Well-produced DVDs — with their behind-the-scenes features and director’s commentaries — are often touted as a “film school in a box.” And while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has never been known for its perfect track record choosing the right movie or the right performance in its annual Oscar awards, the Tuesday DVD release of “A Beautiful Mind” is a good opportunity to look at the Best Picture winner and the DVD versions of other 2001 winners.
Here’s a roundup of last year’s major Academy Award-winning movies and the DVD features that help show why each movie won in its category. Except where noted, each DVD is currently available.
`A Beautiful Mind’
Picture, Director (Ron Howard), Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly), Adapted Screenplay (Akiva Goldsman)
This two-disc set takes us into Howard’s decision-making process (“Mistakes made in casting can never be rectified”) with a full menu of behind-the-scenes features and commentaries. The interview features seem a bit too produced (do we really need the movie’s title propped in the background?), and many of the features have that HBO “The Making of . . . ” flavor.
In both movie-length commentaries from Howard and Goldsman, they talk at length about the delicate balance they tried to maintain between telling the story of mathematics genius John Nash’s battle with mental illness and keeping the audience off balance about where the film is headed. Howard focuses on how he created certain rules that maintained the film’s conceit without giving too much away about the film’s twist, especially in a warehouse scene with equipment that viewers may sense was too advanced for its time.
Connelly’s segment is straightforward, mostly Howard talking about casting her after looking at “hundreds” of actresses. There is a collection of clips from ABC on Oscar night, where Connelly’s backstage speech puts her in a much better light than her fuzzy onstage ramble. DVD extras rating (for features that deepen knowledge and appreciation of the movie): 3 1/2 stars. (Michael Wilmington’s original rating: 3 1/2 stars.)
`Training Day’
Actor (Denzel Washington)
There’s the increasingly pro-forma “Making of” feature and director Antoine Fuqua’s commentary, and not much else to recommend, especially no real insight into Washington’s performance as a bad cop on the mean streets of L.A. DVD extras rating: 1 star. (Wilmington’s rating: 3 stars.)
`Monster’s Ball’
Actress (Halle Berry)
Here’s a case where the filmmakers didn’t know what they had while they were making the film or the DVD extras. It’s Billy Bob Thornton, not Berry, who dominates the feature-length commentary. He talks glowingly about her performance, including a jail-house scene where she takes her son to see his father for the last time and refuses to look her husband in the eye, still furious at him for 11 years of such trips.
Berry does offer some insights into her role, as a woman through whom Thornton learns to leave behind the racist ways of his father in the Deep South. Her most difficult scene was when she confronted — and hit — her son for sneaking junk food. “It was really rough,” she said. “He is a sweet boy, struggling himself with issues of obesity, and I worried I would harm him.” But as far as any real understanding of what she did to capture so many rave reviews, there’s far too little to grab onto. DVD extras rating: 2. (Mark Caro’s original rating: 2 1/2 stars.)
`Iris’
Supporting Actor (Jim Broadbent)
Miramax Home Entertainment plans to release this DVD Aug. 20 and is still developing special features for this love story of novelist Iris Murdoch (Judi Dench) and John Bayley (Broadbent). (Wilmington’s rating: 3 stars.)
`Shrek’
Animated Feature
This highly popular two-disc DVD has a wealth of emersive features that go deep into the animation process used in this fairy-tale parody about a green ogre and the princess he saves. They range from the routine (yes, another “Making of” feature), to the Tech of Shrek, which is still a tad too “wow, we did something really cool” but also peels off (literally) layers of animation to explain how the filmmakers build the characters and how those characters move.
Also fascinating are the progression of how the characters look (there are some truly nasty versions of Shrek) and the segment on technical goofs, where some part of the computer-animation process blows up and Donkey becomes a walking ball of fuzz, or Shrek becomes invisible. When a film like this looks effortless, it’s helpful to see the mistakes (unlike Disney’s faux blooper reels). DVD extras rating: 4. (Caro’s rating: 2 1/2 stars.)
