Brokedown Palace (1999) |
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Brokedown Palace (1999) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Biographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
| Running Time | 136:95 (Case: 96) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Jonathan Kaplan |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Claire Danes Kate Beckinsale Bill Pullman Jacqueline Kim Lou Diamond Phillips Daniel Lapaine Tom Amandes Aimee Graham John Doe Kay Tong Lim Henry O Bahni Turpin Amanda De Cadenet |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $31.95 | Music | David Newman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
Croatian Czech Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
"BROKEDOWN PALACE is a journey of self-discovery that transcends guilt or innocence," says the film’s producer, Adam Fields. "It’s a story in which heroism and redemption — and ultimately a great act of valour — emerge from the unlikeliest of sources."
Brokedown Palace is based on a story developed by Adam Fields & David Arata. During Fields' many trips overseas, he noticed flyers plastered wherever westerners might visit asking them to visit their American compatriots in jail. On Fields' last trip to Thailand, he visited 15 American girls in prison. He noticed that they all had one thing in common and that was, and I quote, "being innocent, poor, naive or desperate". And they had all fallen victim in the same manner as the girls in this film do. It was this personal and chilling link that made Fields want to write a story about these poor victims. Fox 2000 Pictures also liked the idea and this film is based loosely on the facts and stories that he picked up from the victims. It is disturbing to think that while I watched this film in the comfort of my own home, girls not unlike the main characters are huddling on cold cement floors with nothing to do but to relive that fateful mistake over and over in their minds.
Alice Marano (Claire Danes) and Darlene Davis (Kate Beckinsale) are two happy-go-lucky teenagers that have been best friends since they were toddlers. Now that they are approaching the end of High School, they want to plan something to do after their school break-up. They are also a little concerned that for once they may be going separate ways into either college or the workforce and will not have each other to lean on when things get rough. It is with this in mind that they want what they plan to be extra special, and the planned holiday to Hawaii is looking a little boring and unadventurous. They decide upon Thailand as their destination of choice - after all, Thai means freedom which is the very thing the girls are looking for. But, their biggest mistake is to not tell either set of parents about their new plans.
One hot day, the girls slip into a 5-star resort for drinks and a swim as their modest accommodation has no such luxuries. When asked for a room number to charge their bill to, the girls pick a number that can easily be checked. Just before they are destined for a night of cleaning dishes, or worse, they are rescued by Nick Parks (Daniel Lapaine), a hotel guest.
The trio strike up a friendly relationship and when Nick has to leave Bangkok for Hong Kong on business he asks the girls to follow a few days later for some more fun. Unfortunately, they only get as far as the Bangkok airport when they are both arrested for trafficking heroin and thrown in a Thai jail. This is where the storyline blurs and you have to start piecing the evidence together to try and work out whether the drugs were planted or whether either Alice or Darlene had taken the drugs willingly.
Henry Greene (Bill Pullman) is an American lawyer who lives in Thailand, hears of their plight, and decides to take on their case in an attempt to help the girls. At every turn, he faces more corruption within the system and the chance of either girl ever being released appears more and more remote.
The 3 main actors, Bill Pullman, Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale all put in some wonderful performances and this movie has turned out to be quite a hidden treasure. If I had seen it at the video store or in the shop I would have most likely skipped it completely. The dingy jail setting played an important part in psychologically making the viewer want to see the girls make it out as soon as possible. Having never seen one for myself, it is exactly how I do imagine them to be.
During my trips to Asia, drug trafficking, and more specifically having drugs planted in my luggage always makes me paranoid. Locked Samsonite hard suitcases are a must with me and hand luggage that has pockets is closely checked before I leave the cab and step into the airport. Maybe it's overkill, but I travel a lot calmer when I go through the routine. This story is about 2 naive girls that do not have the same travel concerns, or maybe they just trust people too much when they get mixed up with Nick.
If you know of any teenager that is travelling to Asia shortly then I think it is a must to sit them in front of this movie. If they need even more convincing, then Midnight Express should knock any remaining blasé feelings out of them.
The film exhibits qualities that make it easy to watch. Edges for the most part are sharp with a clean break between objects. Shadow detail is also handled precisely, which is just as well because the scenes in the jail are quite often shot with minimal lighting for added effect. However, at 17:02 there was one point where the level of detail was very poor in comparison to the rest of the film, although at all times you can make out the actors' faces or the main point of the camera's shot. Some scenes show reduced detail in the background, but these are constrained to crucial storyline sections so I feel this was an intentional cinematographic technique to maintain your focus on the character and to provide more of a sombre and unsettling tone in concert with what the actors are portraying at the time. There is no low level noise.
The colours are quite rich with balanced and natural looking skin tones and hues. The scenes around the pool are especially colourful, as the actors and extras are bathed in strong natural sunlight. The prison scenes exhibit more of a drab appearance with colours muted, no doubt to add to the overall visual effect of an almost lifeless prison.
There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is very rare and very mild when it does occur. Film artefacts are also very rare and when they do make an appearance they are not distracting at all.
The English subtitles are close to the spoken word, but are not exact. During the Thai speaking sections of the film there are no English subtitles, which actually helps the film. If you think about it, the girls do not know what is being said to them nor what the guards or police are saying. The viewer, too, does not have the assistance of subtitles and is thus put into the same boat as Alice and Darlene. You have to go by the tone and body language, some of which is all-too-easy to understand.
This disc is a single layered disc, so therefore there is no layer change.
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There is a singular English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack on this DVD.
The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times and I noticed no hiss. Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.
The musical score by David Newman befitted this feature and helped to change the viewer's feelings towards the actors. The music is quite a lot louder than the dialogue, but it never drowns out the dialogue and instead quietens down when dialogue is required. Also included are contemporary songs from artists and bands such as Nelly Furtado ("Party's Just Begun"), Solar Twins ("Rock The Casbah"), Leonardo's Bride ("Even When I'm Sleeping") and others.
This is predominantly a front soundstage heavy movie with very few specific instances where the rears were called into action. When they were though, such as at 43:15, they worked in unison with the front soundstage to provide a totally enveloping effect as the crowd cheered at the boxing match. Everywhere you turned your head you could hear the sound of hundreds of combined voices each wanting to make themselves heard over the person standing next to them.
The subwoofer was lightly used and the example above was also when the subwoofer was mostly noticed. For the most part, its absence was not troubling.
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This section offers a brief biography of the main actors and their movie careers on static text pages. There is also a photo of each person placed on a passport graphic. The actors shown here are;
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
Brokedown Palace will keep your attention for the whole feature and at times will have you on the edge of your seat as the girls' fate is decided upon time after time. By the end you are given a sobering and probably realistic presentation of the hardships involved over what is really a simple mistake, but an avoidable one nonetheless.
The video quality is great and the transfer is a pleasure to watch.
The audio quality is also good with no problems of note.
The extras are poor in quantity.
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| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Denon DVD-1600, using RGB output |
| Display | Loewe Aconda 9381ZW. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Denon AVR-2802 Dolby EX/DTS ES Discrete |
| Speakers | Whatmough Classic Series C31 (Mains); C06 (Centre); M10 (Rears); Magnat Vector Needle Sub25A Active SubWoofer |