The Crying Game Special Edition DVD Review:

Perhaps one of the strangest films of the early 90’s has been released on special edition DVD, filled with all sorts of perks to go with the critically acclaimed film, The Crying Game. It isn’t a traditional film, often drifting in unexpected directions and also often quite slow, but anyone with patience and a keen eye should be able to appreciate the poignant themes of the film.

Beginning with a long sequence in which a British soldier, played by Forrest Whitaker, is captured by a group of Irish terrorists. He is to be held captive until a member of the IRA is released. During the time spent holding the prisoner captive, one of the terrorists, Fergus, played by Stephen Rea, forms an odd friendship with him. Soon the soldier is sharing about his life, including his love, Dil. When the situation goes bad Fergus is able to escape to London, where he seeks out Dil. Soon he forms another unlikely relationship with the lover of a man he took hostage.

The hostage portion of the film is the most traditional part of the film, and in itself could have been stretched out to be a feature-length film. Instead writer/director Neil Jordon takes us on a journey into a film we had no idea we were going to see. All action stops and the film becomes about the characters and their relationships, until the very end when everything seems to come full circle.

The Crying Game received six Academy Award nominations, including one for best supporting actor. It is a well made film, although not a favorite of everyone who views it, but whether it is a movie that is easy to love or not, there is no denying the incredible amount of talent involved in the making of this sleeper hit. It handles the political issues of Ireland, while also relating many of the same themes to an untraditional romantic pairing at the same time.

The DVD is a fairly good attempt at a special edition. There are elements that go above and beyond what I would have expected, and there are a few things that could have been better. The video transfer looks fantastic. It is a newly re-mastered 16:9 with great audio as well. Everything having to do with the actual film was handled with extreme mastery, including the director’s commentary that can be watched over the film. At times Neil Jordan is a little slow to listen to, but there are a great deal of interesting facts and stories as well.

Some of the other special features are also fairly good, including interviews with the key players in the filmmaking process. There is a lot of insight given about how the film was made. There is also a Northern Troubles featurette, examining the war in Northern Ireland, which is only about eight minutes long. The last featurette is on a bar which inspired the bar within the film. These last two features are not boring, mostly because of how short they are, but it seems that they could have been made more interesting. One of the best special features is the alternate ending, which is grainy, but very interesting.

Perhaps the most disappointing element of the DVD is the menu, which looks decent, but somewhat stale. It starts out looking somewhat like the cover slip of the DVD, which is fabulously simple, but then still images are inserted and the simplicity turns somewhat tacky.

This is one of those DVD’s that should only be bought if a person has already watched the film and knows that they want to own it. If that is the case, it is a good buy, not at all as expensive as many special editions would normally cost. Usually this is a good indicator that the DVD will be poorly constructed, but in this case it isn’t so.

Ryan Izay

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of The Crying Game Special Edition and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.