost is around which are conveyed well and whispersand such. A very good track from Columbia.
The extras are suprising as well. Normally whenforiegn movies are released on DVD they have no extrasat all. The Brotherhood of the Wolf is being releasedhere on October 1st and it has none but does include anEnglish-dubbed dialogue track at least. The commentary features del Toroand the cinematographer, while the making-of featurette (subtitled) is veryinteresting. It also includes storyboards and trailers as well.
Overall, I was very suprised by this film. The Devil’sBackbone was the first Spanish film I’ve ever seen andit was a very good one at that. This disc is definitely worth checking out.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLEmailTraveta
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.