Few Good Men, A: 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Introduction Menu Audio Scene Selection Anim & Audio Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Jerry Maguire; Vertical Limit Featurette-Code Of Conduct Featurette-From Stage To Screen with Aaron Sorkin and Rob Reiner Biographies-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary-Rob Reiner (Director)
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	132:40
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Rob Reiner
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Tom Cruise Jack Nicholson Demi Moore Kevin Bacon Kevin Pollak James Marshall J.T. Walsh Kiefer Sutherland
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	Marc Shaiman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish French Audio Commentary German Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The name Aaron Sorkin will be familiar to anyone who is a fan of the multi-award winning US series The West Wing. This is a fantastically scripted drama series set in the White House and revolving around the political shenanigans of the President Bartlett Administration. I'm a big fan of the series mainly due to the slickness of the whole production and the biting, fast-paced script. If only Channel Nine would show it at a decent hour!

    Why is this important? Well, Aaron Sorkin started out by writing a play in the late 80s that was a huge success on Broadway. This play was a drama called A Few Good Men. The play was subsequently turned into a motion picture with Sorkin providing the screenplay and Rob Reiner (This is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally) as the director. It was one of the most successful films of 1992 in terms of box office and garnered four Oscar nominations. In a nice piece of trivia, Sorkin also wrote the screenplay for the Michael Douglas and Annette Bening romantic comedy The American President, which was also directed by Rob Reiner and co-starred The West Wing President Martin Sheen as the Chief of Staff!

    A Few Good Men was one of the very first of Columbia Tristar's DVD releases in Region 4, being reviewed here in September 1998. It was a bare-bones title that still contained a very nice 16x9 enhanced picture but only an MPEG 2.0 surround soundtrack. This DVD has now been re-released to celebrate the 10th anniversary (yes it has nearly been that long) of its theatrical release. This time around, we get a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and a nice set of extras topped off by an audio commentary from the director.

    A truly outstanding cast appear in this film. I got to thinking as I was writing this review about whether there had been a cast of such quality assembled for a movie since this was made and I am hard-pressed to remember one. 'A' grade heavyweights like Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore and a supporting cast led by the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Pollak, JT Walsh and even early career appearances by Cuba Gooding Jr, and ER's Noah Wyle.

    The story begins in the US Military Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or 'GITMO' as the Marines stationed there call it. A private by the name of William Santiago has been found dead - bound and gagged with a rag stuffed down his throat. He appears to have choked on his own blood. It seems that Santiago was unhappy at the base and had been seeking ways of getting a transfer, going against the 'code' of the Corp to do so. Two marines, Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and Lowden Downey (James Marshall) have been arrested and charged with Pvt Santiago's murder. They have been moved to Washington to face a court martial.

    In Washington, Lt Commander Joanne Galloway (Demi Moore) of the JAG (Judge Advocate General) corps is seeking to be assigned to the case to defend the two marines. Her superiors don't want her to lead the case. They instead assign a smart-mouthed rookie naval lawyer, Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) who manages to successfully plea bargain his way out of cases. He wants to ditch the case on a plea bargain, but is convinced by Lt Galloway and his assistant counsel Sam Weinburg (Kevin Pollak) to dig a bit deeper. They visit the base in Cuba to check some facts and are introduced to the base commander, Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) and platoon leader John Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). They are told that Jessup had ordered for Santiago to be transferred due to concerns for his safety and had also ordered that no-one touch him before he left. It would appear that Dawson and Downey performed a 'Code Red' on Santiago that led to his death. A 'Code Red' is an unofficial means of discipline performed by the marine's peers. It is now up to Kaffee and his team to prove in the ensuing court martial that Dawson and Downey were only following orders and cannot be found guilty of murder.

    A Few Good Men is one of my all-time favourite movies. I saw this twice theatrically in December 1992, and as an indication of my regard for this film, it was the first one I purchased  on DVD and also the first that I subsequently purchased a second copy of (the Region 1 SE). Now with this new Region 4 Special Edition, I own three copies of it, so there is little chance of wearing it out. It features polished performances from all the superb cast, but it is the script that I truly enjoy the most. Much like The West Wing, it features truly biting, intelligent, and slick dialogue. I never get bored watching this film.

Video

    An almost reference quality video transfer is present here with almost no problems at all to report.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness level is pretty good with edge enhancement only becoming noticeable in a couple of scenes - not overly disruptive, but most noticeable when Kaffee is talking with Dawson and Downey. Shadow detail is exemplary with true blacks and no loss of detail in any of the scenes. There is only the smallest amount of grain present which is almost not worth mentioning and no low level noise.

    Colours are well-saturated with a decent palette on offer. The skins tones are perfectly natural. There are no oversaturation or bleeding problems.

    There are no apparent MPEG artefacts at all and no film-to-video artefacts either. The odd speck or two are about the only film artefacts to be seen.

    There are 18 subtitle streams present for the main feature and 3 for the audio commentary. I sampled the English flavour extensively and found them to be pretty accurate. There is substantial abridging of many of the lines of dialogue, although due to the sheer amount of dialogue being delivered this is not surprising.

    This is a dual layered RSDL formatted disc. I was unable to detect the layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The original release of this DVD in Region 4 featured an MPEG 2.0 Surround encoded track only. We now get a 448 Kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Despite now having a full 5.1 channels to use, this is still a centre channel dominated movie soundtrack so it is not stretched by any means.

    There are a total of four audio tracks present. These are a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround tracks in French and German. There is also an English commentary track in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. I listened to the English 5.1 track and also the commentary track in full.

    Dialogue is particularly important in this film. There is almost no action in terms of loud effects or the like. It is all down to the dialogue to drive the plot and it is handled here with aplomb. Clear, concise, and raised to the right thunderous volume at just the right moments. I always felt there were some distinct audio sync problems with the original release - most notable in the scenes where Kaffee is in his apartment talking to his co-counsel. This is no longer an issue and audio sync in this release is perfect.

    The musical score is by Marc Shaiman. The main theme pervades much of the film as is quite distinct.
   
    Surround channel usage is kept to a bare minimum, simply filling in various streetscapes and the like, but this is not really an important component of the audio given the amount of dialogue that is present.

    There is very little subwoofer use as one would expect give the nature of the film.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Introduction

    Features footage of various scenes from the movie in 1.33:1 non-16x9 enhanced.

Main Menu Audio

    The main theme by Marc Shaiman playing on a static non 16x9 enhanced menu.

Scene Selection Animation & Audio

    Featuring the marching band music in Dolby Digital 2.0, the animated scene selection menu features 4 scenes per page. Music and animation play for about 30 seconds before looping to the beginning.

Theatrical Trailer

    Running for 2:52 minutes, this trailer is presented at 1.33:1 (Pan & Scan) and is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track. There are lots of grain and film artefacts. It is a reasonable trailer, but it does spoil the high drama scenes in the film.

Trailer

    Bonus trailers for Jerry Maguire and Vertical Limit. The former is presented in 1.33:1 Pan & Scan with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround audio. The latter cops a very nice 1.85:1 16x9 enhanced image with full Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

Featurette - Code of Conduct

    Running for 34:50 minutes, this was made this year as a retrospective look at the making of the film. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 non 16x9 enhanced, with audio provided by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Footage from the film is presented in 2.35:1 letterbox. It features recent interviews with all the supporting cast, director Rob Reiner, and Aaron Sorkin. Notable absences are Nicholson, Cruise, and Demi Moore - they are shown in interviews shot at around the time of initial release. A bit of a nostalgic look from most of the cast, all pretty much genuflecting to the greatness of Cruise and Nicholson, but it is still worthwhile and fans will lap up the snippets of information presented.

Featurette - From Stage To Screen

    Running for 13:44 minutes, this 1.33:1 non 16x9 enhanced featurette offers Dolby Digital 2.0 surround audio. It was made this year. Featuring interviews with Aaron Sorkin and director Rob Reiner, it details the process of how the play came into being (started out being written on paper napkins!) and how the rights were sold to turn it into a feature film. Sorkin was then given the job of adapting his play for the screen. A fascinating admission from Sorkin was that he had not even read a screenplay let alone written one when given the task of writing it for the movie. Rob Reiner and Sorkin explain the intricacies of how the differences between a play and a movie need to be identified and how there are simply some things that must be in a movie to keep it going (or 'open it up' as Sorkin describes). The application of movie techniques (that when watching the finished product you aren't even aware of) to certain scenes that aren't originally in the play also provide a great insight into what things the director needs to think about when planning a scene. A very worthwhile extra even though it is quite short.

Biographies-Cast & Crew

    The usual bios for the usual cast and crew members. The font is a bit small and I'm beginning to get fed up with only seeing 'selected' filmographies. Why can't we get to see the full list with all the turkeys that actors have made as well?

Audio Commentary

    Commentary by Director Rob Reiner. This is not the greatest of audio commentaries as he talks only sporadically with plenty of long pauses of several minutes when he is just watching the film in silence. What he does have to say is very interesting, though, so the value is certainly there. He concentrates mainly on the technical aspects of the film-making process such as why shots were done a certain way and which bits were most difficult. I was slightly disappointed with the quantity here, but the quality does make up for it.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on:

• Spanish, Portuguese and English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks

• Trailer for 'The Juror'

    The Region 1 disc misses out on:

• French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack

• Trailer for 'Vertical Limit'

    The cover slick is also slightly different, with the Region 1 title having a stylised US flag at the bottom.

    There is certainly no compelling reason to favour either version.

    A Few Good Men is one of my all-time favourite films, featuring an absolutely stellar cast and a script that delivers some of the finest and smartest dialogue ever put on film.

    The video presentation is of near reference quality.

    The audio soundtrack is very good, and does everything that is asked of it.

    There is a reasonable set of extras present that befit the title of 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition, though the addition of some further original material such as deleted scenes would have topped off the whole package. Regardless, this a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall