Year:
2000
Studio:
Warner Bros. Pictures
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
4/5
When I first reviewed The Perfect Storm I thought it was
a great looking movie but that the story itself was quite conjectural
since the people it is about died at sea with nothing left to piece
clues together of what happened. This is a case where a good DVD helps.
The commentary and background material helped me understand why things
were done in certain way. What happens in the film are things that
happened, just not in that particular voyage, and there were also a
couple of radio transmissions from the Andrea Gail that gives us more
clues as to what happened.
In any case, this is a movie about one Gloucester fishing and about one
particular voyage of the Andrea Gail. She happened to run into the
worst storm in recorded history, a combination of three storm fronts
that merged into one massive storm. All hands were lost and the ship
sank during the storm.
What we have in the movie is background about the six people who crewed
the Andrea Gail in her finale voyage. The viewer gets to see what the
commercial fishing life is like. They go into the storm. Rescue efforts
are done and other people are rescued. Conflict and male bonding before
the inevitable destruction (we don't know exactly how the ship was
destroyed so the filmmakers chose a dramatic yet possible sequence).
|
The special
effects are amazing. Industrial Light and Magic did an excellent job
with the water effects. Truly this is a movie that plays much better on
the big screen so that the viewer can appreciate the huge waves and
frightening storm conditions.
George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg once again team up. Clooney plays the
veteran skipper Billy Tyne. Wahlberg plays the youngster Bobby
Shatford. Both do great jobs portraying their roles. Without good
acting and back story, this movie is just special effects and not that
interesting.
The DVD shows the movie in wide-screen format. Three film commentaries
are included. Director Wolfgang Petersen's commentary is sadly a bit
typical of him. He tends to emphasize the special effects, though he
does cover actors and shooting difficulties and the whole process. But
since the second commentary (with ILM Visual Effects Supervisor Stefan
Fangmeier and Visual Effects Producer Helen Elswit) is specifically for
the special effects, Petersen's commentary is repetitive. To be fair,
the first DVD release only had Petersen's commentary, but even then he
does dwell way too much on special effects.
The third commentary is the best. Author Sebastian Junger (who wrote
the book that the movie is based on) talks about life in Gloucester and
gives much more detail about the backgrounds of people and about the
backstories that the movie didn't have time to focus on. Junger is a
bit repetitive at times, saying the same things at varying points of
the movie. But his commentary shows that he is pleased with how the
movie turned out.
Also included are a 20-minute "HBO First-Look", a couple of 5-minute
featurettes, conceptual art, a photo montage, the theatrical trailer,
and some storyboards.
Taken all together this is a good DVD and well worth having.
|