Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing, French, Dutch
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £5.99
Extras:
Trailer
Director:
Jonathan Mostow
(Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers, Breakdown, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, U-571, TV: From the Earth to the Moon)
Producers:
Dino De Laurentiis and Martha De Laurentiis
Screenplay:
Jonathan Mostow and Sam Montgomery
Music :
Basil Poledouris
Cast :
Jeff Taylor: Kurt Russell
Warren 'Red' Barr: J.T. Walsh
Amy Taylor: Kathleen Quinlan
Earl: M.C. Gainey
Billy: Jack Noseworthy
Sheriff Boyd: Rex Linn
Al: Ritch Brinkley
Deputy Len Carvey: Kim Robillard
Bartender: Jack McGee
Breakdown
is one of those rare films, like
The Bourne Identity,
that somehow I knew exactly how it was going to start and that, coupled with an excellent
premise, meant I knew I was in for a cinematic treat.
As the movie begins, Jeff Taylor (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy (Kathleen Quinlan)
are driving across country and in the back of beyond to get to a new location and new jobs. Eerie
music seeps out of the speakers as theirs is the only car out on the road and the seemingly-random
lines amongst the opening credits give way to a rather barren A-Z of the road.
While taking his eyes off the road for a second, they rejoin the highway to find a beaten-up hick
truck in front of his shiny new car, causing Jeff to brake and swerve. A cuss from the other's owner
and they're on their way. As if by chance, they happen across the hicks at the next chance to take
a stop. All is not lost just yet though, until... their car breaks down. Without a garage or any kind
of sign of life for miles, they're stuffed until a friendly truck driver, Red Barr (the late J.T. Walsh,
one of those prolific actors who never got the A-list recognition he deserved when he died of a heart attack,
aged 54), stops and offers them a lift to Belle's Diner, five miles down the road so they can call a
tow-truck.
But as there's two of them, and one needs to stay with the car just in case, Amy goes off with Red.
Thirty minutes later, Jeff's sick of waiting around and has a look under his car to find it's something
far more simple than he thought, because it's a new car and the problem isn't down to the usual wear and
tear. Problem solved, Jeff sets off to meet his wife except... she's not there. And no-one saw her either.
Pardon? How can that be? None of this is making any sense to Jeff. He's advised to head for the nearest
town which is 20 miles away, but on the way comes across Red's truck and forces him to stop. On asking
what's happened to his wife, Red denies all knowledge of them having met, or the whereabouts of his wife.
As a police car stops in the course of their fruitless conversation, the officer doesn't appear to be
of much help either, suggesting his wife might have left him and sends the trucker on his way, recommending
Jeff files a missing person's report at the not-so nearby police station.
What follows as Jeff travels from place to place in search of his wife, and encounters the hicks on
more than one occasion, is a masterpiece of suspense. He's put in the most incredible of frustrating
situations as he eventually gets towards the truth, and to go into detail about that here would rob
you of its fascinating content.
What stops this film getting full marks is that, despite the great car/truck chases and altercations,
it does use cliched situations - mostly towards the end - and doesn't have the greatest of dialogue
exchanges between Jeff and Amy before she disappears, but these can be forgiven for the excellence
that is onscreen, and given the kind of things that happen to Jeff, you never know what really could
happen when you venture down the wrong path. After all, the characters in Deliverance also went
through some nasty experiences, but life can lead you into some strange situations.
I could also add that as director Jonathan Mostow has proved with Breakdown that he can make
a taut, engaging thriller, just what was he playing at with the nonsense that was
Terminator 3
last summer?
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, there are occasional scratches on the print, mostly during the
opening credits, but nothing that would concern the majority of viewers from the usual viewing distance.
Mostow also puts in an expert job of framing the movie in this ratio, whether it's the chase sequences
or the tension building up while all is quiet. I know that as this is seven years old, now, it's been
on TV a couple of times and shown no wider than 16:9. It really is high time that the terrestrial channels
got with reality and realised that viewers are used to 2.35:1 through DVDs, and a pseudo-2.35:1 effect
from pop videos and adverts, so stopped cropping in this way. BBC2 and Channel 4 used to show films properly,
several years ago, but stopped a while back, and more recently even Sky One have started to broadcast
films in their correct ratio, such as Terminal Velocity and
Pulp Fiction.
Soundwise, the Dolby Digital 5.1 is used to great effect, like the picture framing, for the score
bringing in tension at the right time while going all guns blazing as the action hots up. Rears are
used equally well here too, and there's a great example of noise and directional effects at the start
of chapter 17 as a train crosses the track with the camera seemingly having its nose pushed up against
it.
The only thing this DVD release is lacking is worthy extras. All we get here is a trailer in 4:3,
the framing of which shows that it doesn't look as bad as expected due to the film being shot
in Super 35, but, still, why tamper with the original? Oh, and if you haven't seen the trailer
yet, don't watch it until you've seen the film as it gives too much away.
Other than that, the menu is still and silent, there are subtitles in English for the hard of hearing,
French and Dutch, and whoever put in the chapters excelled themselves with a total of 31.
BTW, the German DVD included a behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews with cast and crew and a
photo gallery. I know this is only a budget release now, but Fox still could've made an effort.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
