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Edges of the Lord
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // January 4, 2005
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
A film not released to North American theaters finally gets it's chance to show off the award winning script of writerdirected Yurek Bogayevicz in the form of Edges of the Lord. Edges took the award for Best Screenplay in the 2001 Polish Film festival, and it took four years for it to finally gain a stateside release.
Filmed on location in Poland, Edges of the Lord stars Haley Joel Osment as a young Jewish boy who's been forced by the Nazi occupation of Poland to leave his family and live in a Catholic countryside village. Initially Osment's character Romek has a tough time fitting in, and soon has to start catechism with the other village children, which leads up to a lot of the not so subtle symbology in the movie.
The village children are tasked with assuming the role of one of the apostles, and one child named Tolo (Liam Hess) decides that he wants to play the role of Jesus which leads to some slightly disturbing scenes such as him trying to pound nails through his own hands. The lone female of the group has a short discussion with the Priest about the role of women and how they interacted with Jesus, naturally the topic of Mary Magdalene came up, but the topic stopped there.
Once Romek becomes integrated into the village, he soon hears about "the trains" that roll by the town at night and decides that he would like to see them firsthand. Once there, he witnesses the persecuted Jews trying to escape the train and then realizes that his family might not be returning to make their family whole once again. One night while out watching the trains, Romek and a friend Vladek witness one of the village teens robbing the Jews who manage to escape the train, which leads to a difficult scene of Romek unwillingly robbing other Jewish train passengers with the Nazi soldiers applauding his efforts.
The movie was filmed with what seemed like a handheld camera to bring the viewing audience into the picture more, but the hectic pace of the camera did not fit well with the rather somber subject matter. I also didn't find the story all that compelling, but I might attribute that to the bulk of the acting cast who's native language was not English, so the subtle inflections of tones that a native speaker can add to dialog can really add to the overall impact of the script.
Rather than have the village try to force this young Jewish child to accept the Catholic way of life, we get a touching scene where the Priest is distributing communion, and instead of giving Romek a blessed piece, he gives him an edge which he had previously described to the boy as the part which is not blessed, thereby helping him preserve his Jewish faith.
The DVD
How's it Look:
Edges of the Lord is presented in a very sharply colored 1.85:1 aspect ratio which has been anamorphically enhanced for your viewing pleasure. Colors are very well done here and the transition from the bright and nicely lit daytime outdoor scenes, to the dark and stormy night scenes are very sharp and the image does not tend to get muddy in the darkened scenes. The image doesn't try to be artificially sharp, and did not contain any noticeable grain or dust on the print. Overall the video quality was a very nice surprise.
How's it sound:
Edges is a very dialog driven movie, and is presented in English only on what is an adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 track. While your receiver may try to mix some sound into the rear speakers, it is limited to the music and other ambience such as the rain and other sound effects of a small country village.
Extras:
Buena Vista chose not to release any extras on this disc, aside from a trailer for Finding Neverland. There are French, English and Spanish subtitles however.
Closing thoughts:
While not blown away by the movie for either the script or the visual direction, it did present a slightly interesting view into WW2 and it's effect on children which were saved from the horrible fate of countless others. The DVD itself is a very barebones disc, and really doesn't beg to be purchased for it's replay value. I would suggest this as a rental however, as a couple of the child actors (Osment and Liam Ness in particular) do a great job in tackling what is a very tough subject.
Filmed on location in Poland, Edges of the Lord stars Haley Joel Osment as a young Jewish boy who's been forced by the Nazi occupation of Poland to leave his family and live in a Catholic countryside village. Initially Osment's character Romek has a tough time fitting in, and soon has to start catechism with the other village children, which leads up to a lot of the not so subtle symbology in the movie.
The village children are tasked with assuming the role of one of the apostles, and one child named Tolo (Liam Hess) decides that he wants to play the role of Jesus which leads to some slightly disturbing scenes such as him trying to pound nails through his own hands. The lone female of the group has a short discussion with the Priest about the role of women and how they interacted with Jesus, naturally the topic of Mary Magdalene came up, but the topic stopped there.
Once Romek becomes integrated into the village, he soon hears about "the trains" that roll by the town at night and decides that he would like to see them firsthand. Once there, he witnesses the persecuted Jews trying to escape the train and then realizes that his family might not be returning to make their family whole once again. One night while out watching the trains, Romek and a friend Vladek witness one of the village teens robbing the Jews who manage to escape the train, which leads to a difficult scene of Romek unwillingly robbing other Jewish train passengers with the Nazi soldiers applauding his efforts.
The movie was filmed with what seemed like a handheld camera to bring the viewing audience into the picture more, but the hectic pace of the camera did not fit well with the rather somber subject matter. I also didn't find the story all that compelling, but I might attribute that to the bulk of the acting cast who's native language was not English, so the subtle inflections of tones that a native speaker can add to dialog can really add to the overall impact of the script.
Rather than have the village try to force this young Jewish child to accept the Catholic way of life, we get a touching scene where the Priest is distributing communion, and instead of giving Romek a blessed piece, he gives him an edge which he had previously described to the boy as the part which is not blessed, thereby helping him preserve his Jewish faith.
The DVD
How's it Look:
Edges of the Lord is presented in a very sharply colored 1.85:1 aspect ratio which has been anamorphically enhanced for your viewing pleasure. Colors are very well done here and the transition from the bright and nicely lit daytime outdoor scenes, to the dark and stormy night scenes are very sharp and the image does not tend to get muddy in the darkened scenes. The image doesn't try to be artificially sharp, and did not contain any noticeable grain or dust on the print. Overall the video quality was a very nice surprise.
How's it sound:
Edges is a very dialog driven movie, and is presented in English only on what is an adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 track. While your receiver may try to mix some sound into the rear speakers, it is limited to the music and other ambience such as the rain and other sound effects of a small country village.
Extras:
Buena Vista chose not to release any extras on this disc, aside from a trailer for Finding Neverland. There are French, English and Spanish subtitles however.
Closing thoughts:
While not blown away by the movie for either the script or the visual direction, it did present a slightly interesting view into WW2 and it's effect on children which were saved from the horrible fate of countless others. The DVD itself is a very barebones disc, and really doesn't beg to be purchased for it's replay value. I would suggest this as a rental however, as a couple of the child actors (Osment and Liam Ness in particular) do a great job in tackling what is a very tough subject.
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