The Red Violin

DVD Details: Anamorphic Widescreen Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS Subtitles: Captioned English Talent Bios/Filmographies Production Notes "Soundtrack Presentation" R, 132 minutes

I try not to follow pop culture too much. I don't buy GAP or Tommy Hilfiger clothes, and I see myself as a pretty independent thinker. And this kind of independent thought means that I end up getting unique DVDs every once in a while. I never saw The Red Violin in the theater, but I read a lot of good reviews, and since I read this DVD had a DTS audio track, I figured it'd be a good buy.

The Red Violin is the story of (shockingly) a red violin. Samuel L. Jackson plays an antique violin expert that has come across what is apparently the perfect violin, lost for centuries across several continents. A series of lengthy flashbacks show the most important events in the life of the violin. From creation, through the hands of many prodigies, and even some regular people in unique situations, the Red Violin encounters much in this 2 hour movie.

The video quality on this DVD is excellent. Although few locations throughout the film are very colorful, the image is recreated well, and never seems too soft or sharp. But the video isn't really why you would buy this disc. The audio really stands out, and almost recreates the sound of a live concert. I haven't heard much classical music on DVD, and I must say it sounds much better on this disc than I was expecting. The Dolby Digital sound creates a very nice field around you, especially during scenes where an orchestra accompanies the violin. I wish I had a DTS decoder, as I've read the DTS sound is excellent as well. Oh well, someday I'll listen to it and report what differences (if any) there are. As I was watching, I noticed a couple pops in the Dolby audio, but I'm not sure if it was a disc problem or my equipment. Nothing annoying, just minor problems I wanted to mention.

The extras are typical to sub par. Production notes, Cast and Crew Bios, Trailer, all the normal stuff. The only extra I was interested in when I saw the disc was the "Soundtrack Presentation" listed on the back cover. I thought this would be a way to listen to the soundtrack without the movie noise (applauds and such), but it turns out that it's just about a minute of random soundtrack bits showing Joshua Bell (the man behind the violin) and advertising the soundtrack. Not what I had in mind. Sad really that a movie so devoted to music has no isolated music track. I suppose that's the only downside to an otherwise fine DVD.

So as I look at the movie and disc and movie in total, I feel good about the movie, but just a bit apprehensive about the DVD. It's good, and the DTS sound is a great feature, so if you like the movie, or you think you might be interested to see what classical violin can sound like on DVD, pick this disc up.