Crazy Heart (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	107:05 (Case: 111)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (52:58)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Scott Cooper
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Jeff Bridges James Keane Anna Felix Paul Herman Tom Bower Ryan Bingham Beth Grant
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Stephen Bruton T-Bone Burnett

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English for the Hearing Impaired Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Danish Finnish Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     In 1983 Robert Duvall made a movie about a down-and-out country singer struggling with his alcoholism and estrangement from his family. No American director wanted to do the film, eventually Australian director Bruce Beresford did it. The studio that financed the film, Universal Pictures, were not interested in marketing it so it did not perform at the box-office but it did get respectable reviews (Universal had spent big on Scarface that year, so that was where their Oscar promotion budget went). To everyone's surprise, this little-known film, Tender Mercies, was sold by Universal to cable TV companies for distribution on television, yet later picked up five Oscar nominations, winning two for Robert Duvall as best actor (his only win for acting) and Horton Foote for original screenplay (his second after his win for 1962's To Kill A Mockingbird). After the five nominations were announced, Universal were desperate to re-release the film theatrically but were beaten to the punch by the cable companies who ran the film on television with high ratings. Robert Duvall has always stated that the movie studio did not understand the film, especially its country-music setting. When Country and Western singer Willie Nelson wanted to promote the movie, Universal executives were bemused; they couldn't see the appeal in the film.

     Fast forward twenty-six years and please remember that someone once said, "history repeats itself". Actor Scott Cooper first met Robert Duvall on the film they starred in together in 2003, Gods and Generals. Cooper adapted Crazy Heart into a screenplay based on the 1987 novel by Thomas Cobb. He went to Duvall with the script and he came on-board as a producer. The film was made for a paltry $US7 million by the Country Music Television channel (in comparative real terms, Tender Mercies was made for more in 1983) and was originally considered by distributor Paramount Vantage as a direct-to-video release. Fox Searchlight Pictures, who have had a tremendous amount of success in the last 4 to 5 years in distributing highly successful independent pictures (for example, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler and (500) Days of Summer) bought the rights to distribute Crazy Heart theatrically and as a result the film has grossed $US46 million dollars, as well as two Oscar wins for Jeff Bridges as best actor and the theme song, The Weary Kind, which won for best original song.

     Jeff Bridges' win for best actor for his role as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart is thoroughly deserved. He brings this down-and-out country singer who is broke, alcoholic and without meaningful family relationships to life. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Jean Craddock, a recently divorced now single mother who develops a relationship with Bad Blake after interviewing him in her role as a journalist. Colin Farrell plays Tommy Sweet, a highly successful country singer who was once Bad's protégé, but now is a much bigger star than Bad, which causes resentment and feelings of wounded pride in Bad Blake. Robert Duvall stars as Bad's friend Wayne who helps him to straighten out by encouraging him to seek help for his alcoholism. It seems that all is going well for Bad in his attempt to make things work for his relationship with Jean, until he relapses and falls into his old ways. Crazy Heart never reveals why Bad has gone through four marriages or why he hasn't seen his 28 year-old son since he was four, but Jeff Bridges’ portrayal of Bad Blake allows the audience to connect with the flaws in his character. You may not know why, but you do get a sense or feeling that Bad's faults are certainly of his own making.

     Bad Blake's drinking, smoking and generally unhealthy lifestyle is hurtling him towards an early grave. In Tender Mercies, Mac Sledge, played by Robert Duvall, finds a new family, reconnects with his daughter and makes peace for his sins with God. Can Bad Blake do the same? Is there a redemptive route for Bad, or has he no hope? In some ways Bad's sticking to what he knows in entertaining people as a country singer reminded me of Mickey Rourke's role in The Wrestler. Both these characters are only good at one thing, and that is all they know; despite their faults the audience can't help but sympathise with these guys who once have tasted glory, but now are but a shell of what they once were.

Video

     Crazy Heart was shot with 3-perf Super 35mm Kodak film and so it has a slightly lower technical quality than films normally produced directly in the anamorphic format. The aspect ratio of Crazy Heart is 2:40:1, 16x9 enhanced. The film has a very good average bitrate of 7.31 m/b per sec.

     Colour is 'natural-looking', no obvious tints or contrasts effects were applied in post-production for this film. There are no obvious film artefacts other than the slight film grain, which is intentional to the look of the film.

     Subtitles are available in English for the hard of hearing, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.

     The RSDL change occurs at 52:58 during a scene change, so the pause is not so noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
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Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There are two main audio tracks. One is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track, the other is an English Audio Descriptive track for the hearing impaired. Both tracks are encoded at 448 kbps. Dialogue is clear and synchronised.

     As well as original songs written for the film by Stephen Bruton, T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham there are also songs by Buck Owens, The Louvin Brothers, Lightnin' Hopkins, Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt and Sam Philips. Most of the songs in the film are sung by Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell however and they do a great job for actors. Even Robert Duvall gets to perform on the track, Live Forever. Crazy Heart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released in 2009 to accompany the film. It includes 23 songs, mostly written by musicians Bruton, Burnett and Bingham (who plays Tony in the film and sings the theme song, The Weary Kind).

     Surround channel usage comes alive in the film during the song performances. The concerts incorporate audience noise and the music envelopes across all the speakers. The subwoofer supports the bass channel in the song performances admirably also.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Deleted Scenes (11:02)

     Six deleted scenes are included with a 'play all' option. These include Bad plays "Somebody Else" in Santa Fe (2:22), Jean helps Bad pack up (0:37), Bad visits Tommy backstage (1:12), Bad and Jean in Taos (2:14), Encouragement from Wayne (0:33) and Bad relapses (4:29). The final deleted scene includes a character Donna, played by Annie Corley, who was excised from the final cut. The final 15 seconds of this scene was included in the final cut.

Theatrical Trailer (1:56)

    The original theatrical trailer plays with the film's theme song playing in the background, The Weary Kind.

    The Region 1 United States and the Region 2 United Kingdom releases on DVD are identical to the Region 4 release except that the Region 2 UK release includes a digital copy not found on the other Regional releases.

     Crazy Heart on DVD (and Blu-ray) comes with very limited extras. A commentary or extended interview with Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall or the film's screenwriter and director, Scott Cooper would have been appreciated for this fine film. As it stands, the acting performances makes Crazy Heart a winner, deserving of its two Oscars at the 2010 Academy Awards.

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Extras
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