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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Bad Education (Mala educación, La) (2004)

Bad Education (Mala educación, La) (2004)

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Released 4-Aug-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Menu Audio
Deleted Scenes
Gallery-Making Of Montage
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Gallery-Photo-4
DVD-ROM Extras-Press Books
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2004
Running Time 100:54
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (68:16) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Pedro Almodóvar
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Gael García Bernal
Fele Martínez
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Lluís Homar
Javier Cámara
Petra Martínez
Nacho Pérez
Raúl García Forneiro
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $39.95 Music Alberto Iglesias


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Auto Pan & Scan Encoded Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Thousands of films are produced each year, but here in Australia we mainly get fed on a diet of American made movies. The few foreign language films we do get tend to be the crème-de-la-crème of foreign cinema. No exception to this is the movie Bad Education from Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, whose previous films include All About My Mother and Talk to Her which are both excellent films and well worth checking out if you still haven’t seen them.

    Almodóvar has established a reputation for delivering complicated plots, controversial subject matter and extreme characters. Bad Education does not disappoint and those who have enjoyed his previous work are sure to enjoy this new one.

    The plot is a little complicated and contains a few twists which I don’t want to give away, but the story begins when young director Enrique Goded receives an unexpected visit from a young actor claiming to be his old school friend Ignacio Rodríguez whom he has not seen in 16 years. Ignacio has written a story inspired by their childhood in school which included abuse from a priest who claimed to love Ignacio, and who expelled Enrique thus ending their friendship. Ignacio returns to school years later dressed as woman named Zahara to confront the priest and attempt to blackmail him. Ignacio wants Enrique to read the story and to consider making it into a film, but he wants to play the part of Zahara. Enrique believes Ignacio is wrong for the part but in the end reluctantly agrees to his old friend’s request. As Enrique learns more about the story and about his friend Ignacio he finds that things may not be exactly what they appear and his friend Ignacio may be hiding more than a few secrets.

    Gael García Bernal, who came to international prominence with film such as Y tu mamá también and The Motorcyle Diaries, is excellent in the dual role of Ignacio/Zahara. He actually had to learn to speak with a Spanish accent that would be convincing to a Spanish audience (he is Mexican). Fele Martínez is also excellent as Enrique. Nacho Pérez and Raúl García are standouts as the young Ignacio and Enrique respectively in the flashbacks to their school days and are both perfectly cast in their respective roles. The direction by Pedro Almodóvar is outstanding and he manages to expertly bring together a complicated plot that plays around quite a bit with chronology to a satisfying conclusion.

    This is the third film I have seen by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (the other two being All About My Mother and Talk to Her) and I continue to be extremely impressed by this director’s work. The plot is often quite complicated and you will need to concentrate if you wish to understand everything by the end. Those willing to put in the effort will be rewarded by a wonderfully compelling plot, even slightly controversial at times, with a few twists and turns along the way. I have no hesitation is recommending this film to lovers of quality cinema.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality of this DVD really is excellent.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.36:1 (measured) which is very close to the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Some flash back scenes are shown in the reduced aspect ratio of 1.96:1 (measured) which will result in black bars on all sides of the picture. The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is always very sharp and finely detailed. Minute details such as the skin imperfections on the actors' faces are easily discernable in close up and medium shots. Distance shots are also finely detailed, such as at 42:32 which is a shot of a large group of school boys doing exercises in a courtyard. Shadow detail was also excellent. See for example the scene 40 minutes into the movie in a bathroom at night. Dark shadows are perfectly black, while slightly lighter shadows still retain excellent image detail. No low level noise was detected.

    Colours were also extremely well rendered from the bright vibrant colours in Enrique’s office, which are free of any colour bleeding, to the more sombre colour schemes of some of the flashbacks sequences. Colours seem extremely accurate and skin tones always completely natural.

    I found no evidence of MPEG artefacts, film-to-video artefacts or edge enhancement. The print used is extremely clean and I didn’t spot any instances of dirt or marks.

    There is only one subtitle track on the disc which is in English. The subtitles are white and easy to read. As I do not speak any Spanish I can’t confirm how accurate they are.

    The disc is dual-layered and RSDL encoded. The layer change occurs at 68:16 which is a cut between shots.

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

Audio

    The sound quality of the soundtrack is very good.

    This DVD contains only a Spanish (the original language of the film) Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was always clear and seemed easy to understand and I didn’t notice any audio sync issues (although I was probably paying more attention to the subtitles than the actors' lips).

    The score by Alberto Iglesias is very good and helps underpin the emotions and add tension to the on screen action.

    The surrounds, while not used extensively, are very effective when put into action. For example a scene 31 minutes into the movie features a choir singing choral music and the surrounds really envelop the listener with the music. Also, a scene 34 minutes into the movie features a boy singing solo to a group of priests and the surrounds really bring out the echoes and reverberations of the room and really give the listener a great feeling for the cold, hard acoustics of the room.

    The subwoofer again is not used extensively but is very effective when it is. For instance at 39:08 when two boys are hiding in a toilet cubicle from a priest there is great use of the subwoofer to build up tension.

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

Extras

    A modest but interesting collection of extras are included on this DVD.

Menu

    The menus contain static images and are 16x9 enhanced and contain music from the film.

Deleted Scenes (4:37)

    Presented at 2:35:1 and 16x9 enhanced the video quality of these deleted scenes is very good, which is nice to see. There are two scenes that were obviously removed from the early part of the movie because they gave away too much of the story too soon. The dialogue is in Spanish with English Subtitles.

‘Making of’ Montage. (2:20)

    Running for 2:20 this is just a bunch of behind-the-scenes footage of the actual filming with no voice-over or additional interview material.

Trailers/TV Spots

Picture Gallery. (8:52)

    The picture galleries are actually video streams of still images broken into four categories. They are On Set 2:20, Cannes 2004 1:47, Unused Poster Designs 3:58, and Costume Design 0:47.

Press Book

    This is accessed by putting the DVD into your computer's DVD-ROM drive. This is a 21 page PDF document that would have been given to reviewers and the media on release of the film. It actually contains some quite interesting information about the film, its director, cast and crew and is the most substantial extra on this DVD. It’s well worth a read if you have a computer with a DVD-ROM drive.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This film was released theatrically in the US with an NC-17 rating. It was released on DVD in both R and NC-17 versions (see censorship notes). It has also been released in the UK (Region 2). The comparisons below relate to the Uncut NC-17 Region 1 version. There are also various European Region 2 releases but I could not find any reliable information about these in English. At least one of these contains a DTS soundtrack which might be tempting to some viewers.

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on:

    The Unrated Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on:

    The Region 2 version of this DVD misses out on:

    While the 21 page press booklet is very good, with some genuinely fascinating information, the omission of the subtitled audio commentary is disappointing. Reviews of the Region 1 release seem to agree than the audio commentary is very good but it does seem to cover similar territory to information in the press booklet. It’s a close call but I think I’d have to give preference to the Unrated Region 1 Version.

Summary

    Bad Education is a thoroughly enjoyable film combining drama and intrigue. The video and audio transfers are excellent and the DVD contains an interesting collection of extras. I have no hesitations in recommending this DVD.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Gauntlett (read my bio if you're bored.)
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVPNS575-S Progressive Scan, using Component output
DisplaySony KVDR29M31 68cm PROGRESSIVE SCANNING. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderLogitech 5500 THX. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationLogitech 5500 THX
SpeakersLogitech 5500 THX

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