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After their abusive father dies, a widow leaves her three
grown sons in Long Island, New York to return to her true
love in Ireland from years past. But before she leaves, she
unforgettably says to one son at the graveyard, "don't make
the same mistake I did." With this knowledge, the son and
his remaining two brothers struggle to continue life in Long
Island and better their own romantic relationships, haunted
by their mother's parting words.
Winner of the 1995 "Best Picture" at the Sundance Film Festival,
this quiet sleeper was shot for only $25,000, and auteur Edward
Burns wrote, directed, co-produced and co-starred. Honestly,
I was unfamiliar with this film and Burns; so I just watched
it completely cold, and was immediately impressed with the
obvious love and care that went into making it. Though they
don't look like brothers, per se, Burns well cast the other
actors, and I found myself warming up to the hills and valleys
of the drama.
Because of the low budget, the writing and acting really
carry this film, though the screenplay has some silly coincidences
that just don't feel real. I didn't find the acting exactly
"splendid" as one quote on the box proclaims, and it occasionally
seemed forced. Maxine Bahns had some moving scenes near the
end, and Burns' direction and writing was right on for her
character. I also particularly liked Mike McGlone, who plays
the youngest brother, Patrick. Very blunt about the truth,
he convicts his other brothers and himself, constantly bringing
up their shortcomings. Even though his highly religious calling
causes conflict, still his character forces through ambiguity
to move forward. McGlone may have been a tad "stagy" at times,
but he has sincere impact that exuded a strong sense of loyalty,
while the other brothers were more droll. Overall, a great
freshman piece of cinema from the talented Burns, who continues
to make a name for himself both as a director and an actor
after this well-received debut.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 ratio and anamorphically
encoded. Unbeknownst to me, the film was all shot on 16mm,
but still looks quite good. Being a "no budget" movie, rather
than a "low budget" movie (to use Burns' words) he still has
a eye for the impressive visual despite the lack of funds.
Colors are somewhat saturated, but not too crisp compared
to a 35mm print. Edge enhancement was minor, but artifacts
do pop up now and then. Blacks were solid, but do fade in
and out for about a third of the picture. Given the anamorphic
boost, detail is decent, though the high clarity of DVD exposes
images that sometimes lack balanced contrast and appear grainy
and drab. Though I got pulled by the film, I sometimes found
this distracting.
Though I wish it had been shot in 35mm (the locales and
actors look great), Burns did the best he could with what
he had (and openly admits this and other economic hurdles
during his audio commentary.) A 1.33:1 full frame version
is on the flip side, and it indeed is not unmatted, but truly
pan and scanned because everything noticeably cut in half.
I recommend avoiding it, and sticking with the widescreen
version.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
The audio is a "newly created English Stereo" mix that is
actually a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround. Directionality and
imaging and dynamic range are kind of flat, but it wasn't
so important to me - this is a straightforward drama, not
The Fifth Element. Since I found dialogue the most important
audio attribute, luckily, even on a small budget, I could
hear all the actors plainly with no harshness or other distractions.
The dialogue recording may not have that crisp full-bodied
sound of a bigger budgeted film that try to usurp any kind
of resonance, but here the actors' voices sounded clear and
fresh all the same. The surrounds are also active and help
to expand the viewing space somewhat, though they are not
that detailed and their range is narrow. The Irish score probably
benefited from the stereo remix more than anything.
The original English 1.0 mono mix and a French mono dub
are included, as are English Closed Captions and English and
French subtitles.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? The screen-specific audio commentary with Burns is clearly
the highlight of the disc. Burns is very blunt about all he
put into making this film, and mostly focuses on the economics
of making it for under $25,000 (and all the while working
as a production assistant on Entertainment Tonight!) He also
talks about the odd casting decisions, which in the end seems
truly to have been influenced by fate. Besides a free lunch,
every actor did this film for free and outside SAG rules...now
that's dedication! This is a very educational commentary that
aspiring filmmakers especially should find highly enriching.
Also included is a non-anamorphic trailer for the film and
a web link to edburnsfilms.com. (Note that there is also the
"Stories From Long Island" Edward Burns box set
available from Fox, which features The Brothers McMullen,
She's The One and No Looking Back, and retails for $69.95.)
Parting Thoughts
Despite its low budget, The Brothers McMullen remains a heartwarming
and inspired piece of filmmaking. This disc's image quality
still remains at the mercy of the compromises that had to
be made to bring it in on time and on budget. The 16mm print
looks good, and the slight audio remix is clear and clean.
The commentary is a nice bonus, but at $29.95, Fox continues
to price their catalog titles high, so this remains a bit
steep.
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