Blu-ray Review: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

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“The book reveals Mumbai as a city in fast-forward. It's like a Dickensian London brought into the 21st century. It's rapidly developing. The poor are poorer than ever before. The rich are richer than ever before. And there's this mass of people in the middle, trying to force their way up. It's a fantastic setting for a fairytale.”

-- Oscar Winning Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy
(As quoted in the Production Notes for Slumdog Millionaire, based on the novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup)

And luckily for The Full Monty screenwriter Simon Beaufoy-- Slumdog producer Christian Colson also agreed with his assessment of diplomat turned first time novelist Vikas Swarup, by noting that in Beaufoy’s hands, the work became, “a fairytale and like all the best fairytales, it has moments of real darkness and horror. It's a story that will make you laugh, cry and often gasp.”

The ultimate tale of an underdog or in the term coined by Beaufoy-- “slumdog”-- the film that went on to win eight Academy Awards including Best Picture seemed to offer an instant appeal, catharsis, and fascination for all who came into contact with it, beginning with UK’s Channel 4 head of film and drama Tessa Ross who first caught a glimpse of Swarup’s work in manuscript form.

Curiously, one of the very few dark and intense films to garner support with the movie-going public around the globe, earning the praise of film critics and casual film fans alike in a sea of late fall/early winter 2008 extremely bleak Oscar bait and it's one that is even more of an international surprise since it’s largely filled with subtitles which historically the American ticket buying public usually avoids in droves. Still, there was just something about this particular film that broke boundaries and director Danny Boyle’s epic Slumdog Millionaire seemed to have been made and released at exactly the right time in history.

As we are currently all enduring what can essentially be dubbed a second “great depression,” it’s no wonder that escapist movie fare like Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Fast and the Furious, Monsters vs. Aliens, and far more recently Hannah Montana: The Movie has ruled at the box office so far in 2009 but despite the fact that Slumdog opens in rather extreme circumstances as our protagonist is viciously tortured and Boyle’s film contains some extremely horrific situations,at its core, there is a true and instantly relatable heart that beats throughout its entire running time.

Instead of simply forcing violence or incredibly depressing twists and turns at the audience in the hopes of drumming up award momentum (for example—just how many films nominated for Oscars, Independent Spirit Awards, and Golden Globes should actually offer viewers a free prescription of Prozac with the purchase of a ticket?), Beaufoy and Boyle craft an inspiring tale of how even the promise of love can keep one strong.

Additionally, throughout the work, they celebrate the mind-boggling ability of human nature to bounce back from one unbelievable hardship to the next by giving us a character that never gives in, waits for either a handout or some divine intervention but instead manages to create his own opportunities all the while without sacrificing his moral center and innate goodness. Likewise, instead of yet another work about family dysfunction or selfish, self-obsessed WASPS, the multifaceted narrative woven throughout the film that goes back and forth in time perfectly complements Danny Boyle’s mesmerizing direction.

It is book-ended by a present day suspenseful arc as Jamal (played by British actor Dev Patel from TV’s Skins) is tortured and interrogated due to his unprecedented success on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Convinced that a young “ignorant” boy from the slums who serves tea in a call center has somehow cheated his way into the position of being one question away from earning 20,000 rupees, Jamal persuades the head inspector (The Namesake’s Irrfan Khan) into his belief that you don't need to be a genius to win. Instead, he tells the inspector how and why he knew each and every answer asked on the show in a series of flashbacks that make up the story of his life so far at the age of eighteen. While the storytelling frame device is nothing new—the way it all is put together is simply hypnotic.

Shortly after it begins, Boyle leads us into the epic fairytale of Jamal who—following the murder of his mother in a religiously motivated attack as a young boy—struggles to survive alongside his street-smart older brother Salim and later, their beautiful orphaned “third musketeer” Latika who instantly captures Jamal’s heart in one of the most breathtaking scenes in the film as we first see her alone in the rain.

Soon we follow them as they make their way from one misfortune to the next including being “rescued” by what they assume is a quality orphanage only to learn that it’s a far more dangerous and Dickensian place where cruel adults blind children and force them to sing and beg for money. And while Jamal and Salim manage to escape, the increasingly aggressive Salim lets go of Latika’s hand in a haunting shot that sets up the rest of Jamal’s plight to be reunited with the girl he loves.

Caring less about the money from Millionaire and instead more about the chance that perhaps Latika would see him on television and—after a series of tragedies and missed opportunities—finally be able to be together permanently, Jamal’s tale is compelling and overwhelmingly complex in the film’s unbelievable scope and audacious visual style.

At its core, it's the type of work that perhaps Boyle had been striving towards throughout his career as it contains numerous elements seen in his other films such as a gruesome toilet sequence (Trainspotting), the director’s wondrous ability to tell the stories of and work with children Millions), weave horror together with political allegory and timely messages (28 Days Later), beauty and danger (The Beach), all the while emphasizing love complete with an uncharacteristic but joyful dance (A Life Less Ordinary).

Likewise, the film is almost musical in the way all of the technical elements blend together seamlessly from innovative editing from Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead’s Chris Dickens, Dogme veteran cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (The Celebration, Dogville, Manderlay, The Last King of Scotland), production designer Mark Digby (A Mighty Heart) and composer A.R. Rahman.

The production of the film and it's overall look was completed with a variety of cameras including: the ultra advanced and brand new SI-2K digital cameras that were small enough to be hand-held but could be used with a stabilizing gyro allowing them to film in very tight corners and intimate surroundings; the twelve frames per second capable Canon still camera Canon-Cam; traditional film cameras; tiny DigiCams and more to ensure that it wouldn’t have an overly polished and traditionally classical appearance.

As Boyle—who had never been to India prior to making the film noted—“I wanted to feel really involved in the city. I didn’t want to be looking at it, examining it. I wanted to be thrown right into the chaos as much as possible,” and this is evident from the beginning as we literally run along with our young hero (one of three actors portraying Jamal as he, Salim, and Latika go from roughly seven to thirteen to eighteen over the course of the movie).

In my view, the best marriage of all of the elements occurs in the bravura sequence set to M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” (also featured in the Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner buddy comedy Pineapple Express) wherein Jamal and Salim dangle off a speeding train, moving in and around it following their escape from the evil orphanage, essentially living like mini Woody Guthrie styled hobos. And this segment moves naturally until they eventually arrive at the Taj Mahal where they con their way into another gig, using their wits to survive until the impatient Salim take a different City of God style route embracing crime as the fastest way to obtain wealth and power.

In fact, watching it again in this exceptional Blu-ray transfer that helps make the digital source material all the more dazzling to behold, I was instantly struck by just how much of the film (aside from the whole Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? angle) recalled Fernando Meirelles’ brilliant City of God and after checking on the post God publication date of Swarup’s novel, I wondered how much the author had been inspired by it.

Also, seemingly drawing cinematically from not just Dickens but also the child-centric works of both Italian neorealism (such as The Bicycle Thief) as well as the post-neorealistic films from other countries including Mira Nair’s groundbreaking Salaam Bombay! which was the first Indian film to earn an Oscar nomination—Boyle manages to use endless possible sources for inspiration to his advantage all the while making an extremely contemporary tale of India as the “rapidly growing Mumbai is set to replace Tokyo as the world’s most populous city by 2020.”

“A city where as many as 50% of the citizens live in shantytowns, ghettoes or on the streets,” Boyle and his fearless cast and crew managed to strive even harder to explore areas rarely captured on film and the great economic and sociological divide of the setting crystallized to perfection by Beaufoy’s humanistic screenplay. The script itself is one to be envied for its astronomically difficult feat as Beaufoy tried to find one singular thread to use as a through-line from Swarup’s atmospheric book that consisted of “twelve short stories… some of which weren’t even linked in any way…[or] had no reference to the main characters at all.”

Definitely proof that—much like raising a child—it takes a whole village (or the efforts of those on a number of continents) to make a film—the vivid, visceral, and unforgettable Slumdog Millionaire would’ve been satisfying enough just simply transferring the Oscar winning film to Blu-ray but devotees will be thrilled to discover that it also has a making-of-featurette, twelve deleted scenes, a forty minute bonus short film titled Manjha, a music video, audio commentary—and inexplicably a “behind-the-scenes” look of the infamous “Toilet Scene” that honestly, I’m not sure many people will want to watch. Keeping the 2:35:1 widescreen aspect ratio and Dolby Digital as well as DTSHD sound that matches the amazingly crisp and richly detailed digital 1080 pixel picture—the Blu-ray also contains a bonus copy of the film for portable media players that’s compatible with both Macs and PCs.

Blu-ray Review: A Mighty Heart (2007)

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It’s something that we take for granted as it arrives on our stoop in the morning causing us to leave newspaper ink fingerprints as we go about our day; scan the bottom of the channel CNN to view the crawl instead of listening to be endless and repetitive pundits; or read online via The Huffington Post, The New York Times, etc.

But what we don't realize in this age of readily available information is that the news has to come from somewhere and it's derived from the tireless and courageous pursuits of journalists around the globe where -- even in the 2000s -- someone can get into a cab and disappear into a horrific nightmare which leads to their death. No, this is not the stuff of a novel but a hellish page one feature that resulted in the true and heart wrenching story of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and eventual beheading which took place in the winter of 2002.

For what Variety called his first studio film, director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People), helmed the emotionally riveting and compelling docudrama A Mighty Heart and in doing so, set about tackling the true account of Pearl’s life and disappearance as captured in nonfiction form by his widow, Mariane Pearl.

Adapted by Band of Brothers screenwriter John Orloff, A Mighty Heart is a devastating and tense work that brings us into the investigation via Winnterbottom’s astute cinematic approach that on the surface seems technically similar to The Constant Gardener but quickly evolves into its own startlingly realistic rhythm.

