The Sweet Hereafter (Beyond Home Ent) (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	113:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Atom Egoyan
Studio Distributor	Alliance Communictns Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Ian Holm Caerthan Banks Sarah Polley Tom McCamus Gabrielle Rose Alberta Watson Maury Chaykin Stephanie Morgenstern Kirsten Kieferle Arsinée Khanjian Earl Pastko Simon Baker David Hemblen
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$24.95	Music	Mychael Danna

    The Sweet Hereafter, a 1998 film from Canadian master Atom Egoyan, is a classic movie. Justly regarded as one of the most compelling and insightful dramas of the 1990s it has not previously received a stellar DVD treatment in Region 4. This latest release, unfortunately, dredges a cinematic trench and buries the film.

Egoyan is a lover of the darkness at the edge of the sitting room. His early features, particularly Family Viewing, have a stillness and quiet desperation that are palpable. No better source could exist for an Egoyan film than the novel, The Sweet Hereafter, by Russell Banks. Banks is himself obsessed with tortured lives. His book Affliction was memorably filmed by Paul Schrader and dealt with a man reconciling himself to an abusive upbringing. The Sweet Hereafter is the tale, based on truth, of a bus crash which deprives a small US town of its future - the children.

The film is a personal favourite with a stunning but chilly backdrop and a complex emotional journey for the characters, in particular Ian Holm as a personal injury lawyer who has reached a crisis in his life.

That said, the version of the film provided by Beyond is frankly not worth viewing and certainly not worth reading or writing about.

To explain - the film was released in Region 4 some years ago in a transfer cropped from the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It drew some criticism at the time for the inevitable compromise of the filmmakers vision. Reviewer ChrisT found it had several shortcomings but was still worth a watch. Imagine my horror, then, to see that the film has been further cropped to a full frame 4:3 for this release. The image quality is (the only plus) slightly better than the original Region 4 release and the sound barely dribbles out at 192Kb/s.

Not every cropped transfer is a disaster.Plenty of films still manage to convey the directors intention even with the missing elbow room. However, Agoyan made this film in widecreen for a reason - to give the environment around his characters a presence. That presence is gone. The fact that I still made it to the end is a tribute to the film and not the DVD.

I urge you to watch the film but I doubly urge you not to watch this version. Buy it from the US.

Video

    As said, the film was projected at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Three screenshots below show how the creators of this and the previous transfer gradually chopped away at the film.

Although the scene shown is not particularly visual you can see how the conversation between the two has been made intimate by the cropping and assumed pan&scan. Another two shots show how much visual information has been lost just between the two Region 4 versions.

Region 1 release in Original Aspect Ratio

First Region 4 release

Pan & Scan Beyond Release

First Region 4 release

Pan & Scan Beyond Release

On the positive side the transfer looks sharper that the previous Region 4 incarnation. The film is crammed onto a DVD5 which means that compression is still a factor. The print is clean enough and there are no technical problems with the film.

There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    As said the sound for the film is English Dolby Digital 2.0 strolling at 192 Kb/s.

The Region 1 version has a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The previous Region 4 had a 2.0 track. Although the film is mostly in dialogue there is a subtle ambience to it that would, I imagine, benefit from a surround track.

As it is the track is adequate but not remarkable.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Not a hint of an extra!

    Comparing versions is like comparing truffles to toadstools. The Region 1 version has the following extras:

• Correct Aspect Ratio and 5.1 Sound
• Feature length commentary with Atom Egoyan and Russell Banks
• Video discussion with Banks and Egoyan on the book and the film
• Q & A interviews with members of the cast
• The Charlie Rose Show interview with Atom Egoyan
• Robert Browning's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin with illustrations by Kate Greenaway
• Isolated score by composer Mychael Danna
• U.S. and Canadian theatrical trailers
• Biographies and filmographies

• Interview Atom Egoyan (Director)about 50 minutes
• Theatrical Trailer
• Gallery-Photo-18
• Filmographies-Cast & Crew

     Easy choice as to the best region.

    Apologies to those who would have liked a deeper insight into the film in this review. It is just disappointing when, even accepting the budget price, a film deserves so much better. Site policy dictates that a star should be dropped from the Video rating when a transfer has been cropped. I am taking away 2!No word yet as to any Blu-ray release for the film but here is hoping!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall