DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The 16:9 enhanced transfer offered here preserves the film’s well-sustained sense of a pervasive, glossy everyday Americana erupting into consciousness in certain wry moments, particularly the slyly amusing supermarket scene. The design thus develops from practical, unattractive neon lighting into a mounting depiction of a truly ugly American social landscape. This deliberate aesthetic choice, to explore the grimy, seedy and unattractive underside of American culture is most effective and suggests the film’s inspiration in social commentary, though this is gradually subverted and ridiculed. Thus, although set in a desolate Los Angeles fully evident of socio-economic deprivation and populated by aimless, violent characters, the film’s harsh visual look and Cox’s slyly comical tone renders the movie finally in terms of a kind of mock-sociological tract. Much of the film is set in moving vehicles and it thus cleverly develops an ebb and flow of movement and stasis. Journey is illusion here as the hope of going somewhere is perpetually raised and lowered in this structure. Sunlight is contrasted to the colours of nightlife and the colour saturation in a bar scene is vivid and resonant, as is a fine use of reflections on car windows. The special effects are deliberately cartoonish as the film emerges a mix of tones and genres that works surprisingly well, making for an assured directorial debut.
Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound transfer offered here is somewhat peculiar, however; even oddly disconcerting at times. Apparently redressed for DVD’s home theatre capabilities, it has depth but the voices feel hollow, as if centrally placed in an echo chamber of sorts (a similar audio presence happening in the concurrent DVD release of Cox’s Walker). Ambient sound details are absolutely crisp but are similarly placed and altogether the film here feels rather un-natural and artificial in comparison to other mixes. The music has an effective punk energy (anticipating director Cox’s real breakthrough film Sid and Nancy) and the importantly energetic sounds of life in vehicles and on the road is well captured. Likewise, the distortions of radios and intercoms have an effective spatial dimension and makes for a minor motif on human communication in the age of the dying automobile. Although the details are grounded in reality, the sound transfer makes them stand out as somehow larger than life and it is thus debatable if this actually preserves the original intention. Select sounds are still frequently used for comical effect and there is an unusually mannered way of speaking in this film that places respective characters a distance from the monotony that threatens them all. In speech and behaviour the film takes a decided turn towards the odd: at once recognizable within, but separate from, its bland world. read more
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