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Stars:
Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey, and Laura Elena Harring
Writer:
Glen Morgan
Based
On A Screenplay By: Gilbert Ralston
Based
On The Book “Ratman’s Notebooks” By: Stephen Gilbert
Director:
Glen Morgan
Feature
length: 100 minutes
Extras:
Deleted and Alternate Scenes With Optional Commentary, Filmmaker’s Commentary,
“The Year Of the Rat” Documentary On The Making Of Willard, “Rat People:
Friends Or Foes?” Featurette, Music Video “Ben” By Crispin Hellion Glover
With Optional Commentary, Theatrical Trailer, TV Spots, Bonus Trailers, DVD-ROM
Script-To-Screen, Trivia Challenge, and Web Links
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 25
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2003/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Home
Video Distributor: New Line Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: PG-13
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
They
could not have picked a better guy to play the title role in the theatrical
remake of “Willard” than Crispin Glover. The eccentric, but talented Actor
makes “Willard” all his own while still remaining faithful to the original
feature version. What Glover adds is a weird intensity that brings a dark humor
to his portrayal much like Anthony Perkins did in “Psycho.” This is in no
way an insult to Mr. Glover. I really enjoy his screen work and wish he’d act
more often in films. “Willard” is about a young man whose been burdened by
the debts left over by his father, who lost his business to his competitor (R.
Lee Ermey) and has since been tortured verbally and humiliated on a daily basis
by his boss who hopes to force Willard to quit. There was a contractual
agreement between his father and Willard’s boss that prevents Willard from
being fired, but even if Willard wanted to quit, he cannot because he has a sick
mother at home to support that dominates his life as well. Willard finds peace
and unconditional love in an intelligent white rat he names “Socrates.” Soon
he has an army of trained rats in his basement that will do his bidding upon his
command, but even within this group of rodents there is descent in “Ben,”
the biggest of the brown rats that assumes a sort of struggle over who will be
the alpha male between Willard and even Socrates.
As Willard continues to become withdrawn into his own secret world so do
the pressures of his life begin to intensify until Willard decides to use his
furry friends in an insane act of revenge.
“Willard”
opened up theatrically earlier this year to lukewarm reviews and an audience
that I think was expecting something more visceral than psychological in nature.
Glen Morgan gives the film a muted gloomy if not sickly look throughout with
pale whites contrasting against stark blacks and a color palette made of mostly
of a dark oak brown and a clammy green. New Line Home Entertainment’s DVD
edition captures this stylized world beautifully with a choice of either an
anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio, which preserves the manner in which
the film was exhibited theatrically as close as possible for home video viewers
on the dual layered side of the DVD-14 and a pan and scan (1.33:1) aspect ratio
presentation on the single layered side. Aside from a bit of light shimmering
occasionally noticeable in certain scenes, the transfer looks just fine. Both
presentations feature a well-rounded and ambient English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Surround Soundtrack as well as English Dolby Surround Sound and English Captions
and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as Spanish Language
Subtitles encoded as options.
The
majority of the extra value features are accessible only on the dual layered
side of the DVD, which includes a feature length audio commentary by Director
Glen Morgan, Producer James Wong, and Actors Crispin Glover and R. Lee Ermey. I
found the audio commentary track to be quite entertaining with a screen specific
and conversational approach that reveals much about the production without
getting too technical. This commentary track is supported by an excellent
behind-the-scenes making of documentary entitled “The Year Of The Rat”
(73:09), which was directed by a film student and covers not only the
traditional interviews with the Director, Producer, and Stars, but also focuses
on the unsung participants in the production of a feature film such as the
office production assistant or the grips. At one point I had to laugh when the
documentary Director asks Glen Morgan about his apparent interest in porn in
front of his Actress wife Kristen Cloke. They both take the question in stride,
but you cannot blame anyone for asking Mr. Morgan when just about every TV
series and feature film you’ve been involved in has featured a role for
Kimberly Patton alias porn star Ashlyn Gere in it. Morgan and Glover also
provide optional commentary for 13 deleted and extended scenes that feature the
original and a slightly longer version of the ending that is present in the film
now. While packaging and even selections on the menus only reveal 12 headings,
there are indeed 13 scenes that can be viewed individually (with the exception
of the 13th) or as one reel (25:58). I actually noticed that running
times noted with minutes and seconds on the DVD menus often differed to the time
my DVD player displayed them so for the record, I am going by what my player
displayed and not by what the menu records what the length of the extra features
to be. All of the deleted scenes are presented in a widescreen (2.35:1) aspect
ratio with equal picture quality to the feature film presentation and English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound as well as optional English Captions for the
hearing impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles.
Crispin
Hellion Glover sung and directed the music video for his rendition of the song
“Ben” (2:55), which also feature R. Lee Ermey in the video and has an
optional screen specific fast talking audio commentary by Mr. Glover as well.
Much like the way film honors the original Actor to play “Willard” Bruce
Davison by presenting pictures and even a painting of the Actor as the deceased
father of Glover’s “Willard,” the DVD pays homage by having Davison
narrate a rather interesting featurette about rats entitled “Rat People:
Friends Of Foes?” (18:41). The short is quite interesting in displaying the
contrasting opinions over these furry creatures from both who love and hate
them. One thing they all agree on though is that rats are remarkably smart. The
theatrical trailer (2:04) is presented with a full 5.1 Soundtrack and there are
three full frame TV spots that can be viewed individually or collectively
(1:37). On the single layered side of the DVD are bonus trailers for “Freddy
Vs. Jason,” “Final Destination 2,” and “Critters.”
Windows
based DVD-ROM users will also have access to the original website complete with
a trivia challenge, script-to-screen comparisons with storyboards, and web links
to find out the latest New Line promotions. Within the keep case is a mini
collectible reproduction for New Line’s upcoming theatrical remake of “The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” which opens in cinemas on Friday, October 17, 2003.
The interactive menus are fully animated and well rendered as well as easy to
navigate.
“Willard:
New Line Platinum Series” is definitely worth checking out when it debuts on
DVD-Video at retailers on and offline on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 from New Line
Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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