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The Darjeeling Limited: The Criterion Collection
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Criterion Collection Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (21st December 2010). |
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The Film
 Awkward whimsy... these are the two words that best describe the work of Wes Anderson, from his debut feature "Bootle Rocket" (1996) all the way up his stop-motion animation recent film "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009) his films often feature tragic characters in search for something, whether a life less ordinary, love, acceptance from your family, a father or simply searching for meaning while dealing with loss as the brothers in "The Darjeeling Limited" attempt. Anderson's unique eye has lent itself to the quirky characters and awkward moments, mixed in with whimsical production design and sequences that are wholly original have become synonymous with Wes Anderson... his films are easily identifiable and can almost always split audiences right down the middle. This reviewer is a huge fan of Anderson's work, but a lot of contemporaries are not, with Anderson you either "get it" or you don't. "The Darjeeling Limited" tells the story of three brothers on a journey through India on a journey of discovery... and to find their long aloof mother (Anjelica Huston). Francis (Owen Wilson) is the over-bearing brother who plans the journey, Peter (Adrien Brody) the secretive and depressed brother and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) the wayward lovelorn brother with a prescription medication habit... the brothers have not seen each other in years and through the journey they bond again under often humorous cross-cultural circumstances. It's a fairly rudimentary plot, but strong characters, situations, and utilizing India itself as a character make this a truly memorable film. The evolution of Anderson's vision has reached a maturity point, while there are elements of childlike behavior the overall film is a very mature work that deals with personal topics that challenge a lot of people, how to deal with the loss of a father, the estrangement of a mother and on how brothers interact with each other. The screenplay features some very "human" moments embellished by humor and the occasional dry witticism, it's interesting to note that this is a film in which Anderson wrote in which frequent collaborator Owen Wilson was not directly involved with... and in some ways it shows, as Wilson's acerbic writing is missed here, he certainly knows how to tailor any line to match his style of delivery but the script seemed like it missed his wonderful touches. It's true that Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman make adequate screenwriting substitutes, but it's Anderson and Owen's longtime friendship and styles that really made their early work so successful. Don't get me wrong, "The Darjeeling Limited" is very much a successful endeavor in screenwriting (and film making) but hold it up against "Rushmore" (1998) or "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001) and you'll see what I'm talking about. The production design follows a similar continuity among his films and fans won't be disappointed, the interior train is a stylized 60's look influenced by Bollywood productions - looking weathered, used and hastily cobbled together. The production used an actual train, but true to Anderson's style the production design looks very much like a purpose built set. There's a aura of premeditated randomness that comes with the overall production look. It's suits Anderson's style and also suits the tone of the film, matched with Robert D. Yeoman superb photography the result is perfect. The performances are low key, yet on occasion can come together to hilarious effect and our primary cast have wonderfully dry chemistry with each other and Anderson has managed to craft great performances from his leads that feel natural amid the quirky nature of the film. I suppose it depends on what you find funny, and if subdued, clever comedy is your cup of tea then there's plenty here for you to laugh at. "Darjeeling Limited" is not for everyone, and to be honest it's hard to recommend, I have a few film buff friends that simply dislike the film for whatever reason (usually that its pretentious or that it doesn't really go anywhere, ironic since the film is about a journey)... so the like-ability of this film isn't exclusive to that audience.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1 mastered in high definition 1080p 24/fps in AVC MPEG-4 compression, The Criterion Collection are renowned for creating impressive transfers that retain the filmic look and intention of the filmmaker. The resulting image is luminescent, with colors that simply pop off the screen, Anderson's vision it realized by DP Robert D. Yeoman who lights his frame with a lush palette, skin tones are beautifully rendered, blacks are deep and bold and detail is superb. The textures and fine detail is simply beautiful and the image is given the necessary breathing room on this 50GB disc. Depth of field is maintain, grain is light but evident retaining that filmic weight that some DNR scrubbed transfers lack. It's a recent film so there wasn't a lot of work needed to master this film onto Blu-ray, but Criterion have give it the appropriate treatment offering a clean image with no artifacts,compression issues or edge-enhancement.
Audio
Equally impressive is the lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, the audio offering is as impressive as the image, while not as impacting as an action film the track is wholly immersive utilizing the surrounds with an impressive ambient range and environmental sounds that place viewers amid the train or in the middle of an Indian desert (depending on the scene). Dialogue is clear and distortion free, the score is well rendered and overall the sound features incredible depth and range that handles the active scenes (about as active as we get is the train travelling across the tracks) right through to the somber more subtle scenes with precision. Optional subtitles are included in English only.
Extras
The Criterion Collection can always be relied upon to deliver excellently produced extra-value supplements that offer film fans a unique insight into the making of the film and this Bu-ray is no exception. We get an audio commentary, a short film, a making-of documentary, several featurettes, a series of deleted and alternate scenes, a series of photo galleries and the film's original theatrical trailer. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is the feature-length audio commentary by co-writer/director Wes Anderson and co-screenwriters Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman. It's evident from this track that these three are very adept at film making, story and themes and meld those together well in crafting a piece of work, this track, albeit a bit on the dry side is rather informative and offers fan an insight into the production. They cover a vast array of topics from the development of the film, it's genesis and themes as well as the research undertaken in writing the film, their trip to India for inspiration, they comment on the story arcs, the characters and the challenges of shooting in India. The locations are a frequent topic it's clear that these guys are mesmerized by the country and it shows in each frame of this film. This rack is well worth listening to. The "Hotel Chevalier" short film runs for 13 minutes 10 seconds, you can view this short on its own or prior to the film, it explains Jack's girlfriend situation that's gotten him in a rut. "The Making of 'The Darjeeling Limited'" is a documentary which runs for 40 minutes 50 seconds, this clip features a decent dose of behind-the-scenes footage from the production of the film, it features some great moments between cast and crew, but I can't help felling that this wasn't the best that Criterion usually offer, while it's a great look at the making-of it fell a little short of their usual high quality making-of's created for other releases in their catalog. "Conversation with James Ivory" featurette runs for 20 minutes 46 seconds, in this clip director Wes Anderson interviews James Ivory and talks about the musical influences for this film as well as Ivory's collaboration with Ismail Merchant. "An Essay by Matt Zoller Seitz" featurette is a reading of the essay "Dream Train: Chaos and Control in The Darjeeling Limited" by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz which runs for 11 minutes 49 seconds, as he comments on the themes of the film as we view clips from the film. Next up is an "American Express" commercial directed by Wes Anderson and featuring the cast of "The Darjeeling Limited" which runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds. It's a cool ad as we see Anderson nonchalantly direct amid a cacophony of crew asking him questions. "Sriharsh's Audition" is a featurette which runs for 2 minutes 39 seconds, this is rough video footage of the audition process for the young boy Sriharsh Sharma as he shows some expressions and sings on camera. "Oakley Friedberg/Packer Speech" is a featurette which runs for 3 minutes 34 seconds, production designer Mark Friedberg's son Oakley Friedberg shows his school what he did over summer while accompanying his dad to India for the production in this clip. Next up are the deleted scenes and two alternate takes they run together in a reel for 3 minutes 20 seconds, the first deleted scene is entitled "playing cricket with a tennis ball" it features Peter playing cricket with some street kids. The next scene is an alternate take entitled "running down the sand dunes" and features the brothers running down a big sand dune as they walk back to the train. "Attempt to board the plane" is the second alternate take which sees the brothers hastily making their way to the plane which will fly them out of India. Next up is the "Sketch by Roman Coppola" is a featurette running 2 minutes 29 seconds, this is a short sequence put together using some footage Roman Coppola shot while writing the film in India. It features Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman as they travel through India finding inspiration for the script. 10 "Waris' Diary" are a series of short videos, these featurettes are a collection of reference tapes and behind-the-scenes footage shot for the production and are broken down into 10 segments, there's no 'play all' option which is a bit cumbersome as you have to go back to the main menu to access the next clip. They include: - "Animals" runs for 1 minute 51 seconds. - "Fitness" runs for 1 minute 14 seconds. - "Life on the rails" runs for 2 minutes 35 seconds. - "Special effects" runs for 54 seconds. - "My costume" runs for 52 seconds. - "Fans" runs for 20 seconds. - "Lucky men" runs for 46 seconds. - "The scene" runs for 1 minute 10 seconds. - "Food" runs for 1 minute 43 seconds. - "Feelings" runs for 25 seconds. - "Polaroids" features 50 polaroids of cast and crew. Following that is the "Trophy Case" featurette running 41 seconds, is a scrolling list of accolades the film has received. The disc also features 3 stills galleries: - "James Hamilton" was the on-set photographer and this section features 112 photos. - "Laura Wilson" is Owen Wilson's mother and she took photos, featured here are 10 photos. - "Sylvia Plachy" is Adrien Brody's mother and she took photos, featured here are 10 photos. The film's original theatrical trailer is also featured on this disc and runs for 2 minutes 18 seconds. Rounding out the extras is a booklet that features liner notes.
Overall
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