Burning Plain, The (Blu-ray) (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	106:30
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Guillermo Arriaga
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Charlize Theron Kim Basinger John Corbett Jennifer Lawrence José María Yazpik Robin Tunney
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$39.95	Music	Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Hans Zimmer

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The Burning Plain is the directorial debut of critically lauded screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, the Mexican national who is best known for his work with Alejandro González Iñárritu (specifically Oscar darlings Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel). Like his more critically acclaimed previous work, this film uses a disjointed non-linear narrative structure that gradually comes together to form a single story by the film's end.

     This particular disjointed story hinges around a caravan on fire in the middle of nowhere. Three primary plot threads are used to tell the complete tale. One follows a middle aged couple (Kim Basinger and Joaquim de Almeida) having an affair who meet at this caravan for their rumpy pumpy. Another follows two teens from opposite sides of the track who form a friendship in the wake of losing a parent each. The last follows a woman (Charlize Theron) who is reluctantly reunited with a daughter she abandoned years ago.

     Half of the viewing experience (and I would consider the better half) is piecing these disparate parts together to see the whole picture, and thus it would do viewers a disservice to provide more than a glancing summary of the parts. In fact if you were to lay it all out in order it is a pretty straight forward and darned mopey affair. The movie magic is in the storytelling, rather than the story itself. Alas that magic lacks real sparkle this time around, particularly when compared to the significantly superior past work from Arriaga and it is impossible not to compare this film to his past work when it feels so similar.

     The performances are all decent (and pervs will be glad to see Charlize Theron in the buff). The script is solid. The cinematography is beautiful. The pacing is drab, which is what ultimately lets the film down. Unfortunately, it is not really the kind of thing that could be fixed by simply cutting out a handful of scenes either. Every scene moves a step slower than it needs to. The net result is a film that is interesting enough, but fails to hold the viewer's attention as closely as it needs to. The Burning Plain is certainly worth a look for fans of Arriaga’s past work, but is unlikely to have the impact of his past masterpieces.

Video

     The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

     The video is of excellent quality. The image is sharp and clear. There is a good level of shadow detail visible. The colour palette has a very natural look about it, which suits the mood of the film.

     There is no sign of compression artefacts or film artefacts in the transfer.

    English subtitles are available for the non-English parts of the dialogue and they appear to be accurate to the spoken word and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The film features English Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 and DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. The audio is of a good standard. Both tracks feature a reasonable dynamic range and are quite clear.

     The film features a score from Hans Zimmer and At The Drive In/Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López, which sounds a lot more like the regular work of the former than the latter.

     The surrounds are used to fair effect, though not worth particular remark in any regard. The subwoofer only gets a little play, but adds some decent rumble to scenes like the pivotal fire scene.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras on the disc. Not even a token chapter selection screen on the bland static menu, which itself only pops up when specifically requested and at the end of the feature. Worse yet, the disc opens to an unskippable anti-piracy clip - yes, that one that paying customers have seen a million times and pirates gleefully avoid -and a handful of SD trailers for other films, which can be skipped.

     The choice of international Blu-ray versions is the US All-Region edition, which features:

• "The Making of The Burning Plain" featurette (43:27)
• "The Music of The Burning Plain" featurette (15:33)
• "HDNet: A Look at The Burning Plain" featurette (4:46)

     Although it misses the arguably superfluous Dolby True HD audio track.

    A so-so directorial debut from Guillermo Arriaga, which apes his past work as a screenwriter (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel) rather than making any real mark of its own.

     The video and audio are of a good standard. There is nothing in the way of extras on this disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall