Collateral Damage (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes Featurette-Behind The Scenes Featurette Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	104:20
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (52:49)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Andrew Davis
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Francesca Neri Cliff Curtis John Leguizamo
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Graeme Revell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Spanish Italian Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Portuguese Hebrew Polish Greek Czech Turkish Hungarian Icelandic Croatian Dutch Arabic Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Collateral Damage is a very entertaining and exciting movie. As an action movie, it deals very well with the concept of innocent people caught up in struggles of war and politics. It boasts a good (and timely) story, a thankfully restrained performance by Mr Schwarzenegger, a good supporting cast, excellent direction, and some wonderful cinematography, special effects, and action sequences.

    The term 'collateral damage' is a military expression. Generally, it refers to the civilians who are killed in military actions - the innocent bystanders who were not the target of the operation. There is usually an acceptable limit, and this is considered part of the price to be paid for military success. This is a theme that cleverly runs throughout this movie. Gordy (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a loving husband and father. His life is destroyed when he loses his family in a terrorist bomb blast. Gordy's despair and mourning soon develops into an intense rage, and the obsessive Gordy sets out to punish the terrorist responsible. Gordy finds himself in a dark world of CIA agents, covert US operations, terrorists, drug lords, and guerrilla warfare. Meanwhile, we discover that the target of Gordy's revenge, Claudio (Cliff Curtis), has a story that mirrors Gordy's own. Claudio lost his family in a US military attack on his village. He too has become bitter with rage, and he too seeks revenge against those responsible. Interestingly, the connection between US foreign policy and terrorism is not ignored. What I thought was going to be a mindless action-revenge movie, turned out to be quite thought-provoking.

    Collateral Damage was to be released in October last year, but it was pulled out of cinemas in the wake of September 11. I wonder if it was re-edited for its delayed release, as there is a brilliant deleted scene included on the DVD. It shows a village after a US military attack on some revolutionaries hiding in the area. The camera pans across the fields after the US gunships have left, and we are confronted with the carnage and the collateral damage. The bodies of the villagers - the men, women and children who did not escape the attack. Quite frankly, I was surprised to see a scene like this included in a US movie, but then again, it was deleted.

    However, one can also enjoy Collateral Damage purely as an action movie, and forget about the politics that underpin the story.

Video

    The transfer is sublime - this is a real demo disc!

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness, black level, and shadow detail, are all spot on.

    The colour is beautifully saturated, as evidenced by the lush green images of Colombia, and the accurate skin tones.

    While I thought that I might have spotted a touch of pixelization and edge enhancement here and there, there are no real problems with MPEG or Film-To-Video artefacts. If I wanted to be extremely picky, I could note that very occasionally, there was a very slight shimmer on a few objects, but aliasing never became a real problem.

    A few tiny film artefacts appear throughout, and examples can be seen at 24:54 and 50:43.

    There are 22 sets of subtitles present, and the English subtitles are accurate.

    This is a RSDL disc, with the layer change placed during Chapter 16, at 52:49. It is not disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Again - demo disc!

    Apart from the English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, there are also two other Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks: Italian and Spanish. There is also a Dolby Stereo-Surround track for the director's commentary.

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score is credited to Graeme Revell, and it is an excellent, non-intrusive score, featuring the clever use of pan pipes and percussive hand claps.

    There is a very strong surround presence throughout this movie - indeed, possibly the best I've ever reviewed. This is a truly immersive surround experience, and there are many rear directional effects, whether it be the background sounds of an office (76:55), or the cacophony of a raging gun battle (72:38).

    The subwoofer is also used very effectively, and there are some earth-shaking moments in this movie, such as the explosions at 39:32 and 56:35.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are a good selection of extras.

Menu

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo surround-encoded audio.

Theatrical Trailer (2:05)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo surround-encoded audio.

Director's Commentary

    The Director, Andrew Davis, provides some interesting background information and trivia, while also discussing some of the difficulties with shooting in the various locations.

Cast & Crew

    Text-based information

Additional Scenes

    A collection of deleted and alternate scenes.

Behind The Scenes (8:45)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo surround-encoded audio, Arnie and Davis discuss the movie in the wake of September 11.

Documentary (14:51)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, this is the usual marketing fluff.

    Collateral Damage was released on DVD in Region 1 in July 2002, and apart from a few minor things, such as DVD-ROM content, and subtitles, the versions are pretty much the same. I would favour the local release for its affordability, and most importantly, its superior PAL image.

    This DVD boasts an entertaining story, peppered with great action sequences, a beautiful transfer, immersive surround sound, and room-shaking explosions. This DVD is a real home theatre gem, and a great demo disc.

The video quality is excellent.

The audio quality is also excellent.

The extras are good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall