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Woodsman (The)
R0 - United Kingdom - Tartan Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (19th September 2005). |
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The Film
 There are many sick and disturbing things about the world, the fact society has its share of rapists, murderers, child molesters, etc. isn’t a pleasant thought. Most of us like to think we are safe within our communities, believing that our neighbours are good people. But do we really know who our neighbours are? What their past was like? What are their deepest, darkest secrets? Is there anyone that actually cares to know their neighbours well enough these days? Aside from the brief basics I’d think the answer to that would be a ‘Not really’, would your attitude towards knowing your neighbours change if you somehow knew one of them was a convicted sex offender? The Woodsman Doesn’t directly shed light on the above issues but it got me thinking about it. The film’s focus is not on the victims but on the actual criminal himself. It’s a story of redemption and dealing with one’s own temptations and urges. So knowing what you knew would you react? And would your reaction be different if you knew that this sex offender was ‘rehabilitated’ and just trying to get on with his life? Before viewing the film I found these questions very challenging in the sense that my answer was the same for both. I’d react the same way regardless, with anger and protest that such a person was living on my street. After viewing this film I was surprised that my view was somewhat different. There it was, a film whose central core character was someone you’d despise, someone who committed a crime so despicable there wasn’t any way an audience would be able to sympathize. Yet filmmaker Nicole Kassell has done just that, similar to what Tim Robbins managed to achieve with his Oscar winning masterpiece Dead Man Walking, Kassell manages to paint this monster into a human being. A task that is not only difficult but is asking for a lot with your audience, part of the success of this is Kevin Bacon‘s phenomenal performance as Walter who was recently released from a twelve year stint in prison for sexually molesting young children. In The Woodsman Walter tries to move forward with his life, he’s got a job at a lumber yard and mostly keeps to himself, he’s set-up with a new apartment that’s only just across the street from a school. This is perhaps a method to test his own urges after having been ‘rehabilitated’, kind of a sick way of dangling a carrot in front of a hungry beast. The tension lies in whether he’ll actually act on his own temptations or to resist them. To make things worse for him as his past continues to rise up again, he cannot escape the horrible things he’s done, watched by his suspiciously weary brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), his own sister Annette (Jessica Nagle) refuses to have anything to do with him, he is continually harassed by Police Officer Sergeant Lucas (Mos Def) and lives in constant fear that his past will be uncovered by his workmates. One day at work he makes an unexpected friend in co-worker Vickie (played by real-life wife Kyra Sedgwick), a tough talking woman who doesn’t judge people based on their past. The relationship quickly turns romantic, just when things are going well for him, his demons resurface and he must deal or everything will fall apart. Critics worldwide have raved over Bacon’s stunning turn as the tortured Walter, this film truly belongs to him and hopefully come awards season this film won’t be forgotten. Bacon’s complex performance is laced with emotional anxiety that tares up the screen. Filmmaker Kassell and her star have shed a human light onto the character of Walter that allows an means of entry for audiences who may feel uncomfortable, weary or even unable to sympathize, which in this case is not only the strength of the film but of which it’s success solely rests on the shoulders of. The supporting cast also does their bit to add to Walter’s problems and it’s satisfying to see his character challenged throughout. Although the film’s cast is solid, another of the film’s strengths is in its structure, the script. Written in 2001, the script took first place at that year’s Slamdance Screenplay Competition and it’s not hard to see why. The film is an adaptation of a play by Steven Fechter. I have not previously seen the play or read its script so I can’t be sure how faithful an adaptation it is, but what I can say about the script is that it’s tight. The film’s runtime of just under 84 minutes is a testament to that. The character of Walter is extremely well developed and his character’s arc from freedom to overcoming his past is expertly written. Furthermore, its authenticity is a key element, in order to capture the mannerisms and behaviors of sex offenders, Kassell spent time researching and interviewing real-life sex offenders and their therapists. On a more technical side, the film is photographed in a muted, washed out style with a limited colour palette, cinematographer Xavier Perez Grobet has done an exceptional job in complimenting the film’s tone and thematic elements, paired with Nathan Larson‘s exceptional score. The Woodsman is simply a powerhouse of a film that works on many levels and is something that everyone involved in should be proud of and makes for essential viewing.
