The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The Spirit makes its DVD debut with a nice offering of bonus material beginning with a feature-length, scene-specific audio commentary with director Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete. Despite this disappointing solo directorial debut, Miller is still a savvy and engaging presence and he provides some valuable and interesting comments about why he wanted to pay homage to Eisner’s very influential work. He frequently offers kudos to Robert Rodriguez and makes several references to their collaboration on Sin City, to which The Spirit owes an obvious debt. But Miller also goes on to provide his own ideas about pop culture references in this and his other work, while also talking about how creating a comic book or graphic novel differs from the filmmaking process. Once jaded about the prospects of making movies, Miller has clearly become a convert and appreciates the film medium — especially the classic film noir genre based on the works of writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, two of Miller’s key influences. Del Prete has a nice rapport with Miller but tends to take a back seat to the increasingly chatty director. Like his co-commentary track on Sin City, this is a recommended listen for fans of the once-elusive writer.
The first of two featurettes offered here is titled The Spirit: Green World (22:51), which is a standard EPK-type offering including interviews with all the key cast and crew members. It’s a well done if somewhat pandering piece where everyone heaps praise on Miller and gushes over the opportunity to work with him. The next segment, Miller on Miller (15:35), offers a bit more substance with the writer/director simply commenting on everything from the evolution of comic books to the value of pop culture to the various other films and books that influence his work. It’s a fascinating and all-too-brief peek into the mind that conjured the decadent world of Sin City and brought the dark edge back to Batman.
There’s also an alternate storyboard ending (2:36) with voiceover performances by Gabriel Macht and Samuel L. Jackson titled Killing the Octopus, recreating a wisely abandoned ending that is a lot more graphic and violent than the one in the film itself and probably would have warranted an R rating. Needless to say, the bad guy doesn’t prevail.
The two-disc special edition includes the original theatrical trailer for The Spirit (2:30), along with trailers for Crank 2: High Voltage, The Transporter 3, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Bangkok Dangerous and Hulk Vs., and also includes a second digital copy DVD that allows you to transfer the movie onto portable media devices via a Windows-based PC or Apple’s video iPod
The 103-minute film is divided into twenty-eight chapters.
Final Thoughts
Despite the successful translation of his own Sin City and 300 from page to screen, Frank Miller’s adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit lacks the cohesion and substance that pushed the film versions of his graphic novels beyond the mere flash and pizzazz of an innovative film technology. Although it perfectly mimics the eye-candy style of Sin City, it sadly has neither the dark humor nor the credible conviction of its predecessor. In the end, it’s far too campy and silly to be taken seriously. Although this two-disc set offers impressive video and audio presentations, along with a nice complement of bonus material, the DVD is recommended for serious Miller fans only.
