Stars:
Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Alex Desert, and
Heather Graham
Writer:
Jon Favreau
Director:
Doug Liman
Feature
length: 96 minutes
Extras:
Filmmaker’s Audio Commentary With Director Doug Liman and Editor Stephen
Mirrione, Illustrated Action Commentary With Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn,
“Making It In Hollywood” Original Documentary, The Cutting Room Floor –
Deleted Scenes, “Swingblade” Short Film, Filmographies, Still Gallery,
Trailers
Languages:
English and French Language Dolby Surround Sound 2.0
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 14
Sound:
Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1996/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Miramax Films
Home
Video Distributor: Miramax Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Writer
and Actor Jon Favreau co-produced “Swingers” with Director Doug Liman, which
became a jewel in the Miramax Films catalogue and launched careers for Vince
Vaughn who steals every scene he appears in and Patrick Van Horn as well as lead
to acting roles for Jon Favreau and added another offbeat independent feature
film role for Actress Heather Graham.
Jon Favreau would also go on to write and direct “Made,”
which is distributed by Artisan Home Entertainment.
The
relationships between men and women and the games they play are a part of the façade
that “Swingers” evokes with pinpoint accuracy. It doesn’t matter whether
they are teenagers or twenty-something adults, the bottom line is men and women
often create more anxiety by following silly games rather than be direct to each
other. Of course this could be the human equivalent to ritualistic animal
behavior that occurs prior to mating, but I think human beings are more than
just animals even though many act like them. The idea that the men are all
aspiring actors adds another layer to the whole riff on relationships with Jon
Favreau as the unemployed comedian suffering from a broken heart since his
Queens, New York girlfriend broke up with him after a 6 year relationship.
Vaughn
is his showboating friend who does his best to bring Favreau’s character out
of his depression. The movie throws a lot of winks and nods to other independent
successes that the filmmakers obviously appreciated like “Reservoir Dogs”
and “Boyz In The Hood.” A scene in a diner even calls to mind the 70’s
classic “Saturday Night Fever.” These are mostly nods with humor and not
meant to be taken seriously. This is a comedy after all.
This
new DVD of “Swingers: Miramax Collector’s Series presents the film with an
anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio. The film was shot with
imperfections on a shoestring budget to begin with, but I do not think the new
transfer is a drastic improvement over the previous release in terms of the
overall graininess of the image, but the shimmering along the edges is
thankfully gone.
An
English and French Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack coupled with English
Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired are encoded on to this new
DVD, but the Spanish Language Subtitles have been dropped. John Favreau and
Vince Vaughn give a screen specific audio commentary with the option of having
them point out things on screen with a light pen. Favreau does most of the
talking or so it seems because at times their disembodied voices sounded so much
alike to me that I could not tell who was saying what. It is interesting to hear
how some of best comedic bits of the film were based on real life anecdotes and
whatnot. There are also more references to films I mentioned I never caught
before, which can be literally pointed out both men. Director Doug Liman and
Editor Stephen Mirrione also have their own feature length commentary that is
also screen specific and compliments the other commentary with the expected
overlapping. Overall I think fans of the film as well as filmmakers will enjoy
both and I thought they were entertaining too.
There
is a four-part documentary entitled “Making It In Hollywood” and these four
parts can be watched individually or as one long reel. The documentary elements
with running times is made up of “Art Imitates Life: Writing The Story”
(11:02), “Life Creates Art: Getting Swingers Made” (17:02), “Life Imitates
Art: Swingers Culture” (11:28), and “Art Creates Life: Life After
Swingers” (9:26). All four parts feature a mix of brand new videotaped and
earlier videotaped interviews with cast and crewmembers. There are four deleted
scenes with a little text introduction for “Golfing” (1:56), “The Kiss”
(2:53), Drunken Diners (3:06), and Outtakes (2:12). All of these are direct from
the editor’s table so to speak so you will see numbers running in frame and so
on. The 3 ½ minute mock trailer short film “Swingblade” is also included
along with cast and crew filmographies, a short promotional still gallery, and
(1.33:1) DVD preview sneak peak trailers featuring full Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround Sound for “Pulp Fiction:
Collector’s Edition: 2-Disc Set,” “Jackie
Brown: Collector’s Edition 2-Disc Set,” “Jay And Silent Bob Strike
Back: Dimension Collector’s Series 2-Disc Set,” and “40 Days And 40
Nights.” Those elements wrap up the extra features included in this new DVD
release. The trailer for “Swingers” strangely is not included in this
“Collector’s Series” edition unless I missed it or it is hidden as an
Easter egg.
The
main menu is animated and the scene selections feature full motion clips while
the other menus are standard interactive still frames however I found the scene
selection menus difficult to navigate because the little Champaign glasses that
should highlight each choice do not always appear so one could end up choosing a
scene from the menu they did not intend to view. That aside, “Swingers:
Miramax Collector’s Series” is a vast improvement collectively over the
previous release and it just wouldn’t be “money” not to add it to your
collection. “Swingers: Miramax Collector’s Series” is available now from
Miramax Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.