American Gangster: HD DVD And DVD Combo Format Disc Review

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Title: American Gangster: HD DVD And DVD Combo Format

Region: One (DVD Side)

Genre: Crime Drama

Stars: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Josh Brolin, Ted Levine, Armand Assante, John Ortiz, and John Hawkes Rza

Writer: Steven Zaillian

Director: Ridley Scott

Theatrical Version Feature length: 2 hours and 38 minutes

Extended Version: 2 hours and 57 minutes

HD DVD Side Extras: Web Enabled Exclusive Deleted Scene, Favorite Scene Sharing, Promotional Spots, Audio Commentary With Director Ridley Scott and Writer Steven Zaillian, Deleted Scenes, Including An Alternate Opening.

DVD Side Extras: Unrated Extended Version With Alternate Ending

HD DVD Side Languages: English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound

DVD Side Languages: English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish (On DVD Side Only) Language Subtitles

Packaging: Red HD Case

Chapter Stops: 20

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2007/HD DVD And DVD Release: 2008

Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

One of the last major new theatrical releases to be released on the now defunct HD DVD format technically speaking is a good example of the unexplored potential HD DVD never had the chance to display. I love Blu-ray Disc and I love HD DVD, but at the time of this writing, outside of the Sony PlayStation 3, I think Blu-ray Disc is still just reaching the point of interactivity that HD DVD had out of the box. As a member of the online press and professional writer and reviewer I knew my investment in both formats would yield an eventual loss since only one format can survive and ultimately I had to agree with the public momentum based on the studio support and variety of available and potentially available films, Blu-ray Disc was the winner, but for what it’s worth, my first generation Toshiba HD DVD Player HD-XA1 always worked terrific with the HD DVD titles that were released while my first generation Samsung Blu-ray Disc Player BD-P1000, which cost me a whopping $1000 dollars when it was first released, has difficulty playing the earliest Blu-ray Discs released in 2006. I ended up buying a third BD player to replace the Samsung all together and I can tell you that it did not cost me anywhere near the price I paid for the Samsung or even the Toshiba. So while I am relieved the format war is over, I have to say that Toshiba put out a damn good product, but unfortunately having a product that is technologically ahead of a competing product when both were initially released does not have a thing to do with overall market place success. Now that I have stated my final piece on HD DVD and the format war that has passed, lets hope another one doesn’t happen again and lets move on to the future with respect for the past.

As far as feature films are concerned, American Gangster disappointed me. I thought it was going be more of an action film and instead it feels more like two different films trying to capture a complete story, but not doing justice to either. Clarence Williams III has an all to brief cameo as Frank Lucas’ (played by Denzel Washington) mentor, crime boss Bumpy Johnson. The speech he gives Frank about the changing times in Harlem is prophetic because much like Time Square, 125^th Street in Harlem has become a tourist stop and while I am glad the economy and profile of Harlem has improved, I wonder who it has improved for. Is it the residents of Harlem or is it corporations? Is corporate exploitation any better than the duality of having an organized crime figure as also a folk hero to the local residents? I don’t know, but maybe there were and still are people who were regular working folk that had no business with Johnson or Lucas per se, but perhaps if there was a problem, Johnson and Lucas gave a human face to the plight of Harlem residents instead of a cold and faceless corporate mentality. I am not condoning organized crime or even what good Johnson and Lucas might have done to mask the bad elements behind their criminal enterprises, but I would not argue with someone who was there and still is there because I wasn’t and one movie doesn’t give me the right to pass judgment either way in this matter.

Personally I would have focused more on Frank Lucas and in fact make the movie about Frank Lucas instead of squeezing two stories into one because Lucas’ is far more interesting. Lucas took all he learned from Bumpy Johnson and coupled that with his knowledge of other crime syndicates and basically used the same techniques that the globalization of the economy uses today and cut out the middle man to become the biggest distributor of heroin in New York and one of the most powerful men in the underworld during his reign. What probably pissed most people off was that they didn’t think of it first or didn’t have the audacity to see it through. In a bizarre way, Frank Lucas was a trendsetter for his time and arguably if you remove the emotional and visceral effects attached to the world trade of illegal drugs, I would guess that his business paradigm is not at all different from what global corporations do today. Ironically the chink in Lucas’ armor that brings about his eventual downfall is seemingly so innocent that it might as well have been a Trojan horse of good intentions and bad taste.

Denzel Washington has played this kind of role before so ultimately he delivers exactly what one expects as does Russell Crowe though again I have to state that I feel the dual stories about both men just don’t come off as well here as if this had been two different films that cover the same time frame, but from the two different points of views. Unfortunately aside from certain kinds of films like Clint Eastwood’s Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwa Jima, it is rare one gets to see this type of double bill produced on the big screen and even on the small screen too. It is even rarer that two parallel stories like the ones in American Gangster are dramatized so well on the big screen. American Gangster is not a bad film; it’s just not a great one and it never achieves the right balance needed to tell the dramatic stories in a compelling manner.

Though this is one of the last major theatrical releases to come to HD DVD and it also was released on the same day Toshiba through in the towel on HD DVD, for it’s debut week, American Gangster was the best selling high definition optical disc and beat out the rest of what made up the top ten on Blu-ray that week so while I’m not crazy about the film, it does say a lot about the amount of people who invested in HD DVD as a format as well as the popularity of the film itself. The HD DVD And DVD Combo Format edition of American Gangster presents both the theatrical and unrated extended versions in a widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio, anamorphic widescreen in the case of the unrated theatrical version, which is presented on the DVD side. The theatrical cut is presented in a 1080p VC-1 encoded high definition resolution, the 1080p being the maximum resolution available for HD DVD users provided their TV can present that high definition resolution and provided their player is capable of 1080p output since not all HD DVD players can do 1080p video output. The picture is somewhat subdued to match with the timeframe in which the film takes place, but it is a notable improvement over the upconverted standard definition DVD extended version found on the flip side of the disc. English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus Surround Soundtracks are encoded, which my receiver interprets via digital fiber optic PCM output as DTS Neo 6 Surround Sound. The extended version features an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French Subtitles are encoded for both versions of the film. Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded on the DVD side too.

The HD DVD includes a feature length audio commentary with Director Ridley Scott and Screenwriter Steven Zaillian. The two commentaries were recorded separately and mixed together. Scott as usual gives the listener a concise explanation of his experience making the film as well as meeting the real Frank Lucas while Zaillian gives a reasonable explanation for his mixing the story of both characters together, but I still feel the balance doesn’t work and ultimately slows down the movie. Exclusive to the HD DVD side is a Picture In Picture feature with behind the scenes cast and crew interviews all of which do not interrupt the movie experience. The volume for this feature is adjustable too. Web enabled features available directly to the HD DVD player with an Ethernet connection include the ability to share favorite scenes with others who log in and have the same disc. A bonus deleted scene not found on the disc (2:40) and trailers for Wanted (2:23), Eastern Promises (1:59), Talk To Me (1:09), a TV spot for The Bourne Ultimatum (: 30) and two HD DVD promo spots at (2:48) and (2:18) respectively. Other bonus materials that do not require web access include a reel of 8 deleted scenes that include an alternate opening (9:14) and many of which are reedited into the extended version and a featurette (4:47) that wraps up the bonus materials on the HD DVD side.

The DVD side includes both the extended version and theatrical cut along with the Director and Writer audio commentary for the theatrical version. The extended version is approximately 18 minutes longer and includes an alternate ending. The menus on both sides are easy to navigate.

American Gangster: HD DVD And DVD Combo Format is available on home video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. A two-disc DVD version is also available in stores.

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