Body of Evidence (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Featurette-Love Or Murder Theatrical Trailer
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	96:44
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Uli Edel
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Madonna Willem Dafoe Joe Mantegna
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Graeme Revell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    After Basic Instinct was released in 1992 to massive box office success, the floodgates opened to demand more films that could be classed as "erotic thrillers". Unfortunately, the fact that Basic Instinct writer Joe Eszterhas was given a blank cheque in order to print up any misogynistic crap he liked, and waxheads like Madonna tried to cash in, meant that this seemingly new genre died a very rapid death. Ironically, milder versions made about seven years later, such as Wild Things, much better captured the Paul Verhoeven style that made the original such riveting viewing. If you haven't guessed how this all relates to Body Of Evidence by now, then here it is - Body Of Evidence is the biggest load of donkey dung that I have ever seen in my life.

    The plot in this case is so thin that it should be on life support and the liquefied equivalent of twenty Hungry Jack's Whopper burgers a day. Essentially, it revolves around a murder trial - Rebecca Carlson (Madonna) is accused of literally bonking Andrew Marsh (Michael Forest) to death. Even in today's America that is almost willing to throw away freedom for security to the extent that it literally deserves neither, it would be just about impossible to prove that a man could die as a direct result of sex and that this was his partner's intent from the get-go. Nonetheless, Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) is a district attorney who hopes to make history by proving that, in conjunction with the couple's drug use, Rebecca's sex drive essentially killed Andrew.

    So it is up to Rebecca's lawyer, a rather unassuming sort of guy named Frank Dulaney (Willem Dafoe) to prove Rebecca's innocence, all the while merrily hopping into bed with her despite having a beautiful wife named Sharon (Julianne Moore). Lest you think I am being overly harsh on this film, that really is all there is to this flimsy courtroom drama - a string of coy, barely-erotic sex scenes loosely strung together by a murder mystery that makes Scooby-Doo seem rich and detailed by comparison. This film was supposed to be Madonna's cash-in on the "erotic thriller" trend that had started earlier in the year, but she looks so hideous in most shots of her that it is almost laughable.

    In a nutshell, this film falls well below the standards set by daytime television, in spite of some strong supporting performances from Jürgen Prochnow and Anne Archer. It's worth buying if you are a determined Madonna completist, but I think she will be rueing the day she signed up for this stinker for quite some time to come. This film doesn't even qualify as being "so bad it is good" - it is just a piece of crap, pure and simple.

Video

    The video transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced.

    The sharpness of this transfer is very good, but it is not an example of what DVD can achieve with film stocks from 1993. The shadow detail is pretty average, with dark scenes only having slightly more than enough detail to make sense, but there is no low-level noise.

    The colours in this transfer seem muted and dull, with all but the funeral scene early in the film seeming to have a dirty, lifeless look. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this was an intentional choice. There are no composite artefacts or smearing in the feature.

    MPEG artefacts were not apparent in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of the very occasional bout of very mild telecine wobble, and some aliasing on the sides of cars such as at 17:17, or on blinds at 29:34. Film artefacts were consistently found during this feature, with a number of them appearing in the opening credits. They were mostly easy to ignore, with only the occasional sizeable film artefact appearing here and there.

    There are English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles available on this DVD. They are very accurate to the spoken dialogue and easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is one soundtrack available on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround-encoding and a 192 kilobit per second bitrate.

    The dialogue is quite clear and easy to understand - it is the primary focus of the film, with the score music being the only real competition for space in this soundtrack. I did not notice any real problems with audio sync.

    The score music in this film was composed by Graeme Revell. I am not sure what sort of effect he was attempting with this score, as it tends to fall flat after the first act, much like the film itself.

    The surround channels were used moderately to support the sounds of courtroom chatter, rain, and the music. They were not used aggressively or even constantly, but they did make the soundtrack a little more immersive than I remember it being on VHS many moons ago.

    The subwoofer was not specifically encoded into this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is static, silent, and 16x9 Enhanced.

Theatrical Trailer

    This one minute and fifty-three second theatrical trailer uses split-screen compositions of frames from the feature, presented in an approximate 2.35:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio. It is 16x9 Enhanced.

Featurette - Love Or Murder

    The five minute and forty second running length of this 1.33:1 Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo featurette would have you believe that it is simply an extended promo, or an Electronic Press Kit. You'd be correct in this belief.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• MPAA-approved cut

    Aside from an additional version of the film that removes about two minutes of footage, the Region 4 and Region 1 versions are more or less the same.

    As a film, and as a vehicle for whatever talent Madonna thinks she has, Body Of Evidence is indescribably bad. Made solely to cash in on a trend, like anything else Madonna involves herself with, the film appears like a jumbled mess that moves from plot point to plot point with little rhyme or reason. If you really want to see what the "erotic thriller" is all about, then I'd strongly advise buying Wild Things or the Region 1 Director's Cut of Basic Instinct instead. Ed Wood would turn his nose up at the attempt made here.

    The video transfer is good.

    The audio transfer is good.

    The extras are limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall