GenQ

ZODIAC: Director's Cut (Paramount Home Entertainment, 2 discs)
RENDITION (New Line Home Entertainment)
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: Collector's Edition (Universal Home Entertainment, 2 discs)

The latest two films starring the talented and bewitching Jake Gyllenhaal are now on DVD.  And incidentally, they are two of my favorite films released in 2007.

ZODIAC is based on two books by Robert Graysmith, the newspaper cartoonist-turned-author played by Jake in the film.  Graysmith chronicled the years-long search for the infamous Zodiac killer who terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and early '70s, and who somehow managed to elude capture despite the fact that authorities had a very strong primary suspect.

Although RENDITION is not a true story per se, it is based on "extraordinary rendition" -- the U.S. government-sanctioned policy of detaining suspected terrorists and extracting information from them by means of increasingly brutal torture.

Both films are ensemble pieces with excellent performances all around.  Jake's role in RENDITION is the showier of the two, and although in the early scenes he does look a bit young for the part, like a kid dressing up in his dad's suit and trying to play with the grown-ups, he grows into the role and gives a memorable performance.  In ZODIAC he doesn't have as much opportunity to stand out but he acquits himself very nicely in tandem with the superb Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo.  (I've always liked Ruffalo in the past, but for some reason in this film he speaks in a soft, breathy murmur that worked my nerves like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard.)  The magnificent Meryl Streep is of course an asset to any movie, and in RENDITION she's thoroughly chilling as the government official who sanctions the abduction and torture of an innocent family man, for reasons resulting from a case of mistaken identity.  Reese Witherspoon elicits our sympathy as the man's increasingly frightened and bewildered wife, and Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard are first-rate as a U.S. Senator and his aide who are ultimately helpless in the situation.

Both films contain scenes of graphic violence, although the ones in ZODIAC are limited to the film's first half-hour and are faithful recreations of the actual murders, as recounted by two of the survivors.  RENDITION depicts torture rather realistically, although these disturbing scenes do not take up too much of the film, which like ZODIAC is mainly dialogue-driven.

There are excellent audio commentaries on both films.  ZODIAC in fact contains two, one by director David Fincher, who flies solo for two-and-a-half hours and manages to impart interesting information the entire time.  The second commentary is a group effort that includes the duo of Gyllenhaal and Downey, who manage to be both informative and amusing, and that eccentric crime novelist extraordinaire James Ellroy, who rightly calls this "one of the all-time great serial killer films."  Disc Two breaks up the extras into two sections, "The Film" and "The Facts" -- both equally fascinating.  Many DVD "making-of" documentaries turn out to be little more than press-kit filler, but that is nowhere near the case here.  "The Film" presents several documentaries that kept me as tightly glued to my chair as the film itself; and the same goes for the two documentaries presented in "The Facts" section.  This Is the Zodiac Speaking presents many of those involved in the actual case, including two (male) survivors and two friends of the prime suspect who suspiciously contradict each other's accounts; and Prime Suspect is a profile of the man who became the prime suspect in the killings -- but who died of a heart attack just before he was to be brought in by the police after years of frustrating investigation.

RENDITION's commentary is by director Gavin Hood, whose great passion for his subject makes his commentary that much more engrossing.  Hood praises his entire cast and crew for their tireless efforts on what was a very trying shoot.  He also implores the viewer -- and rightly so -- to watch Outlawed, a half-hour documentary detailing real-life cases of extraordinary rendition, which was not made for this DVD but which Hood insisted be included.  A second documentary, also running 30 minutes, details the making of the film and is, like the ZODIAC documentaries, above average.

Although it's been available on DVD for over a year, I must also mention the two-disc BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: COLLECTOR'S EDITION, in light of a recent tragic event that has devastated moviegoers all over the world, as well as the fact that it happens to be one of my top-five favorite movies, one of the most famous films ever made and certainly the one for which all four of its leads will be best-remembered.

If you are on this website, you have seen BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (probably more than once) and you do not need me to describe the plot for you.  Suffice to say that it is one of the most beautiful, powerful, haunting and devastating films ever made and, as oft-abused as the term has been, a life-changing experience.  (I can personally attest to that as it has had an enormous impact on my own life.)  For further proof -- if any is needed -- go to www.brokebackmountain.com, click on "Share your story," and start reading.

You also know that the late Heath Ledger (I still can't believe I'm saying that) gives one of the greatest performances ever put on film, and that the other performances, Ang Lee's direction, the writing, cinematography and scoring are all flawless.

As much as I love this film, however, this so-called "collector's edition" is a mixed blessing indeed.

The new featurette A Groundbreaking Success is included on Disc One with the movie.  Music from the Mountain and Impressions from the Film are located on Disc Two along with the four featurettes that originally appeared on 2006's single-disc release.

A Groundbreaking Success features interviews with producer James Shamus along with a couple of the movie's associate producers, as well as Diana Ossana, Ang Lee, and Heath and Jake in clips taken from the film's EPK (electronic press kit).  Several prominent gay journalists, including Alonso Duralde and B. Ruby Rich, are interviewed about the impact of the film and how the right-wing religious homophobes responded to it, as well as the many online parodies that appeared on YouTube and elsewhere (although the gay porn versions, such as Buttcrack Mountain and Bareback Mounting, are not mentioned).

Music from the Mountain contains interviews with composer Gustavo Santaolalla, music producer Kathy Nelson, James Shamus, and several of the artists featured on the album, including Mary McBride and Rufus Wainwright (who claims that his lyric for "Maker Makes" is about a gay man who chooses God over his sexuality -- that sure ain't the way I interpreted that song!!!).  Santaolalla discusses how he crafted various pieces of music to reflect the mood of the scenes in which they are heard, and how he has always believed in making use of silence in his compositions.

Both of these featurettes are very interesting and well done...as far as they go.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that the two of them and Impressions from the Film put together all add up to a grand total of 31 minutes.  Yes, I said thirty-one minutes of new material.  (A Groundbreaking Success runs 17:13, Music from the Mountain is 11:18, and Impressions from the Film clocks in at just 2:34 -- this was touted as "a montage of stills set to music from the film evoking its mood and magic" or words to that effect, but there really isn't time for it to evoke anything other than annoyance and frustration since the photos fly by at a rate of about one second apiece!!!)

So that's it for the new bonus material.  No audio commentary, no deleted scenes, no participation by Ang Lee or any of the actors (again, their interview clips are archival and were not done for this DVD release).  Another disappointment is the absence of the music videos for Rufus Wainwright's "Maker Makes" and Willie Nelson's "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other" (which isn't even mentioned in either of the two new documentaries, not even when they're discussing the parodies).  Both of these videos have been shown on Logo (the American gay cable channel) many times, and both could easily have been included on this DVD -- as could the film's theatrical trailer, which contained glimpses of several scenes which were not in the final film...and which we're apparently never going to be able to see.

As for the four original extras, they're all here on Disc Two and all are worth viewing.  The 2005 Logo special is good to have without the commercials, and the three made-for-DVD featurettes deal with the film's direction, the screenplay, and the process Heath and Jake went through to portray cowboys.

The menus are animated and contain music from the film, but I actually prefer the menus on the original DVD because each menu page had a different piece of music from the score, and here they're all the same.

Eight collectible postcards contain lovely and familiar images from the film, along with selected filmmaker and critic's quotes on the back.  One card is a reproduction of the first one from the film, with the picture of Brokeback on the front and Jack's original note to Ennis ("Friend this letter is long over due" etc. with the September 1967 postmark) on the back.  The DVD packaging itself is also very nicely done, with the double-DVD case enclosed inside an outer slipcover, and is much more attractive than the standard case for the previous, single-disc release.  Frankly, however, this fancy packaging is both a blessing and a curse since it builds anticipation for more substantial content that just isn't here.  If ever a film deserved the deluxe treatment on DVD, it's this one -- but either the cast and creative team were too busy with current projects to be able to participate, or perhaps they'd "moved on" and simply didn't care anymore -- or perhaps Focus and/or Universal didn't want to spend the extra money to have them do new interviews and/or a commentary.  Whatever the reason, this second release represents a major missed opportunity -- and it's a damned shame.  All in all, I'd have to say that this is the lamest excuse for a DVD double-dip I've ever seen.

Tags: Brokeback Mountain, Jake Gyllenhaal