Extras:
The Making of "Road to Perdition", Deleted Scenes, CD Soundtrack,
Photo Gallery, Cast and Crew biographies, Production Notes, Director's Commentary
Director:
Sam Mendes
(American Beauty, Road to Perdition, TV: Company)
Producer:
Sam Mendes, Dean Zanuck and Richard D Zanuck
Screenplay:
David Self (based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins & Richard Piers Rayner)
Music :
Thomas Newman
Cast :
Michael Sullivan: Tom Hanks
John Rooney: Paul Newman
Maguire: Jude Law
Annie Sullivan: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Michael Sullivan Jr: Tyler Hoechin
Peter Sullivan: Liam Aiken
Connor Rooney: Daniel Craig
Finn McGovern: Ciaran Hinds
Frank Nitti: Stanley Tucci
Alexander Rance: Dylan Baker
Sam Mendes had a lot riding on Road to Perdition,
following his startling directorial debut with
American Beauty.
It's the winter of 1931 and Michael Sullivan Jr (Tyler Hoechin) is
spending six weeks on the road with his hitman father (Tom Hanks) after
learning of his dangerous vocation in life, following a stakeout as he
sneaked into the car as Michael Sr took part in an assassination.
It's known to more than just his father that Michael Jr got an eyeful that
night.
Michael Sullivan is Al Capone's No.1 hitman so he certainly knows how to
handle himself, but keeping a close eye on your kith and kin isn't easy
when there are others about who aren't happy about even the smallest loose
end being left untied. Hence, the film develops into a rather predictable
revenge drama. That's not to say there's some enjoyment to be had in the
proceedings, but it's certainly not the open canvas that was promised and
was delivered in the aforementioned Kevin Spacey movie and after it's finished
you feel the last two hours could've been far better spent.
On the subject of canvas, the film certainly deserves its Oscar nominations
for art and set decoration as well as cinematography, but overall it's too
much a case of style succeeding over substance. Fantastic set design and an
authentic period feel do not a great movie make.
To give further details about the film would be as to point out spoiler.
Comments have been made about Paul Newman's wonderful acting as
Michael's employer John Rooney, but, that said, both Newman and Hanks seem
to be simply going through the motions. These are easy parts to play for
them as they've done it all before. Same goes for Jude Law turning in
an American accent as someone who "shoots the dead"... that's a photographer
of the recently deceased... or is it?
"No, you can't have an Xbox for Christmas.
They haven't been invented yet."
This is the second feature film from Sam Mendes and again it's in
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. There's a small amount of print flecks on a
very occasional basis, but nothing else to affect the otherwise
crystal clear print.
I've seen this DVD listed as having a DTS soundtrack on at least one website,
but there's only Dolby Digital 5.1 here. Composer Thomas Newman still
turns in a memorable score - mainly because it sounds like the light part of
Howard Jones' 1986 album track Assault and Battery -
and, given the tone of the film, gunshots ring out
perfectly, but this is not a sci-fi action fest.
The DVD starts up not at the menu, but with trailers for forthcoming films.
Thankfully you can skip these and go straight to the menu, but this isn't
what DVDs should be about as trailers are should only be selected from the
extras menu and not forced on you like a rental title.
Tom Hanks missed the
Hayley's Comet sighting whilst filming.
The extras:
The Making of "Road to Perdition" (24 mins):
Standard TV filler. Letterbox 16:9-cropped clips, chat from the main cast and
crew and a deep voice narrating, but not *that* deep voice.
Deleted Scenes (20½ mins):
Eleven of them, each with optional director's commentary. They're presented
in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen but only Dolby Surround sound. Some flesh
out scenes already in the film, but none make the film want to differentiate
any further from what you've seen.
CD Soundtrack (30 seconds):
Not what it sounds like, just a trailer for said item.
Photo Gallery:
50 pics.
Cast and Crew filmographies:
A few pages of info for the main people involved.
Production Notes:
And there's more.
Director's Commentary:
A feature-length commentary from Sam Mendes, complete with subtitles.
The film contains 24 chapters, subtitles are available in English, Danish,
Finnish, Icelandic, Swedish and Norwegian and the main menu is animated and
scored with a looped piece of music.
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
