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Down By Law: Criterion Collection
DVD Review by Drew Morton
Sometimes there are those movies that you really expect a lot from. Most times, those movies either don't live up to your expectations or they really aren't what they first appeared to be. This happened to me when I bought the Wonder Boys DVD without having seen the movie. I expected this incredibly dark comedy and that was not what I was given. At first I was disappointed, but I watched the film a few more times and actually liked it more than I first perceived. Down By Law was another film to not really hand me what I expected. I have not watched the film a second time, but I am confident that I liked what I saw. What mislead me was the box telling me that it was a "neo-beat-comedy-noir", I thought I would be watching a Guy Ritchie movie with Tom Waits. I was wrong.
What I was given is a visually beautiful black and white "beat-comedy" that revolves around three New Orleans losers. The first, Zach (Tom Waits), is an out of work disc jockey. The second, a pathedic excuse for a pimp played by John Lurie, and finally Roberto, a crazed Italian tourist played by Life Is Beautiful's Roberto Beningi. The three of them are thrown in jail for crimes they are, for the most part, innocent of. After trying to deal with their sentinces, the trio escapes from prison and embarks on an O Brother Where Art Thou?-like adventure to turn their lives around. The characters are well drawn by the actors, especially Waits and Benigni. The songs, written by Waits, and the music, performed by Lurie, also compliment the film extremely well.
As with most Criterion Collection DVDs, the picture on this one is crisp and clean. Watching the trailer, I was afraid as to what the film was going to look like. However, it was restored completely and the beautiful photography by Robby Muller brings a great noir feel to the film, even if it's subject matter doesn't fully deal with it. The whole look of the film seemed to remind me of Orson Welles' The Third Man, which is a great compliment.
As for the sound, I was a tad disappointed. Criterion gives us a mono track that, while it does do the film justice, could have given the songs a bit more backing. It's not an incredibly old film, so at least a stereo track could be desired. However, Criterion does make a worthy effort in delivering a music only track that sounds extremely good.
As for the extras, like most Criterion discs, Down By Law comes packed to the brim, with quality always coming over quantity. We are given thoughts and reflections from director Jim Jarmusch along with a Q&A and phone conversations with actors, an interview with the cinematographer, excerpts from the Cannes film festival with the director and actors, a John Lurie interview, outtakes, and some other little goodies. As with most discs, Criterion comes through with offering some excellent special features that accompany an superior film.
GRADE: 4 out of 5
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