Fearless (1993) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	121:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,4	Directed By	Peter Weir
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jeff Bridges Isabella Rossellini Rosie Perez Tom Hulce John Turturro
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Maurice Jarre

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    From the horrific aftermath of a plane crash into a corn field, amidst all the burning wreckage, a man emerges with a young boy and a baby in his arms, leading a group of survivors.

    The experience changes the man's perspective on life. His name is Max Klein (Jeff Bridges), and even though his business partner Jeff Gordon (played by John de Lancie - ST:TNG's "Q") died in the accident and everyone around him is shell-shocked, Max behaves normally and is seemingly unaffected by the carnage around him. In fact, his behaviour is so normal it's spooky.

    Max catches a taxi and checks into a hotel room. He then rents a car, and drives back to Los Angeles, stopping on the way to visit an old friend. He doesn't even bother to ring his wife Laura (Isabella Rossellini) to let her and their kids know he is okay.

    Soon we realise Max is anything but okay. The accident has left him "fearless" and he now feels he is invulnerable. He takes every opportunity to court death, including driving his car at high speeds, crossing a busy highway without looking left or right, standing on the edge of a roof, and eating strawberries whenever he can even though he has a potentially fatal allergic reaction to them.

    The airline hires a psychiatrist specialising in post-accident trauma to check out all the survivors. Dr. Bill Perlman (John Turturro) is worried about Max and tries to get him out of his mental state by introducing him to another survivor, Carla Rodrigo (Rosie Perez) who is tormented by grief (and guilt) over the loss of her baby in the accident. The two survivors develop an unlikely friendship.

    The religious connotations in this film are strong with themes of salvation and redemption permeating throughout. Max is a Christ-like figure who is perceived by his fellow human beings as somewhat of a saint and a hero through his efforts at saving them in the plane crash, and yet he himself refuses to acknowledge his good deed. The small boy whom he rescued, Byron (Daniel Cerny), worships him and has an overwhelming desire to stay close to him even months after the accident. Many other survivors seem to regard him as some sort of guiding angel.

    Early on in the film, Max is showering and notices the only damage he suffered from the plane crash is a small cut in the side of his body. Later on when Max and Carla visit a church, we notice that the figurine of Christ at the altar has exactly the same cut on the same part of the body. In many of his actions, Max seems to have become an other-wordly figure who appears to be suffering for our sins. He reacts strongly, almost with a panic attack, when he is coerced into lying about his recollection of the accident by the lawyer Brillstein (Tom Hulce) in order to strengthen the case for the lawsuit that his wife and his late partner's wife Nan (Deirdre O'Connell) are bringing against the airline.

    And yet, despite his saint-like persona, the relationship between Max and his wife is breaking as Laura is having difficulties adjusting to Max's change in personality. This can be seen to be another symbol of Max's growing detachment from the world of the living.

    If Max can be characterised as having taken one step towards heaven, Carla seems to have taken one step towards hell. She seems to be living in a continual torment due to her grief and guilt over the death of her baby whom she calls "Bubbles." Can Max "save" her? More importantly, who can save Max?

    This is a brilliant and powerful film from Australian director Peter Weir and definitely worth watching multiple times as each repeated viewing will bring forth fresh insight into the powerful symbolism present underneath the plot. The screenplay is by Rafael Yglesias, based on his novel.

    The air plane crash scenes are frighteningly realistic and guarantee that this film will never be shown as an in-flight movie.

Video

    This is a 1.33:1 transfer, based on a 35mm print with an intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Although there is a warning displayed during the disc intro that the film has been "formatted to fit your screen," I suspect the transfer is actually in full frame/open matte rather than Pan & Scan based on the framing of most scenes. Still, it would have been nicer to have a widescreen transfer. Oh, and did I mention this is another NTSC transfer based on the Region 1 version of this title? Plus, we have a two hour film that has just managed to fit onto a single sided single layered disc.

    Despite all the above, this is quite a good transfer with strong levels of detail. For example, the pattern of the bath mat is clearly visible around 5:57-6:12, as well as the fabric weave pattern around 7:42-7:48 and the names of towns on the map around 8:32-8:39.

    Similarly, colour saturation is reasonable given the age of the film. Certain scenes look a bit dark and lacking in shadow detail, but otherwise the transfer seems okay.

    The condition of the film source is good. There are a few white and black marks here and there, for example a white speck around 7:22. Grain is present throughout the transfer at low to moderate levels, but never to the point of annoyance.

    There are some instances of ringing from edge enhancement, but otherwise this transfer is thankfully devoid of compression artefacts.

    There are no subtitle tracks.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks: English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s), and French Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s). I listened to the English audio track.

    I would have expected this to be a dialogue focused film, but surprisingly there are quite a lot of Foley effects, including (obviously) sound effects from the plane crashing, but also wind, traffic noises, background ambience and so forth.

    The surround channels are quite well utilised throughout the transfer to provide a pleasing enveloping effect. I also detected several instances of front to rear pans.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout, even during scenes when the characters were whispering. I did not detect any issues with audio synchronization.

    The original music score is by Maurice Jarre and is dark, atmospheric and orchestral. I also remembered a scene of a car travelling along the highway where they featured an excerpt from the U2 song "Where The Streets Have No Name."

    Overall I would rate this a decent and pleasant, albeit unexceptional, audio track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This disc was originally released on Region 1 as a bare bones, low priced title. Since the Region 4 transfer is identical, we also get absolutely no extras whatsoever.

Menu

    Full frame and static.

    The Region 1 and 4 versions of this disc are identical, right down to the FBI copyright messages.

    Fearless is a very thoughtful, symbolic film about a man whose perspective on life changes after he survives a plane crash. It really deserves better treatment on DVD than this bare bones effort.

    The video transfer is in NTSC and is full frame/open matte.

    The audio transfer is okay.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall