The Film – A Remarkable Mob Flick
Robert De Niro stars as Al Capone in this outstanding mob film that first came to theatres twenty years ago. Capone, as I’m sure all of you know, was a mob boss in 1930s Chicago, during the height of the prohibition war. He was considered untouchable because he had a hand in so many parts of the city – the underground, the government, the police – while being suspected for many illegal activities, he had too many payoffs and too many loyal people in front of him to ever be brought down by justice. Until, that is, Sean Connery’s character Jim Malone, a respectable and tough old cop, joins forces with Elliot Ness played by Kevin Costner. Together, along with some other young policeman, team up to do the impossible – take down Al Capone.
This proves to be no easy task, but makes for an excellent movie. Besides superb acting all around, the script and atmosphere are really engaging; this movie really drew me in with its mixture of drama, action, and stiff intensity. Even right up to the very last minute of the movie, it wasn’t clear if the good guys would even succeed, having suffered numerous setbacks and Capone’s iron grip of the city becoming more and more evident.
The Untouchables proved to be an instant classic for me, and a movie that I’ll watch again many times over the coming years I’m sure.
Presentation – An Incredible Job For A 20 Year Old Film
Given that the movie was twenty years old, I didn’t expect much out of the move to Blu-ray in terms of visual quality. I am very pleased to say that I was very wrong; the video quality in The Untouchables is nothing short of impressive. You could nit pick about a few scenes here and there having a bit of a grainy look to them; but this release looks better than a lot of modern day movies going to Blu-ray.
The music by Ennio Morricone is perhaps my favorite aspect of this film’s audio presentation. The moody instrumental tunes fit the theme of the movie perfectly, and it comes across very well in either the Dolby Digital EX Surround track or the DTS-HD 6.1 track. Also in either case the effects and voices are great, especially considering the time period the film was created.
Extras – Nothing New Here
There are a pretty good amount of extra features on the disc. Primarily, these are various behind the scenes / making of features, but they lack any new material, and there is very little material with the main cast, too. You will hear primarily from director Brian De Palma, over the course of an hour long feature. There are also a couple of deleted scenes included, although not separately from the other features. No commentary track is provided, which is unusual but apparently typical given the director. All in all, not a bad offering of extras, but nothing really outstanding either; what would have really made this portion shine is some new interviews with the cast.