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Twilight Zone: The Movie
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Tom Williams & Noor Razzak (29th May 2008). |
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The Film
 "Twilight Zone: The Movie" movie is an interesting but flawed undertaking. Rather than pursuing a single, linear narrative, the film sticks to an episodic format by remaking four classic episodes, each helmed by a different director – big shots Steven Spielberg and John Landis and lesser known George Miller and Joe Dante. Dante and Miller’s works are better; Spielberg’s having a rather overly sentimental nature and Landis’ overly predictable. Landis’ segment tells the tale of a bigot (Vic Morrow) who, having been passed over for promotion, proceeds to embarrass his friends at a bar by complaining loudly and bitterly about the privileges of the races he hates so deeply. Upon exiting the bar, he finds himself mysteriously transported to Nazi Germany, where he is harassed and pursued through the city by soldiers who see him as Jewish. As he runs, he is transported again to the deep south, where members of the Ku Klux Klan see him as a black man, and want to lynch him. His escape from the Klan moves him into Vietnam during the war, where he is almost shot by U.S. soldiers. His final fate is predictable and dull, and although his experience seems unduly harsh, there isn’t much sympathy for a character who is so obviously racist. Spielberg tells the story of a retirement home that receives a strange visitor, giving the residents their deepest wish – to be young again. Soon, though, the greater ramifications of being young rear their heads and the residents have to decide whether their wish was what they really wanted after all. The story is related adequately in terms of performance and direction but is not compelling. Spielberg does manage to make rediscovered youth as wonderful and exiting as we all imagine it would be, yet the segment is ultimately unfulfilling. Dante’s segment is the story of unbridled power in the hands of a child – someone who is innocent, but also selfish. Kathleen Quinlan plays the role of a school teacher who runs in to a young man who has the ability to do almost anything he wants, including making cartoon characters come to life or assembling a group of total strangers to be his “family”. This segment contains the always effective technique of a corrupted innocence to create an eerie atmosphere – a child who is more than he appears. The story is changed a little to be slightly more palatable than the original "Twilight Zone" episode it is based upon – in itself, rather milder than its source short story – but is still a little unsettling. The somewhat altered normality is creepy, and the resolution is satisfying, if simplistic. Miller’s story is the well known and often parodied “Nightmare at 20,000 feet”, remade with John Lithgow as the nervous flier. The story is essentially a re-imagining of the “Boy who cried Wolf”, except that rather than maliciously tricking the passengers, Lithgow’s character, John Valentine, is assumed to be crazy when he claims to see a gremlin tearing at the wing of the plane on which he is flying, due to his extreme nervousness – almost hysteria – prior to spotting the creature. As the damage escalates, so does his terror, until he is forced to drastic action in order to save the passengers who think he is insane. It’s a clever device, and an effective one. The episodic nature of the film leaves a disjointed feeling, which is probably exacerbated by the use of different directors for each segment. It’s possible that this was intentional, given the shortness of "Twilight Zone" episodes – some might see a longer narrative as a departure from an integral aspect of the series. As a film, it’s ineffective, and just feels like watching several episodes crammed together. One could do worse than watch "Twilight Zone: The Movie" late one night, but it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to buy it – there’s negligible re-watch value and the special features are basically nonexistent. Still, as a late night, low-key watch, you could do worse, and there’s certainly value in seeing some of the classic episodes reworked with higher budgets and skilled workers.
Video
Presented in 1.78:1 this anamorphic widescreen transfer presents the film quite well, despite a few flaws. This transfer is newly minted as the film image and audio was remastered. The overall image is quite sharp with minimal grain, although darker scenes suffer a bit more. I was impressed with the film's overall cleanliness, there was only a few instances of specks and dirt popping up. The colours aren't as vibrant as I'd have liked and as a result a few scenes look a bit flat, but overall this is a decent presentation for a 25-year-old film.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included in English Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 2.0 surround, English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 mono. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English 5.1 track. Just like the image the sound has been given a suitable clean-up and mixed into a new 5.1 track. The film's dialogue is clear and distortion free but the track is not as ambient or aggressive as it could have been. This film includes a lot of fantastical moments and a few action packed scenes which deserve a more active sound mix. Although this track is good it's not excellent and doesn't do much in terms of immersiveness. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired, German, German for the hearing impaired, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish.
Extras
The only extra that Warner Brother's saw fit to included on this release is a rather worn theatrical trailer that runs for 1 minute 17 seconds.
Overall
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