The Abyss: Special Edition (1989) |
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The Abyss: Special Edition (1989) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Science Fiction |
Seamless Branching-Original Theatrical Version/Special Edition Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes Screenplay Notes-Original Treatment Storyboards Gallery Featurette-Crane Crash Shoot, Surface Shoot Montage Featurette-Engine Room Flooding, Montana Bridge Flooding Featurette-Deepcore Timelapse, Visual Effects Reel Featurette-Videomatics Montage Multiple Angles-Pseudopod (5:42) Featurette-Miniature Rear Projection,Motion Control Timelapse Trailer-3 Featurette-The Abyss (10:27) Featurette-Under Pressure: Making "The Abyss" (59:29) Subtitle Commentary Main Menu Audio & Animation THX Trailer Booklet |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1989 | ||
| Running Time | 139:14 (Case: 171) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (62:27) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | James Cameron |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Ed Harris Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Michael Biehn |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $36.95 | Music | Alan Silvestri |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
 |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Czech Danish Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish English Text Commentary |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes, mildly | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Well I can't start this review without addressing two burning questions about this much-anticipated DVD release: there is no 16x9 enhancement, and the censor's knife has left the rat "drowning" scene alone. The other most notable features of this presentation are obviously the dual DVD format, and the fact that seamless branching has been employed to allow the viewer the option of watching either the original Theatrical Version of the movie, or the Special Edition, which incorporates an extra 28 minutes of footage into the feature, and an additional 3 minutes of closing credits.
The Abyss is a movie which defies classification into any one genre: sci-fi, action, romance and adventure, it manages to put its story above all such concerns. One of the few truly great big budget science fiction movies I can remember, I have seen it once every couple of years since its theatrical release in 1989, and like many others, I was excited to hear of its release on DVD, and extremely chuffed to have had access to a pre-release review copy for my viewing pleasure.
Director James Cameron (Terminator 2, True Lies) must by now be considered to be master creator of big-budget epics, but his films all have one thing in common: they all have a heart, and a human story amongst all the effects. The Abyss, probably his most ambitious effort to date, is no different. Filmed almost entirely underwater, it centers on an underwater oil rigging crew who are commandeered by the Navy to search for survivors of the sinking of one of its nuclear submarines, which may or may not have been sunk by a Russian vessel. Teetering on the edge of a 2 1/2 mile canyon in the ocean floor whilst a cyclone rages above them, the Navy's men sent to join the riggers aren't exactly looking for survivors, and they don't exactly discover ruddy-faced men sitting around and drinking vodka, either.
The crew of the rig consist of your usual ragged-but-lovable types, headed by Bud Brigman (Ed Harris): a man with chiselled good looks, courage, practicality, and a healthy streak of anti-authoritarianism. He is flanked by his colourfully-named crew including Hippy (Todd Graff) the rat-keeping conspiracy theorist, Catfish (Leo Burmester), his right hand man, man mountain Jammer (John Bedford Lloyd) and One Night (Kimberly Scott), the country music-lovin' gal.
When the Navy SEALs are sent down to the rig to lead the salvage effort, they are joined by Bud's estranged wife Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), the designer of the rig, and referred to as "queen b**** of the universe" in her introduction to the movie. Not only do Bud and Lindsey need to redefine their relationship, but calamitous events overtake them all, and when the leader of the Navy SEALs (Michael Biehn) develops pressure-induced psychosis, there are nuclear weapons involved, and there is some unknown force hiding in the abyss, you know things are gonna get interesting.
Ed Harris (The Truman Show) and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (The Perfect Storm) are excellent in holding the emotional centre of the movie, and despite the effects, all manner of catastrophes and alien visitations, it is the love story which drives the plot and gives it much of its emotional pull. Michael Biehn (The Terminator) does well to keep the reigns on his psychotic character, and the balance of the support cast all do well to keep Bud and Lindsey the focus of this story as extraordinary events take place around them.
Logistically an incredible effort, despite the fantasy elements of the story The Abyss retains a level of believability, which has much to do with the excellent special effects, and the use of an amazing underwater set and props such as remotely operated vehicles and high-tech submersibles to keep the viewer hooked into the story. On the basis of the excellent filmmaking and acting, it is a movie that although underrated at the time of its release, has stood the test of time for me.
