Academy Award Winning Films: Crash, Monster’s Ball DVD Credits:

Region: 1

Academy Award Winning Films: Crash, Monster’s Ball DVD Release Date: 27th February 2007

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Academy Award Winning Films: Crash, Monster’s Ball DVD Review:

Lions Gate has had a couple of great years recently, both in the box office and with awards as well. First Halle Berry won Best Actress in her revealing role in Monster’s Ball, a racially charged drama, and again with a socially aware drama, Crash won Best Picture in last year’s Academy Awards. These two films have a great deal in common aside from the fact that they are both Academy Award winning films, and it is appropriate that they be paired together in the same package.

Crash

The danger many filmmakers come across when trying to tell a realistic story is that the truth ends up looking very similar to what they believe. A filmmaker has a great deal of power deciding what happens and how it looks on film, and many filmmakers (Michael Moore) have a hard time not using that power to get their own point across. Not only is Paul Haggis’s film, Crash, a brilliant weaving of an incredible multiethnic cast, but it also shows the situations without passing judgment on anyone.
In a matter of 36 hours a group of very different people in Los Angeles will find their lives intertwined with each other. Some occurrences are just random encounters, but others will change their lives forever. Crash deals with the issues of race in Los Angeles and how we might think that we have the answers, but we can never really know everything. From the racist cop to the television director who is forced to sell out his race, Crash has an assortment of characters, all of which differ from the next and yet there is some of us in each character.
Crash is run primarily on dialogue, although there is plenty of action involved as well. There are scenes in which characters speak in absolute honesty, no matter how brutal it sounds. The action which follows often proves that the person speaking in these honest terms doesn’t have all the answers, but that doesn’t make them any less honest in what they are saying. By the end of the film I had no idea what the message was, but it certainly did make me think.
The DVD has a great but simple menu with the soft music from the film over footage from the film. There are also a few special features, although not nearly as many as I would have hoped from a film this profound and great. Fortunately there is director’s commentary with the co-writer, Bobby Moresco, and actor Don Cheadle as well. This commentary is great, with information sprinkled throughout the film. There is also a behind the scenes featurette, which is fantastic, but it is only ten minutes long. There is also a music video and trailer. The DVD introduction by Paul Haggis is perhaps the most useless feature on the DVD. He basically just introduces the film and that is it. It is almost over in less time than it takes to get to it through the menus.

Monster’s Ball

Monster’s Ball is a difficult film taking place in a southern prison town which is harboring a man about to be executed. Working on Death Row is Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), a prison guard with a great deal of grief in his life, including his extremely racist father (Peter Boyle) living with him. Meanwhile Hank begins an affair with Leticia (Halle Berry), the wife of the man on Death Row (Sean Combs). However devastatingly depressing much of the film may be, it has a great many important issues examined within it, primarily loneliness.
The DVD has two audio commentaries in the special features, along with the deleted scenes and a making of the music featurette. The first commentary track is a detailed commentary by director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction, Stay) and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer. The second commentary track is a lighter track with Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thornton and Forster.

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Academy Award Winning Films: Crash, Monster’s Ball DVD review written by: Ryan Izay