Video
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, this anamorphic transfer’s quality is very good indeed. The film’s muted colour palette and washed out look are kept consistent throughout this transfer. As a result of creating the desired look film grain is evident but this is not unintentional. Sharpness is pitch perfect, which is what you’d expect from a recent film. Tartan has done a very good job with this transfer that has very little flaws that I could detect aside from the rare artifact that pops up.
Audio
Tartan has included no less than three soundtracks to choose from, all in English the first is a DTS 5.1 soundtrack, the other two varieties come in Dolby Digital 5.1 and a 2.0 Surround mix. For the purposes of the review I chose to view the film with its DTS track. As expected dialogue is exceptionally clear and distortion free, the sound is crisp and well rendered here. This film is mainly a dialogue and score focused film so surrounds aren’t entirely active, however what we get here is a soundtrack whose depth is subtlety engaging, which is ideal for this film. Unfortunately this DVD does not include any subtitles.
Extras
The first extra we have here is the feature-length audio commentary by co-writer/director Nicole Kassell. The commentary is fairly screen-specific and the filmmaker takes us through the challenges of making a low-budget feature. She takes us through the character’s progressions, her research in writing this film and the importance of it being ‘real’, she also touches on the wonderful cast, the locations used as well as technical aspects such as the photography, editing and music, which she maintains is thematically very important among her films. Kassell provides a brisk commentary that doesn’t get tiresome, providing the listener with all the information you’d want about the challenges of shooting a location-based film on a tight budget. Following that we have a series of UK exclusive interviews with: - Co-writer/director Nicole Kassell, that runs for 18 minutes. - Executive Producer Damon Dash that runs for 3 minutes. - Executive Producer/Actor Kevin Bacon that runs for 15 minutes. - Actress Kyra Sedgwick that runs for 15 minutes. These interviews appear to be similar to sound-bites that would be used for EPK’s, the four participants field questions about the film, the subject matter, the actors talk about their characters. There is nothing particularly special about these clips other than they are exclusive to this UK DVD release. A featurette is also included on this disc, entitled Getting it Made which runs for 5 minutes 1 second this very short piece follows producer Lee Daniels as he takes us through how a film is financed through to the final product. Although short it does provide an insight into a rarely seen aspect of film production of how and where does a production company get the financing to make a feature film? Next up we have a series of three deleted and extended scenes, these scene include: - "Walter & Vickie almost break up" that runs for 1 minute 49 seconds. In this deleted scene, we have a few character moments with our two opposite leads of the film, Walter uses his ‘problems’ as an easy way to break up the relationship, but Vickie sees something good in him. - The extended scene, "Walter & Vickie at the River" runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds. After Vickie tells Walter about her Alcoholic father, she discovers why Walter liked to have sex with young girls and how his being caught impacted his relationships with friends and family. - The second extended scene, "Walter and & Robin in the Park" runs for 3 minutes 37 seconds. After Walter asks Robin to sit on his lap he discovers her father asks her the same thing. She doesn’t like it, Walter tells Robin to confide in her favorite teacher about what he father does to her and explains the outcome. It would have been nice to have included some kind of commentary or even text notes as to why these scenes where omitted by the filmmaker. Having viewed all three the first two could have easily been left in the film, the omission of the third scene was the right decision to leave out as it completely changes the tone of the scene and directly lessens the impact of the ending. The DVD also includes the film’s original theatrical trailer that runs for 2 minutes 9 seconds. Rounding out the extras is a booklet that features an essay from Anwar Brett.
Packaging
Tartan have packaged this film in a standard amaray case, which is housed in a rather thin card-board slip case.
Overall
The Woodsman is an emotionally disturbing and powerful film that challenges the viewer to look at sex offenders as human beings as well. The film asks for a great deal from its audience but the payback is a deeply involving and continuously interesting character study. Kevin Bacon delivers an audacious performance in a film that deserves infinite praise. Tartan have provided a great DVD release for this film with solid image and sound transfers as well as including a series of decent extras of which, the commentary shines. If only a more elaborate ‘making-of’ documentary were included that would have gained this DVD more points. However as it stands it’s still a good package.
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