The additional footage of the Special Edition is almost mandatory, as it adds meaning to the ending and overall feel of the movie, as well as to some of the relationships between the characters. If you haven't seen this movie before I'd almost recommend ignoring the Theatrical Version, unless you have a particular desire to compare the two for yourself.
As you would imagine, the lack of 16x9 enhancement leads to a noticeable across-the-board lack of detail. This is especially evident in the backgrounds, and it becomes annoying in the occasional scene where the focal point of the frame is in the distance, and there are significant foreground elements, such as at 60:52 where Bud is climbing down a spiral staircase, and he positively blurs into the distance, and at 120:42 where Bud's message from the deep is a little difficult to make out on the display. Some bubbles rising in the distance at 31:42 were a little jittery, however the most apparent lack of detail was produced in the wide shots, an example of which can be found at 154:10. Importantly, though, shadow detail is very good (subject to the general limitation of the lack of detail referred to above), with much of the action taking place in the shadows .
There is also at times problems with grain. In some instances it is probably inherent in the source material due to the dark and murky settings pierced by bright lights (such as at 58:51 and 102:44), but at some instances it may not have been so inherent (such as at 86:40 and 93:10).
Subject to the fact that the major part of the movie is shot underwater and in semi-darkness, colours are represented fairly well. Most of the lighting is fluorescent in nature, giving the actors a somewhat unhealthy pallor, however in the few shots above the surface, skin tones were represented well. Also nicely represented were the bright mauves and purples of the NTIs and the bright green of Bud's flare in the climactic final scenes. Blacks and dark blues of the ocean night, which represented the bulk of the colours on show, were full and deep, greatly aiding the overall presentation of the transfer.
I saw no MPEG artefacts, and no aliasing whatsoever. Film artefacts, on the other hand were quite frequent, however they were quite minor when they did occur. Most such artefacts were in the nature of black flecks, and therefore fairly inconspicuous due to the colour scheme of the film (the most apparent occurring at 62:11), however, there were some more noticeable instances of white flecks on a black background at 61:32 to 63:03, and again at 63:10 and 90:04. There appeared to be a missing frame at both 150:31 and 154:10, causing a little jump at these points.
Both DVDs in the set are Dual Layered. The layer change on Disc 1 occurs at 79:02 if watching the Special Edition, and at 62:27 if watching the Theatrical Version. The changes obviously occur at the same place, but at different times due to the differing running times of the two versions. The pause is reasonably noticeable, but, as it is placed between scenes, it is only nominally distracting. I couldn't spot the layer change on Disc 2, but no doubt it was placed somewhere between the numerous extras.
| Sharpness |  |
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The dialogue was clear and easy to understand, including the numerous lines spoken from within diving helmets and submersibles, however there was a slight but noticeable difference in quality between the original dialogue and the remastered portion of the soundtrack. Generally speaking, audio sync was not an issue, however, there seem to have been a number of instances of relaid dialogue, probably a result of the remastering process, which didn't quite fit, such as at 92:42, accenting the slightly lesser quality of the original dialogue track compared to the balance of the sound effects.
The Alan Silvestri (Forrest Gump) score ranged from traditional dramatic orchestral themes to military themes, and was suitably filled with "awe and wonder" type themes at the relevant moments.
Use of the surrounds was always going to be crucial in the viewing of this movie, and the transfer does not disappoint. Although the surrounds were not constantly in use, they were used beautifully at times to capture the claustrophobic nature of the underwater setting. Especially notable were the times when the camera's point of view was inside a submersible vehicle or in fact within a dive helmet. Other good uses came during the storm scenes on the ocean above, as well as for the helicopter landing near the beginning of the movie. The sound was never directionally specific, but rather, served to envelop across a wide soundstage. The only drawback were the occasional times where I felt that a little more atmosphere could have been added as almost all of the action occurred in steel chambers, from which I would have expected a little more ambient noise such as echo.
The subwoofer really got a good workout throughout most of the movie, from the rumbling of the underwater vehicles (including the submarine) to the huge crashes of the action sequences. It never drew attention to itself, but was well integrated into the mix, as it often filled out some of the deeper ambient sounds and parts of the score.
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NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Toshiba 2109, using S-Video output |
| Display | Sony Trinitron Wega (80cm). Calibrated with AVIA Guide To Home Theatre. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with AVIA Guide To Home Theatre. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-D608 |
| Speakers | Front: Yamaha NS10M, Rear: Wharfedale Diamond 7.1, Center: Wharfedale Sapphire, Sub: Aaron 120W |