The Caveman's Valentine (2000)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Deleted Scenes-16:43 Audio Commentary-Kasi Lemmons (Director) & Terilyn Shropshire (Editor) Theatrical Trailer-2:09
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	101:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (81:34)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Kasi Lemmons
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Samuel L. Jackson Ann Magnuson Aunjanue Ellis Rodney Eastman Tamara Tunie Jay Rodan Anthony Michael Hall Colm Feore
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Terence Blanchard

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Caveman's Valentine is not what I expected. It's a lot more. It is so good I'm looking into the other film made by this new director (the other film is called Eve's Bayou, and also stars Samuel L. Jackson).

    You know that schizophrenia is usually a misused term - the classic misuse of the term is in mistake for multiple personality disorder. Schizophrenia is a different thing altogether. Schizophrenia (in particular, paranoid schizophrenia) does not involve multiple personalities; it involves the disintegration of the connections between the personality and the outside world; between fantasy, hallucination, reality... In this film, Samuel L. Jackson plays Romulus Ledbetter, a man afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia. He was coached in this role by a psychiatrist, Cheryl Lemmons MD, who happens to be sister to the director. I make no pretence about first-person knowledge of this mental disorder, but I have never seen a film which portrayed mental illness more convincingly. There is said to be a fine line between genius and madness; this film portrays both, indeed it show both at once - scary stuff.

    I really, really, don't want to tell you much about the plot of this film - I want you to experience the build-up of the plot without any warning. It is a film you must experience, step by step. This film is intimidating; it gives you some idea of what it must be like to have lost contact with reality; to be prey to voices, images, flash-backs.

    There are a few things you should know about this film. It is not exactly a horror film, although it has elements of horror - it is disorienting, it raises a feeling of terror, and it achieves all of this in a dreamy, beautiful, elegant way. In some ways the shock of the film is heightened by the beauty of the image - and in other ways, the beauty of the image makes the film acceptable - it would be unacceptably horrifying if it wasn't so beautiful. Without trying to be sexist, I wonder if some of this beauty can be attributed to the fact that the director, director of photography, and the editor are all female?

    Part of this film is about pain, suffering, and disturbing images - you must be a little strong to watch this film, because there are some images that could upset the weaker viewer.

    A simplistic reading of the plot would have you think this is a murder mystery. Another reading would have you think of it as a study of mental disorder. Yet again, you can see this as a film about relationships, between a man and his estranged daughter. It's all of that, and a lot more.

    The acting in this film is incredible. I have been impressed by Samuel L. Jackson before, a stand-out among other actors. This time, he is surrounded by impressive performances, including first-timer Jay Rodan. Aunjanue Ellis is very good, Colm Feore is perfect.

    I think the best thing I can say is that this is one of the most affecting films I've ever seen for adults. I'd call it an adult film if that term hadn't been appropriated for something else. It's not rated MA by accident. I would suggest that this is not a film you should let children see - they could have nightmares for weeks. But if you are mature, I recommend this disc very strongly - it is an impressive drama, and I'm nominating it for the Hall of Fame.

    Got to have my little grumble, though. I've grown tired of Village's "Press Play" promotion - it's advertising DVD, which is OK, but it is doing it on the DVD - perhaps it should appear at the start of the VHS tape instead? At least this copy isn't quite as loud as the first one I saw.

Video

    The picture is stunning. I have rarely seen a DVD exhibiting such continuously sharp clear images. Shockingly, startlingly, clear. The cinematographer has used a variety of film stocks (even some video), including a film stock that is intended for shooting titles - it has an ASA of 6 (that's ridiculous!), and astonishing contrast. Shadow detail is excellent.

    According to IMDB the theatrical aspect ratio was 1.85:1, despite the film being shot with Panavision cameras and lenses. I'd have expected that to imply an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. However, this film has been transferred at 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced - it looks fabulous, with no clear framing problems, so I find the 1.85:1 ratio believable. (Ed. The Panavision credit is not always correctly used.)

