On HD-DVD: The Untouchables Special Collector's Edition

Directed By Brian De Palma

Starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia

It's pretty common nowadays to hear that Brian De Palma is attached to direct a film featuring to tier actors and a solid budget behind it but back in 1987 this was a bit more surprising.

I love De Palma's earlier edgy low budget films, even the overrated in the hip hop world Scarface.  He was a genre guy so seeing him move into a bigger budget film that would be wider released and expected to have a more mass appeal seemed like a chancy affair.  What De Palma released back in 1987 still carried all of the classic influences that followed him previously but they were wrapped in a fun film.

The Movie

The time is prohibition era Chicago and Detective Elliott Ness (Costner) has been brought in to clean up the city and specifically to deal with the mob activity.  Ness, Mr. Patriot, Mr. Good Intentions, set his sights on the most powerful mobster in the city Al Capone (De Niro).

Ness is given leeway to do what he needs to do to clean up Chicago so he puts together a task force to fight Capone that includes Jim Malone (Connery), George Stone (Andy Garcia), and Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith).  The bloodbath to follow is one of the most unique in mob film history.

Most mob films, such as The Godfather and Goodfellas, have a darker tone, and a dark tone would make sense for the Untouchables too, especially considering De Palma's history up to that point but this film isn't that dark even if the subject matter is.  De Palma and writer David Mamet pull from Elliott Ness' own autobiography but they also take influence from the original television series of the 1950's.  What follows is a bloody story full of violent deaths but the film isn't dark at all.  It in fact feels pretty bright and uplifting and the nostalgic patriotism of the 1980's is also apparent in the film. 

The film is nearly perfectly paced and very slickly shot and assembled by De Palma and his team.  His Hitchcock influences are in full effect through  out the film too.  Some critics may say that De Palma's techniques are excessive and they are, but they make the film a visual feast and they feed into the odd positive excitement of this Captain America-like story.

Twenty years late I still had a great time with this film.  The writing is as solid as you would expect from David Mamet, the cast is made up of some of the best actors of the era, and director Brian De Palma is at his best on this film really working to keep himself in the film but still trying to make something for a mass audience.  If you're a fan of mob movies this one will stand out in the crowd as something very different.

8/10

The Video

This section of Paramount HD-DVD reviews is starting to feel like a broken record, and that's a good thing.  Even though the film is 20 years old it looks fantastic.  A few years back Paramount released a 2-disc special edition that look quite good in its own right, and this release takes the video a step further, as it should.  Black levels are solid, skin tones look great, find detail is strong throughout the film, and contrast is well balanced.  Now there is just a bit of grain in the film, and there are a few bits of dirt on the print that are visible in this hi def environment.  There is only really one big issue with the film; edge enhancement.  Apparently the transfer was just too soft for Paramount so they decided to apply some pretty extreme edge enhancement.  This causes some expected artifacting here and there.  With that said, it still looks phenomenal. 

8.5/10

The Audio

The Untouchables was state of the art for its time, but its time was 1987, so the audio obviously won't be as sophisticated as modern films.  The film is presented here in two tracks; a Dolby Digital EX and a DTS-HD high resolution option.  Both mixes are excellent but the DTS is definitely the stronger of the two.  Dialogue, sound effects, and the Ennio Morricone score are all crisp and clean.  The surround speakers aren't used often, but when they are it works very well.  Of course this happens during action sequences and with the added speaker action comes much more immersive scenes.  While not as active as you might hope, considering the age of this film it sounds great.

8.5/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The single disc HD-DVD release comes in a standard amaray case with artwork taken from the 2003 special edition which was taken from previous theatrical artwork.  This poster art has been around for so many years now it almost feels iconic.  Again, as with other Paramount HD-DVD's there are no new special features.  everything here was brought over from the standard definition special edition.

First up for extras is an hour long documentary on the film with interviews from De Palma and a few other crew members.  The documentary is broken into four chapters that progress through the creation of the film including concept, casting, cinematography, and score.  There's plenty of really great tidbits in this documentary especially a deleted scene not available on its own outside of this doc.  The problem with the documentary is that hardly anybody involved with the film is present.  The people that do provide content do a great job but I'd like to have seen more cast participation.

Other than that there is a brief 1987 featurette with sound bites from the main cast.  This promo was shot before the movie came out so there's not a lot of good information here other than like I said, promo for the movie.

There's no commentary on this release or any previous release of the film and that's a real shame.  The documentary is well done but for a special edition of a 20 year old film I felt like there should be more, especially form some of the main cast.

6/10

The Untouchables really holds up well over time.  It's a unique brighter take on the mobster subgenre.  It's not lighthearted by any means but it is more uplifting than say The Godfather.  De Palma's style feels as modern in this film as most new films hitting theaters today.

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

The Movie 8/10

The Video 8.5/10

The Audio 8.5/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 6/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

-Stephen Lackey