Read my review of EDGE OF DARKNESS
This dark thriller is filled with shadow and muted colors and the Blu-ray edition keeps true to that feel. Cinematographer Phil Meheux doesn’t do anything fancy with the look of the film, giving the photography a filmed 1970s vibe just like the story represents. The details and color balance is good, especially the dark range, which suits the film well. Natural film grain is present, but not distracting. Depth of field isn’t eye-popping, but that’s the nature of the film. It’s funny that an alternative scene on a golf course, which was part of the special features, contained the most attention grabbing color and three-dimensionality. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is decently immersive for a film that doesn’t rely on heavy action or orchestration. There isn’t a great reliance on the rear speakers or the LFE, but they come into play at key moments of intense violence throughout the film and help create the dynamic effect the director Martin Campbell was going for. Howard Shore’s score is a subtle presence throughout the film, acting as a supporting character and never drawing too much attention to itself. For this kind of gritty straight-forward thriller, the picture and audio presentation are pretty first class.
As for the special features, the disc contains a few deleted and alternative scenes and nine quick “making of” featurettes. As mentioned earlier, the most interesting deleted scenes are actually alternative scenes. The golf course scene mentioned above finds Ray Winstone’s mysterious agent meeting with a government lackey on a golf course. For the film, that brightly colored lengthier scene was replaced with a shadowy meeting in the most intimidating parking structure on Earth. Interesting how the alternative version didn’t work for tone and length reasons, but the scene in the film felt clichéd. Another interesting alternative scene is one where Mel Gibson confronts Danny Huston’s slimy corporate exec in his car. The alternative scene is straight-forward and kind of boring, while the scene in the film is quick and powerful. The first is more realistic, but what made it into the film was far more dynamic and fit with the beats of the film better. The "Focus Point" featurettes include "Thomas Craven's War of Attrition," "Mel's Back," "Director Martin Campbell," "Making a Ghost Character Real," "Boston as a Character," "Adapting the Edge of Darkness Miniseries," "Revisiting the Edge of Darkness Miniseries," "Edge of Your Seat" and "Scoring the Film.” The featurettes cover the production pretty well, but nothing goes into too much depth. Campbell went for subtly. Gibson went for subtly. Shore went for subtly. That’s pretty much an overview of it. I did find the two featurettes covering the adaptation of the miniseries and how they pared it down and changed the focus from political intrigue to Gibson’s Craven to be the most compelling.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
