Stars:
Kieran Culkin, Jena Malone, Emile Hirsch, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Jodi Foster
Writers:
Jeff Stockwell and Michael Petroni
Based
Upon The Book By: Chris Fuhrman
Director:
Peter Care
Feature
length: 105 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary With Director Peter Care and Screenwriter Jeff Stockwell,
Animated Scenes Collection With Option Audio Commentary By Animation Producer
Todd McFarlane, Anatomy Of A Scene, Cast And Filmmaker Bios, Featurette, Deleted
Scenes, Interviews, Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots, Animated Illustrations, And
Bonus Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 20
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2002/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Think Film Release
Home
Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“The
Dangerous Lives Of Alter Boys” is a compelling film about four young catholic
school teenagers who engage in typical and not so typical after school behavior.
They take great challenges when it comes to pulling pranks like stealing the
school’s patron saint statue, accidentally chipping a finger, and then sending
it with a ransom note attached to the trouble nun, who also happens to be their
teacher, played by Jodi Foster. What I liked about “The Dangerous Lives Of
Alter Boys” is that it captures vividly an environment that is extremely
sheltered where our kids are acting out against authority, but their actions
only get more outrageous as they get overconfident. I attended a Catholic middle
school and high school, and I can remember some of the things kids did in and
outside of classes. It is a very oppressive environment in some ways because
quite honestly the idea of wearing a tie, button down shirt, and slacks with
shoes while girls wore skirts, even in the winter with legwarmers, always struck
me as a way of breaking down one’s individuality for better control. I liken
it to sort of like being a cadet or trainee in some military outfit, only not
half as disciplinary. One can relate to the resentment the kids feel toward
their one-legged nun and the hypocrisy they see around them, but in Catholic
school it was never physical abuse or the threat of physical abuse one worried
about. It was more the mental and emotional worries of being humiliated in front
of your peers, getting caught for doing something stupid, but funny, and the
like. In high school I never worried that some bully was going kill me, because
these are kids from middle class families who act like they are immortal and
quite honestly, the things these kids do in the film and that my friends and I
did are nothing compared to what one hears or reads in the news.
I
mean there are nuns and priests who should not be teaching and would not
anywhere but there for the most part and you know we had a Dean for the boys and
a Dean, who was a nun for the girls, and I think aside from some extreme
circumstances, most of the time the way discipline was handled is you get yelled
at by the Dean, they write a letter, call your parents, or may even ask to see
them. Then your parents freak because they are paying tuition so you are an
investment that is not going like they hoped, and if your suspended, you usually
still go to class. Expulsion means by the year’s end or in severe cases right
away, you are kicked out, but suspension meant you had to stay after for several
hours for a few weeks because they are not stupid. I mean if every kid who got
suspended could not go to classes, they would lose tuition and then they know
that having to go to school and stay after is a lot more of a drag than it is to
stay home and watch TV. So by contrast, the difference between going to catholic
school and public school from my experience and from what I saw in the film is
that it is a more authoritarian environment, but a sheltered environment never
the less. That is why the antics the kids do and their fantasy life as
illustrated in the animated segments that parallel the real world scenes become
more about challenging authority through theft and vandalism, but not the kind
of stuff where a kid is carrying a gun out of fear that someone else is going to
shoot him. I have no doubt that things happened while I was in school that were
shocking and there was a tragedy not unlike what happens in this film with
someone I never knew personally, but in my opinion the biggest difference
between Catholic school and public school is that Catholic school was more of a
sheltered and authoritarian environment.
Unless
these kids are supposed to be freshmen, they look more like middle school or
junior high school aged students to me, but the feel and the acting seems real
enough so I liked the film. The ending is a bit flat upon first viewing, but in
hindsight it makes better sense and rounds off the character arc for the lead
character quite well.
This
is a Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment release that presents “The Dangerous
Lives Of Altar Boys” in a letterboxed (1.85:1) aspect ratio. The image is fine
and from watching the extra feature materials, I am curious to learn if the film
was matted for theatrical release. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack is clear and as well mixed as one might expect for what is
essentially a quasi-independent feature. A Stereo Soundtrack is included along
with English Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and Spanish Language
Subtitles. Director Peter Care and Screenwriter Jeff Stockwell give a thoughtful
and screen specific audio commentary track, which is also complemented by the
optional commentary for the collective animated scenes (11:50) in the film by
Todd McFarlane. Those scenes are presented in a (1.33:1) aspect ratio with
Stereo Sound. Some on screen production notes and liner notes within the insert
inside the DVD keep case are also provided along with a reel of deleted scenes
(5:48) that are more extended stuff than anything else.
The
Sundance Channel’s Anatomy Of Scene (30:13) is included though I had a hard
time watching it because it involves the boys coming across an abandoned and
mortally wounded dog on the road that was hit by a car. I love dogs so much that
I found it difficult to watch. Sufficed to say it is one of the film’s more
emotional scenes. A short featurette (5:17) and a reel of videotaped cast ad
filmmaker interviews from the production set (13:37) are also included. An
illustration gallery, two TV spots (1:02), and the full screen theatrical
trailer (2:21) as well as bonus trailers for “Panic Room,” “World
Traveler,” and “The Mystic Masseur” wraps up the extra DVD-Video features.
PC users with a DVD-ROM drive can access other bonus features not listed on the
disc or in the documentation.
The
menus are well rendered to look like the pages of a comic book with animated
transitions and full motion scene selections and all of the interactive menus
are easy to navigate. “The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys: Special Edition”
is available on DVD-Video now through Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment and is
definitely worth a look.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.