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Little Women: Special Edition
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Director Gillian Armstrong's 1994 re-telling of the famous tale becomes a little too overly dramatic at times, and occasionally could use a bit of a push in pace, but the talented cast and director take the film places it otherwise would not have gone.
The film places us in the home of the Marches, from Jo(Winona Ryder) all the way down to young Amy(Kirsten Dunst) with other sisters such as Beth(Claire Danes) and Meg(Trini Alvarado) rounding out the group, along with Susan Sarandon as the mother of the girls. Although much of the tale centers around the hopes and dreams of the young girls, it also eventually turns to their relationships with men, played by Christian Bale and Gabriel Byrne.
The film's real joy is in two parts: cast members like Ryder, Dunst and Byrne perform wonderfully. There is also a couple of technical aspects that really help the film along; Thomas Newman's score is excellent without getting too sweet or dramatic, and Geoffrey Simpson's cinematography captures almost impossibly beautiful images.
The DVD
VIDEO: This is an extremely pleasing transfer from Tristar, and certainly some of their best work, which is saying quite a bit with the excellent track record that the studio has kept. Although the picture seems to intentionally have a little bit of a "soft" dramatic look to it, the image quality generally retains an impressive amount of sharpness and detail to it. Clarity is very good and never lacking. Cinematography by Geoffrey Simpson(the recent "Center Stage" as well as "Fried Green Tomatoes") bathes the interiors in warm light and tones, and the outdoors are kept in crisp, cold light. He's able to compose some gorgeous looking shots, even in the conversations between the characters in their house.
Flaws? What flaws? There are a couple of tiny marks on the print used, but other than that, there's nothing to distract - no shimmering or pixelation, for a picture that's of outstanding quality.
SOUND: Certainly nothing very agressive, the film rarely steps beyond being a "dialogue-driven" dramatic piece. There is one highlight that breaks out of that border though, and that's Thomas Newman's lovely and well-recorded score, which drifts through the room with beautiful clarity. Dialogue is especially clear and easily understood.
MENUS:: While wildly animated main menus wouldn't have gone well with the tone of the movie, Tristar has still managed to put together animated main menus that are both subtle and still add a great deal to the introduction of the tone of the movie. The main menu is particularly pleasing, with animated snow falling in front of a window where the main characters are looking out. A bit of the score also plays in the background.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Gillian Armstrong. She talks rather quickly at times, but if you can keep up with her thoughts, viewers will find that she covers a lot of ground while talking over the movie. The commentary starts off chatting about the locations, starting with the town that the film shot at and going further into detail even to talking about how the tones of the home were chosen. From there, she talks even further about the locations and where certain scenes were filmed, as well as how the sets were built - even how the snow was constructed on the set.
Other subjects that are covered are almost too numerous to be listed. Armstrong pauses on occasion to let a scene play out, but other than that, the director also talks frequently about the story behind the story, speaking about her viewpoint on the characters and how the actors prepared for their roles in rehearsals. There is also a good deal of information on how the film was changed as the production went along. She also notes what seems to be many of the crew, and goes into great detail about what they contributed to the movie.
It's impressive how much Armstrong is able to offer about a film that was released 6 years ago, but she really is able to not only offer a great deal of analysis about the characters, but a fine amount of production details as well as stories from the set. I think it's an example of a filmmaker who seems very excited to let the audience in on the magic of filmmaking, and for those who are fans of the movie, they will find this discussion to be a treat - there is a wonderful wealth of information contained on this track.
Deleted Scenes: Viewers can have the choice of whether or not to hear director Gillian Armstrong's commentary for the two deleted scenes included; the scenes are short and not very major, but still are nice to have included on the DVD.
Trailers: Trailers for "Little Women", "Jumanji", "Hook" and "Madeline".
Text:: There is a cast/crew bios section as well as a text notes section featuring a "historical timeline" of the story.
Trivia Games:: Not one, but two games: "All Through The House" and "A Bygone Era".
Costume Design Gallery: Starting off with a clip from the movie along with narration from director Armstrong, this featurette then turns to narration from the costume designer, who leads us through a number of pictures and concept art for her work. The remainder of the presentation shows the viewer concept art for the sets and other production elements. The featurette runs a little over eight minutes.
Also: The isolated score, as well as a short "making-of" featurette.
Director Gillian Armstrong's 1994 re-telling of the famous tale becomes a little too overly dramatic at times, and occasionally could use a bit of a push in pace, but the talented cast and director take the film places it otherwise would not have gone.
The film places us in the home of the Marches, from Jo(Winona Ryder) all the way down to young Amy(Kirsten Dunst) with other sisters such as Beth(Claire Danes) and Meg(Trini Alvarado) rounding out the group, along with Susan Sarandon as the mother of the girls. Although much of the tale centers around the hopes and dreams of the young girls, it also eventually turns to their relationships with men, played by Christian Bale and Gabriel Byrne.
The film's real joy is in two parts: cast members like Ryder, Dunst and Byrne perform wonderfully. There is also a couple of technical aspects that really help the film along; Thomas Newman's score is excellent without getting too sweet or dramatic, and Geoffrey Simpson's cinematography captures almost impossibly beautiful images.
The DVD
VIDEO: This is an extremely pleasing transfer from Tristar, and certainly some of their best work, which is saying quite a bit with the excellent track record that the studio has kept. Although the picture seems to intentionally have a little bit of a "soft" dramatic look to it, the image quality generally retains an impressive amount of sharpness and detail to it. Clarity is very good and never lacking. Cinematography by Geoffrey Simpson(the recent "Center Stage" as well as "Fried Green Tomatoes") bathes the interiors in warm light and tones, and the outdoors are kept in crisp, cold light. He's able to compose some gorgeous looking shots, even in the conversations between the characters in their house.
Flaws? What flaws? There are a couple of tiny marks on the print used, but other than that, there's nothing to distract - no shimmering or pixelation, for a picture that's of outstanding quality.
SOUND: Certainly nothing very agressive, the film rarely steps beyond being a "dialogue-driven" dramatic piece. There is one highlight that breaks out of that border though, and that's Thomas Newman's lovely and well-recorded score, which drifts through the room with beautiful clarity. Dialogue is especially clear and easily understood.
MENUS:: While wildly animated main menus wouldn't have gone well with the tone of the movie, Tristar has still managed to put together animated main menus that are both subtle and still add a great deal to the introduction of the tone of the movie. The main menu is particularly pleasing, with animated snow falling in front of a window where the main characters are looking out. A bit of the score also plays in the background.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Gillian Armstrong. She talks rather quickly at times, but if you can keep up with her thoughts, viewers will find that she covers a lot of ground while talking over the movie. The commentary starts off chatting about the locations, starting with the town that the film shot at and going further into detail even to talking about how the tones of the home were chosen. From there, she talks even further about the locations and where certain scenes were filmed, as well as how the sets were built - even how the snow was constructed on the set.
Other subjects that are covered are almost too numerous to be listed. Armstrong pauses on occasion to let a scene play out, but other than that, the director also talks frequently about the story behind the story, speaking about her viewpoint on the characters and how the actors prepared for their roles in rehearsals. There is also a good deal of information on how the film was changed as the production went along. She also notes what seems to be many of the crew, and goes into great detail about what they contributed to the movie.
It's impressive how much Armstrong is able to offer about a film that was released 6 years ago, but she really is able to not only offer a great deal of analysis about the characters, but a fine amount of production details as well as stories from the set. I think it's an example of a filmmaker who seems very excited to let the audience in on the magic of filmmaking, and for those who are fans of the movie, they will find this discussion to be a treat - there is a wonderful wealth of information contained on this track.
Deleted Scenes: Viewers can have the choice of whether or not to hear director Gillian Armstrong's commentary for the two deleted scenes included; the scenes are short and not very major, but still are nice to have included on the DVD.
Trailers: Trailers for "Little Women", "Jumanji", "Hook" and "Madeline".
Text:: There is a cast/crew bios section as well as a text notes section featuring a "historical timeline" of the story.
Trivia Games:: Not one, but two games: "All Through The House" and "A Bygone Era".
Costume Design Gallery: Starting off with a clip from the movie along with narration from director Armstrong, this featurette then turns to narration from the costume designer, who leads us through a number of pictures and concept art for her work. The remainder of the presentation shows the viewer concept art for the sets and other production elements. The featurette runs a little over eight minutes.
Also: The isolated score, as well as a short "making-of" featurette.
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