How does it feel?
Edge of Darkness isn’t your typical revenge film. It’s completely based on emotions between a grieving father and the loss of his only child. Based on a 1985 mini-series by the same name, Edge of Darkness follows Detective Thomas Craven into a thrilling, dark tale of murder, realization and revenge. While the title certainly means something other than what you might thing, the premise behind being at the ‘edge’ in this film is certainly driven home through Mel Gibson’s Craven.
The story is completely driven on this one man’s plight to find out why his daughter was murdered. Along the way we get to know the man and we get to feel the emptiness inside him as he begins to fade from the real world to his own fading memories of his daughter as he knew her. Cleverly edited with these memories, you the audience will feel for this man and what he is going through. This technique charged by a well-written script and some phenomenal editing helps Gibson’s Craven grow into a powerfully developed protagonist. Halfway through the film you’ll want to catch the bad guys almost as badly as his character does.
Surprisingly, even though the story takes many twists and turns, it comes together brilliantly by the end. The story proves that a revenge film can be more intelligent than people generally give it credit for and more importantly that character development can develop quite nicely.
Some people may try to compare this with the mini-series from the mid 80s, but it’s completely unfair to do so. First, it’s a mini-series. A story can be built and manipulated over time in a mini-series. A movie only has two hours (or more) to tell its story. That’s a one shot deal and it’s generally hit or miss. For Martin Campbell and company to keep the story intact and powerful in a short amount of time is a miracle (and a good miracle at that). It worked out and the result is something quick and to the point, but powerful enough to want to watch again.
Now, it doesn’t hurt that the Blu-ray makes everything prettier and, at the same time, tougher to watch. While I’ve certainly seen a better transfer (and I would have loved to see it fullscreen — not in the sense you’re thinking), it’s still visually detailed enough to make you feel good/bad for our protagonist throughout the film (I don’t want to give it away, but trust me seeing Gibson evolve in the film on Blu-ray makes it worth it emotionally). As for the audio, it’s fantastic. From a very jarring beginning to a very good end, you’ll have a great time hearing the punches, the splatters, the shifting of feet, the screeching of tires and the deafening shots of gunfire coming to you in DTS-HD.
You’ll be thrilled you bought that audio system.
Here are the features included:
– Additional / Alternate scenes
– Digital Copy / DVD
– Focus Points
· Scoring the Film
· Revisiting the Edge of Darkness Mini-series
· Edge of Your Seat
· Making a Ghost Character Real
· Adapting the Edge of Darkness Mini-series
· Director Profile Martin Campbell
· Boston as a Character
· Mel’s Back
· Craven’s War of Attrition