Donnie Brasco

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1997	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	126 minutes	Other Extras	Cast & Crew Interviews Featurette - Untitled (7 mins) Cast Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (83:10)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	4	Director	Mike Newell
Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Al Pacino Johnny Depp Michael Madsen Bruno Kirby James Russo Anne Heche
RRP	$34.95	Music	Patrick Doyle

    Donnie is befriended by Lefty (Al Pacino) and he becomes Lefty's protégé. The movie concentrates on developing the characters involved, and particularly concentrates on the effect that the long-term deep undercover operation has on Donnie Brasco's "real" life, and the blurring between right and wrong and good and evil that occurs. Anne Heche is excellent in a supporting role as Maggie, Donnie's real-life wife.

    Both Johnny Depp and Al Pacino bring great depth of character to their respective roles, aided by an excellent script. The only minor criticism I have of this film is that it tended to drag a little in the early parts of the movie. From about 1/3rd of the way in, however, it certainly kept me on the edge of my seat.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was absolutely crystal clear and razor sharp at all times. Shadow detail was magnificent, and not a scrap of low level noise marred the transfer at any point.

    The colours were all perfectly saturated, varying from vivid when necessary to muted when appropriate. There was never any trace of colour bleeding.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of very trivial aliasing in one jail scene with a grille which was almost unnoticeable. The transfer was pristine, with very rare film artefacts, able to be counted on the fingers of one hand.

    This disc is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 83:10, between Chapters 28 and 29. This is the worst layer change I have seen to date on any disc. It is preceded by an artificial fade-to-black and fade-to-silence, then there is a little blurt of sound, and then the layer change occurs. Fortunately, even though the layer change is very noticeable, it does not disrupt the flow of the movie. It certainly beats having to get up and flip the disc over.

Audio

    Dialogue was a bit of a problem with this movie, especially early on, where it was quite hard to hear over ambient noise, but this improved after the first 30 minutes or so. Chapter 17, from 44:55 - 47:13 was marginally out of sync, but only if you looked closely. There is a minor pop in the audio bitstream at 2:05. Overall, I found that the level this movie was recorded at was a little on the low side. I left the volume setting alone, but was tempted to boost it by some 5 dB to bring it up to my usual listening level.

    The musical score was written by Patrick Doyle, and consists of serious-sounding music which accompanies the movie nicely. In addition, a number of classic 80s hits grace the soundtrack, and will bring back many pleasant memories.

     The surround channels were frequently utilized for music, special effects and ambience. An aggressive enveloping presence was created by this soundtrack, right from the very beginning, and sustained throughout the entire length of the movie. Ambience, in particular, is often present, both indoors and outdoors. Unfortunately, at times this made the dialogue a little difficult to hear clearly, however, this was not a major problem, just a minor irritation.

    The .1 channel was reasonably used for music and for effects, such as gunshots.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Featurette - Untitled

Cast & Crew Interviews

Cast Biographies

    The video quality is the best I have seen to date.

    The audio quality is generally very good, and very enveloping, with only minor problems with dialogue intelligibility.

    The extras are standard Roadshow Home Entertainment fare, but reasonably well presented.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
15th January 1999