21 Grams SE

Message

Antoine Doinel · #1 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:44 am

From DVDActive:

Universal Home Video has revealed early details on a new special edition of the critically acclaimed 21 Grams which stars Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, and Benico Del Toro. This single-disc release will be available to own from the 3rd October, and should set you back around $19.98. As before, the disc will carry a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, along with both English Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 Surround tracks. Universal has yet to reveal the extras - but we'll bring you further details very shortly.

I'm curious what the extras will be especially since Alejandro González IÃ±árritu has gone on record as saying he's not fond of doing director commentaries. If there's a decent making-of documentary, I might double dip.

manicsounds · #2 Post by **manicsounds** » Wed May 24, 2006 10:11 am

but he did do a commentary for Amores Perros.
I was hoping for this to be a Criterion release.
Either way, I was hoping for a SE for a long time.

Antoine Doinel · #3 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Wed May 24, 2006 10:24 am

Hrm, seems Mr. Inarritu is giving some conflicting info!

From IMDB:

"(On why did he not record an audio commentary for 21 Grams) I don't like them. I feel that if you have to explain something it loses strength. It's like a magician trying to explain his magic, in a way. Those kind of things make me feel like I've lost something special about the film. The film should explain itself."

From Movie Poop Shoot March 2004:

I can watch 21 GRAMS over and over and never be bored. Just about every scene is haunting in one way or another. The acting is killer, as everyone knows. That leaf- blower/speeding-truck scene is, to me, like the Odessa Steps scene in BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN.

So it's a great DVD to own, except for one thing: no extras. I was looking forward to a big smorgasbord -- award-calibre films especially deserve commentary tracks and making-of docs, etc -- and so I found this absence disappointing.

I know the director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, a little bit, so I wrote and asked him what gives. He answered as follows:

"By the time [Universal Home Video] needed to release the 21 GRAMS DVD, I didn't have enough time to work on it. [Getting] all of the actors' approvals would have taken too much time. Plus I didn't want to rush and deliver something that wasn't worthy.

"There will definitively be a second edition [of the 21 GRAMS DVD] with at least some making-of material and deleted scenes, along with some commentaries on them. Thanks for sharing your frustrations with me, which I completely understand."

Whatever the case is, as long as the extras are decent, I will be double dipping. Great movie.

Anonymous · #4 Post by **Anonymous** » Thu May 25, 2006 1:22 am

I've been hearing rumors of an SE since the DVD release so I've held off from buying it. I'm assuming the SE will be out around the time of his new film's release...?

Antoine Doinel · #5 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:11 pm

Now available for preorder from Amazon....has anyone heard news on what the extras will be?

dx23 · #6 Post by **dx23** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:54 pm

It seems that the only extra is a featurette called "In Fragments" according to dvdactive.com:

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/21-grams7.html

Antoine Doinel · #7 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:52 am

I guess I will be holding off on the double dip then....seems like a bit of a pointless release. If they want to capitalize on the release of Babel with a minimum of effort, it seems an easier approach would've been to create a slipsleeve swimming in press quotes for the current edition.