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Burning Plain (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Magnolia Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (17th March 2010). |
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The Film
 After finding success as a screenwriter alongside frequent collaborator Alejandro González Iñárritu (who directed the films that Guillermo Arriaga wrote) with the extremely-loose cinematic trilogy “Amores Perros” (2000), “21 Grams” (2003) and “Babel” (2005), it only seems logical that the writer turn to directing his own work. “The Burning Plain” is another one of Arriaga’s fractured, personal dramas. It goes like this: a group of seemingly unrelated people will inexplicably be connected somehow. It’s his style of writing and anyone who’s seen “Babel” or “21 Grams” knows how he writes his stories, and what makes his type of storytelling unique. Although this script isn’t as WTF-y (i.e. pretentious beyond belief) as “Babel” the film still follows a series of actions based on coincidence, happenstance, and one hell of a reveal at about the hour-ten mark; in short “The Burning Plain” is sort of a contrived mess, but also, I have to admit, well crafted. The film opens with a man (Joaquim de Almeida) and a woman (Kim Basinger) burning to death in their adulterous love-trailer-hideout in the middle of the desert. The story of what happened up until their fiery demise is (obviously, since they’re dead) told through flashbacks. The man’s son (J.D. Pardo) and the woman’s daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) meet at the man’s funeral, and, coincidently, replay their parent’s affair, sneaking out to see each other on a regular basis. Their relationship starts out innocently, as mostly a curiosity that each shares about the others parent, but it quickly turns more serious, becoming dangerous and secretive, for they fear that each of their still-living parents (the boys mother and the girls father) will be heartbroken to learn of their “betrayal.” Two other seemingly random chapters of the film include the story of Oregon-based Sylvia (Charlize Theron), a self-destructive restaurateur maintaining a troubled relationship with a married man (John Corbett), and an even further removed account of a Mexican crop duster (Danny Pino), his daughter (Tessa Ia) and his best friend/co-pilot (José María Yazpik). As these things often happen, what seems random and irrelevant actually isn’t. And the oddness that surrounds both of these later two stories eventually becomes pretty clear. Sadly – and I think this will be the case with most viewers – I spent so much of the movie trying to figure what the twist, which I knew would be coming, would be, that some of the films finer points got lost. A twist can be all well and good, but this fragmented style that Arriaga continues to use in his work is approaching cliché, crutch-level stuff. While his previous scripts were (and somewhat still are in this film too) well thought out, above all else he seems preoccupied with this (let’s call it what it is) gimmick. In a way, this “gimmick” is beginning to cheapen his work; actually it already has cheapened “The Burning Plain” somewhat. It’s persistently convenient way unraveling of the story plays up this plot device too a level where it overshadows the films many otherwise praiseworthy elements. For instance, one is so wound up in the plot and concerned with what the big reveal is going to be, that it’s easy to overlook the acting on display. Both the tenured pros – Theron, Bassinger and Joaquim “The machine is still on Moira” de Almeida (if you don’t get the reference, then congrats – you’re not as lame as me) – and (especially) the new young actors, particularly Jennifer Lawrence, give thankfully strong portrayals of their characters, in their roles. It’s a good thing too as true straight dramas such as this live and die by the performances of the actors. Also worth mentioning is the absolutely beautiful photography of Robert Elswit. He lenses the film exquisitely, making effective, attractive use of the mega-wide 2.40:1 frame, particularly in the Bassinger/Almeida and crop-dusting storylines. I admit, when I first heard about this movie, Arriaga’s newest film which he wrote, directed and produced himself, I was a little excited. The reason for my initial eagerness upon hearing of his new film was two fold. Rumor has it that long time friend Iñárritu was none-to-happy about Arriaga’s claim for much of “21 Grams” and “Babel” successes, and since then has turned his back on working with the screenwriter; with no one to direct his stories, Arriaga wouldn’t be able to continue to work – and I like his work – so, suffice to say, the news that he himself would be picking up the slack was first-rate stuff. But, there’s a more plain, selfish reason too – of the few films within Arriaga’s tiny cache of works, it’s actually one of his small side projects, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” (2005), (which had no involvement at all from his director friend) that is my favorite. While Tommy Lee Jones made an excellent directorial debut with that film, in large part it’s success and likeability lies solely in Arriaga’s script and characters. It seems then, with “The Three Burials…” providing evidence to support this claim, that without Iñárritu, Mr. Arriaga still produces fine work; perhaps more uneven, but altogether better work. Give him the freedom to write one of his always-fantastic scripts, the director’s chair and a producer credit? How could that film fail – not financially speaking, as he’s not a box office power-player in the slightest, so it probably wouldn’t make much – but, at least critically? How could it not be a success, especially when he’d landed two dependable leading ladies, Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger? Well, honestly, I don’t know. But, for whatever reason critics strongly disliked “The Burning Plain” – so much so that it has a weak 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I don’t think the film is that bad, certainly not as bad as most critics anyway. But, I don’t deny that there is something far less appealing about this story than the director’s previous scripts. I can’t put my finger on it, but whatever it is, takes what could have been a great film and makes it an average one. Is the tale and it’s method of delivery a little too contrived? Probably. And it doesn’t help that Arriaga seems more concerned with in your face character parallels, hollow metaphors and a whole narrative structure that he used simply because it was “cool” (or, at the very least, that’s how it comes across), than he does with actually developing a few of the storylines to a satisfying conclusion. I definitely need to rewatch this at a later date, and perhaps when I do, I’ll see something in it that will redeem the film totally for me. As of right now however, my whole experience with “The Burning Plain” left me cold and unfulfilled. It’s definitely something to see, and Arriaga is a talented filmmaker to be sure, I just don’t think this film is his best work.
Video
Magnolia gives “The Burning Plain” a 1080p 24/fps VC-1 encoded transfer framed in a 2.40:1 widescreen ratio replicating the look of films original theatrical exhibition. Director Guillermo Arriaga and cinematographers Robert Elswit and John Toll went with a truly dualistic style. Half the film, which takes place in the American southwest, is bathed in warm amber and gold, favoring heavier grained film stock, more panoramic use of the Cinemascope frame and both brighter contrast and colors. The other half, which was shot somewhere on the Oregon coast, is all steely blues and is noticeably darker, flatter and has much less of a visual punch. Detail overall is adequate, and at times, little things really pop, like the stitching in a window curtain, fabric detail in a sweater, the porous texture in the stucco on a house, but facial features, close ups and many of the wide vistas of the rural southwest appear softer and less defined. Blacks are excellent, but the image still genuinely lacks depth and a 3D appearance. This isn’t the stuff of reference, but it is, I feel, extremely faithful to the source. The disc is also free of DNR, edge ringing, banding and noise; basically, this is a strong, clean, encode that renders film grain naturally. In short, Magnolia again provides a faithful representation of the original source. “The Burning Plain” won’t be your next go to visual stunner, but it is a good-looking blu-ray free of artificial manipulation.
Audio
At first listen, the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track included here sounds like a mix for a straightforward drama: bland, with not much action and entirely funneled through the front speakers. For the most part, that’s a pretty accurate description for about 75% of the film; it is after all a personal drama about people, so dialogue takes center stage and there’s little bombastic wiz-bang wow factor. But, the remainder of the soundtrack is populated with some nice, realistic, dynamics and, the whole thing is accented with an appreciated clarity. Geese calls, wave crashes, plane engines, thunderclaps and rain populate the rears in key scenes. Bass rumbles with authority whenever water crashes on the shore of the Oregon coastline. Flames, and one hell of an explosion towards the end of the film, pack a walloping punch that’s totally unexpected. In the end, I’d say this is a darn good mix; one that favors realism over ridiculously exaggerated effects and a constant room-filling presence, but good and solid. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish. English subtitles default whenever Spanish dialogue is spoken. All text appears above the lower letterbox bar, within the picture.
Extras
Although "The Burning Plain" arrives on Blu-ray without two of the more expected extras – there’s no audio commentary or deleted scenes here – but the supplements offered do prove to be satisfying with a near feature-length “making of” featurette covering most of the ground you want, dissecting the history of the production and featuring a nice assortment of interviews and B-roll footage, and another piece consisting of an interesting discussion which focuses on a rarely talked about area of filmmaking, the score. Bonus material is presented in a mix of 480i standard definition and 1080i/p high-definition. Further details below: I could bemoan the lack of an audio commentary on this release but "The Making of ‘The Burning Plain’" (16x9 SD, 43:27) featurette more than serves the purpose of one so I won’t. There’s tons of insight on the creation of the film via interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot, plus interviews with director/writer Guillermo Arriaga in which he talks about his influences (including childhood memories that provided some of the films powerful imagery) and intentions with the picture. Pretty solid stuff all around. If there’s one area of the filmmaking process that is nearly universally overlooked when it comes to DVD supplements, it’s a film’s score. Fear not however, as we get "The Music of ‘The Burning Plain’" featurette (16x9 SD, 15:33). Alas, as a fan (and avid collector) of soundtracks I’m always a little too happy to see a Blu-ray or DVD that has an entire featurette dedicated to music so the fact that I was more interested in this piece over the 40-minute making of isn’t all that surprsing. That being said, composers Omar Rodriquez-Gomez and Hans Zimmer’s work on “The Burning Plain” is a little underwhelming and definitely not worthy of the 15-minute discussion (oh how I would love for more films to devote that much time to the work of Goldsmith, Williams, Morricone and the other greats) that it’s given here. Hoever, this is still a nice bookend to the other featurette, and I’m not going to look a gift-horse in the mouth. "HDNET – A Look at ‘The Burning Plain’" (1080i, 4:46). The last of the trio of featurettes on this disc is this promo piece from producer Mark Cuban’s HDNET, with the director briefly talking about the film as if it were a product to sell in an infomercial. Skip this junk and look to the two previous featurettes for some real insight. The disc also includes a few start-up bonus trailers, nearly all of which are encoded in 1080p high definition: - “Serious Moonlight.” 2 minutes 18 seconds. - “Ong Bak 2.” 1 minute 40 seconds. - “Red Cliff.” 2 minutes 50 seconds. - “Bronson.” 2 minutes 50 seconds. - “HDNet Movies” 1 minute 2 seconds; in 1080i. Finally, Magnolia has included their standard double punch sort-of extras via a bookmark feature and BD-Live access. Per usual, although the disc is BD-Live enabled, “The Burning Plain” has no exclusive content available for download at this time. Instead, I was greeted with a message to check back later for updates.
Overall
“The Burning Plain” is a decent, but flawed drama, with some excellent performances and impressive visuals. How you’ll fell about the film I can’t say, as there’s a pretty wide margin between the critical response from professional reviewers (32% on Rotten Tomatoes) and regular moviegoers who rated it basically double that. I can tell you that the Blu-ray has a filmic, fairly pleasing video transfer, solid audio and decent extras. All in all, "The Burning Plain" is definitely worth a look.
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