`Moulin Rouge’
Art Direction, Costume Design
For DVD extras, this is a rich and hip two-disc package that covers a lot of ground in the over-the-top spirit of the movie, especially in the areas where the Baz Luhrmann film about bohemians in old Paris won its Oscars. Frequent Luhrmann collaborator Catherine Martin, whose production design and costume design (shared with Angus Strathie) was honored, is a major presence in the movie-length commentary and in special segments on design and costuming. She explains how they used sets and models to shoot many scenes and has a great insight into the dresses worn by the Moulin Rouge dancers: “We were creating a world of entertainment under women’s dresses.”
There are also insights into how the filmmakers constructed what they called “real artificiality” and with additional DVD features, they are able to deconstruct scenes such as the Bollywood/Marilyn Monroe tribute “Hindi Sad Diamonds” that is the visual climax of the movie. DVD extras rating: 4 stars. (Wilmington’s rating: 4 stars)
`The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’
Cinematography, Makeup, Music/Score, Visual Effects
Fine Line Home Entertainment plans to release a two-DVD set of “Lord” on Aug. 6, followed by a four-disc set Nov. 12. The initial release promises three programs that go behind the scenes during the making of “Fellowship,” a DVD-ROM with online links and a 10-minute behind-the-scenes preview of the next film, “The Two Towers.” The November release adds six hours of material, including an extended (by 30 minutes) version of the movie and more extras that are supposed to focus more on director Peter Jackson and how his team created the effects that won them the Oscars. (Wilmington’s rating: 4 stars.)
`No Man’s Land’
Foreign Language Film
If the best insight into an Oscar — especially one for directing (which is really what this award honors) — is the film itself, then “No Man’s Land” is a minimalist delight. There are no extra features in this edition. DVD extras rating: 0 stars. (Wilmington’s rating: 4 stars.)
`Monsters, Inc.’
Music/Song
Disney plans to release the computer-animated hit about how monsters mine energy from scaring kids on Sept. 17 in a two-disc set that includes a featurette on “If I Didn’t Have You,” the Randy Newman song that broke his streak of more than a dozen Oscar losses. Disc two — divided into “Monster World” (where viewers will “join” the company) and “Human World” (with a behind-the-scenes look at the creative company Pixar) — will also include DVD-ROM games and outtakes. (Caro’s rating: 3 1/2 stars.)
`Black Hawk Down’
Sound, Film Editing
While the typically rich and dense Ridley Scott DVD puts a home theater system through its paces showing the U.S. Army Rangers mission in Somalia, the DVD extras account for little more than an on-the-set feature that sheds little light on the audio and visual. DVD extras rating: 1 star. (Wilmington’s rating: 3 1/2 stars.)
`Gosford Park’
Original Screenplay
This is a movie (the DVD release is Tuesday) that improves with repeated viewings, and one of them should be with the subtitles on. Robert Altman’s multilayered soundtracks have so much going on that even in 5.1 surround sound, key lines and plot points can zip right by.
The DVD features are modest, but well-chosen, again including the “Making of” feature but also smart features like one that details how Altman kept the roles of the valets, butlers and cooks authentic by keeping three veterans of the era on the set.
Julian Fellowes’ feature-length commentary is long on details of the society featured in the film (with its Agatha Christie-like murder mystery) but somewhat short on the craft of screenwriting. An exception is how he details how people cluster and then drift away just before the murder, and how a clue is revealed in a cup of coffee. DVD extras rating: 3 1/2 stars. (Wilmington’s rating: 4 stars.)
`Pearl Harbor’
Sound Editing
Despite the negative reviews when it was released in theaters, the two-disc DVD has sold quite well since it was released in December. On July 2, Buena Vista Home Entertainment is releasing a four-disc set (which includes a discount coupon for those with the earlier version) that features the more graphic “Director’s Cut” (rated R; the original was PG-13) and hours of oral histories with survivors, documentaries on how the movie was made and historical looks at the attack.
On disc four is a feature “Deconstructing Destruction,” which dives deep into the highly praised attack sequence. By using various options, the layers of sound that helped George Waters II and Christopher Boyes win the Sound Editing Oscar can be stripped down to just those recorded on the set, or those recorded later. Better yet, the movie can be viewed separately or simultaneously from three different perspectives: finished movie, on the set, and storyboards/animatics. It’s a fascinating peek into moviemaking, but we can only hope they never take that much time and effort to explore the wooden love triangle between Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale. DVD extras rating: 4 stars. (Wilmington’s rating: 2 1/2 stars.)