    Colour is incredible - in apparent reality, the colour is real, although a little muted by production design. This film takes place in winter, in New York, so there's snow, heavy overcoats and overcast skies - these lead to muted tones. Some of the effects scenes are overlaid with deeply saturated colours - yellow and green. And some of the other effects involve the use of that amazing high contrast black and white film - hugely over-hot whites, but it is deliberate. The mastering experts who transferred this film to DVD have managed to capture it superbly - they have dealt with some challenging material, and have produced an incredible result.

    Artefacts. Hmm. I'd have been quite willing to accept some, but there aren't any. Not in the film, anyway (wait until I talk about the extras). Well, there's a tiny bit of shake on the closing credits, but you probably don't watch them, right? No film artefacts, no MPEG artefacts, no shimmer, no aliasing, no moire, no low-level noise, nothing. Honestly, this is a sparkling clean transfer - not a lot to say apart from that.

    The only subtitles are English for the Hearing Impaired. I watched them all the way through. I spotted one abbreviation, and one very slight inaccuracy. They are accurate, well-timed, and easy to read. There's some tendency to place the subtitles under the speaker, but they are fairly wide, reducing the impact.

    The disc is single sided (beautiful label), and RSDL-formatted, with the layer change at 81:34. I thought I spotted it when watching the film, but it is far from obtrusive - it happens on a still image, immediately before a change of scenes - only the pause in the soundtrack gives it away.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The sound is a huge part of this movie - it would be far less effective without it. The only full soundtrack to this movie is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 effort, and it is an impressive one.

    The film is prefixed by the Dolby Digital Rain trailer. Normally these trailers annoy me. Actually, it annoyed me the first time I watched this disc. But now that I have seen the film, I have to admit that this is one film they are entitled to boast about - without surround sound this film would be less moving.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. There are no audio sync problems. The sound is immersive - it begins even before the credits, and in the credits. We cannot sit back and observe. We are dragged in and involved. This is part of what makes the movie the experience it is.

    "What kind of music do you torture someone to?" - their answer is opera (I really wanted to make a crack about listening to opera being torture, but that's just mean...) - you'll see this sequence, and probably find it just as affecting as I did.

    The score is by Terence Blanchard. He has done a superb job. There is a piece that was described as "no one can play this" - it is played by Terence Blanchard, and magnificently so.

    This movie must  be experienced in 5.1 - if you have 5.1 sound you'll hear what I mean. Your surround speakers will have plenty to do, and your subwoofer won't want for work either. If you don't have 5.1, I strongly recommend watching this movie for the first time at a 5.1-equipped friend's place. Heck, it might even persuade you to upgrade...

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu are subtly animated (moths) with music. Very effective, and no impediment to operation.

Deleted Scenes (16:43)

    6 deleted scenes in a row, with no commentary and no introduction. It is interesting to watch these before listening to the commentary, but I'd still have liked to have some context for them. They are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and are 16x9 enhanced, but they exhibit many of the artefacts that we don't see in the main feature - perhaps the most obvious is the horrible wash of light over one of the sequences with the moth seraphs.

Commentary - director and editor

    This is a fascinating commentary from director Kasi Lemmons and editor Terilyn Shropshire. They discuss all manner of technical issues relating to this film. There are gaps in the commentary, but they are not flaws - they give us a moment to digest what we've heard.

Trailer (2:09)

    This trailer is also presented wide-screen, 16x9 enhanced. It is better quality than the deleted scenes, but not quite as good as the feature.

    The R4 version of this disc is missing;

• dts soundtrack
• production notes
• cast and filmmaker profiles

    The R1 version of this disc is missing:

• nothing

    This is a film where the dts soundtrack might make a difference, but I have no complaints about the Dolby Digital soundtrack we have. Reviewers have not given the video transfer of the R1 disc top marks, even though they have rated it highly, and the trailer and deleted scenes on the R1 disc are not 16x9 enhanced.

    I can recommend our version - you won't be unhappy with the quality, and it is substantially cheaper.

    The Caveman's Valentine is a superb film for a mature audience, on a reference-quality DVD.

    The video quality is reference quality.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The extras are good (especially the commentary), but slightly fewer than the R1.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall