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Movie:		7.0
Picture:		3.0
Sound:		3.0
Extras:		1.0
Score:		1.0

Director(s):	John Huston
Writer(s):	Tony Huston and James Joyce
Starring:	Angelica Huston • Donal McCann • Dan O'Herlihy • Donal Donnelly
Genre:	Drama
Release Date:	November 03, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	DVD - $8.84
Amazon:

If there’s one type of film that simply doesn’t float my boat, it’s the late 1800s/early 1900s period European costume drama. I’m not into it, I feel I can’t relate to many of the characters. The films which fall into this category that I can watch at length are few and far between, and if anyone mentions Brideshead Revisited to me I’ll likely slip into a light coma.

John Huston’s final film, The Dead, falls under this heading. It was the immortal director’s dream project for many years. He did not live to see the film’s release. Directing from an oxygen tent, he meticulously adapted James Joyce’s short story in the most non-indulgent manner a director of his stature and ability could endure. With the help of an Oscar-nominated screenplay penned by his son, Tony Huston, and with his daughter Anjelica filling the lead role, a poetic swan song was crafted, steadily garnering a quiet but devoted fan base over the last two decades. And deservedly so – what begins as a captivating exercise in nearly non-narrative cinema, without a clear, guiding conflict, develops into a poetic cinematic lament, both warming and chilling. Stunning visualizations of the dead of winter conclude the film, and fittingly, Huston’s legacy.

When would Huston’s final effort be given a US release on a digital format? The rumors spread for years, Criterion were in talks, until finally Lionsgate announced a standard-def release for the Christmas season of 2009. That release is here, no doubt, but it is not the film Huston left for us. Instead, Lionsgate has bewilderingly cut ten minutes of critical character development from the first third of the film, inexorably raping it of its greatest strength. As the majority of the film takes place at a dinner party, and no sequence for the first three quarters of the film features fewer than five characters, what we are left with is a somewhat confusing and largely empty shell of The Dead as it was intended to be seen. While all the characters maintain very recognizable traits, losing such a length from so early on in the film creates an intrinsically different, and indisputably inferior work.

DVD Audio/Video

Lionsgate, not content with simply hollowing out the core strength of the film, decided to very slightly shave some of the frame off, cutting the aspect ratio down from the original 1.85:1 to 1:78:1. If you are unfamiliar with my meaning, go find a photo album, take out your favorite treasured moment and cut a sizeable portion from every side of the photo. Then imagine doing that 24 times every second for the length of a feature film, and I hope you can understand how it creates an unquestionably different aesthetic.

The transfer on the disc is also far more muddy and warm than the film has traditionally been shown as, losing much of its subtle grandeur as a result. The 2.0 audio track is noticeably unclear at points, and for such a dialogue-heavy piece, that really is just unfortunate.

DVD Bonus Features

Always intended to be released alongside The Dead was an hour-long companion documentary entitled John Huston and the Dubliners, which is nowhere to be found on the disc. As a matter of fact, nothing relating to the film is available here. The sole “Bonus Features,” are some stock promos for other Lionsgate releases and some of the most downright ugly box art to adorn my shelf.

My DVD rack has housed everything from Meatballs IV to Cannibal Holocaust, but such a monumental degradation of an artist’s vision, and an artist’s memory, shall be chucked into the garbage after I submit this review. Lionsgate can do better. Lionsgate has done better in my eyes this week, when they released the disappointing horror film Night Watcher, but they released it as its director intended. A flawed film can make its home alongside the rest of my collection, but the work of a true master robbed of its artistic integrity and purpose… I just don’t see how that makes any sense.