The film from Paramount Vantage and produced as a project of love by Brad Pitt whose partner Angelina Jolie takes on the role of Mariane is supremely enhanced by a plentiful employment of cuts from editor Peter Christelis that never gives us the opportunity to settle into any given moment as nary a shot lasts more than a few seconds to ratchet up the urgency even further. Likewise, Winterbottom strictly adheres to his style, throwing viewers off balance via fast close-ups and cinematographer Marcel Zyskind’s constantly moving high definition handheld camera.

However, all of this was picked up on during my second viewing of the work as it hits Blu-ray in a transfer that seems entirely fitting to move Winterbottom's film that was shot in high definition to the newsreel, docudrama, hellish home movie style high definition format.



For, like most viewers, the first time I caught A Mighty Heart I was less conscious of the seemingly effortless artistry and instead incredibly overwhelmed by the dynamic yet subtle performance by Angelina Jolie as Mariane who-- very pregnant-- kisses her husband goodbye as he steps into a cab, never to see him again.

Although one of the hurdles of the work’s success which some critics argued was that it may have been completed a bit too soon after Danny's demise since we all precisely we know how it will all turn out as officials, government specialists, colleagues and others wait alongside Mariane using a wide variety of journalistic and detective based techniques to try to follow Daniel’s final story about Richard Reid in Karachi, Pakistan. Simply put, Pearl’s alarming and highly publicized disappearance and shocking end to his young life horrified citizens around the globe and some questioned whether or not this should be captured on celluloid while the wounds were still left unhealed.

However, although we know what coming, it’s all the more upsetting when we are placed by Winterbottom in the house of his soon to be widow. A finely crafted film that features Jolie’s best work since her Academy Award winning turn in Girl, Interrupted-- the Blu-ray’s technical efficiency is very impressive boasting a natural sound balance even when using a simple HDMI cord which nicely matches the heightened picture that seems far crisper given Winterbottom's tendency to use (as he shares in the making-of-featurette) as little light as possible.

Angelina Jolie

The thirty-minute minute behind-the-scenes documentary “A Journey of Passion,” displays not only Winterbottom's masterful craftsmanship that served the intimate location well during its five-week shoot but also the ensemble cast’s fierce commitment to be as authentic as possible in bringing Daniel and Marianne Pearl’s story to life. In fact, if you've are a seen the film before, you may actually want to begin the Blu-ray experience by taking in this featurette first as it makes you appreciate even more the supporting work by actors such as Dan Futterman, Archie Panjabi, and Will Patton.

Also containing an optional but highly informative 2007 public service announcement introduction with Christiane Amanpour as she discusses the sad facts that journalists are not only targets for what they write but what they represent which is bringing the news, and the facts from some of the farthest reaches of the world straight to your driveway every morning.



In order to counter the ignorance and hatred that led to the murder of Daniel Pearl as well as (“some 230 other journalists [that] lost their lives at the time of Pearl's kidnapping” as Ebert referenced from Pearl’s memoir) which Amanpour, Mariane Pearl, and Roger Ebert conclude “means… [that journalists had a] proportionately… higher death rate than combat soldiers,” the Daniel Pearl Foundation (http://www.danielpearl.org) was started in an attempt to use journalism, music and the arts to break down barriers and encourage tolerance, acceptance, and understanding-- namely everything that was lacked when journalists lose their lives.

Additionally, the Blu-ray disc also offers a mini-featurette that charts the historical inception and efforts made in the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) which began a little over 25 years ago with the mission to protect journalists as in some countries the First Amendment we so enjoy in this nation does not exist and the freedom of the press is an unfamiliar phrase and what journalists report may in fact lead to not just persecution but death in their respective homelands.

And yes, admittedly I grant you that audience’s tolerance of any post-9/11 films has been virtually nonexistent as several high-quality, thought provoking cinematic explorations have either crashed and burned at the box office or been left to gather dust on video store shelves. Likewise, even as a critic who tries to be open to watching as many types of films as possible, I was hesitant to take in some of the extremely depressing Oscar bait fodder served up into theatres last fall and winter.

However, A Mighty Heart remains timelier than ever as the line between the media and the public is increasingly blurred with Twitter updates filling the bottom of CNN screens and bloggers around the globe starting to report the stories that matter while some of our most lauded institutions such as Roger Ebert’s Chicago Sun-Times declare bankruptcy.

In other words, in this day and age-- whether it's via YouTube or podcasts-- more individuals than ever before are taking advantage of the idea of the “freedom of the press” and so it is necessary for all of us to honor the sacrifices made by the men and women who did this to help bring truth and justice to light by taking time out to learn more about story of Daniel Pearl whose attempt to bring us the news that transfers from the ink pages to our fingers now transfers to our keyboards on a regular basis.

So, given the unparalleled democracy of the world wide web when we all have the chance to become Daniel Pearl, let us remember the way he lived and his reasons for his work rather than the way he died being the type of snippet of information we take for granted on the CNN crawl.