Review of Breakdown

Introduction

This is the film that gave director Jonathan Mostow the recognition he deserves, and gave Kurt Russell a part that shows off his acting talents instead of ones with smarmy smiles, wisecracks and romantic comedies. In a cracking little thriller the couple (Kurt and an underused Kathleen Quinlan) are moving house, a journey that takes them and their brand new jeep across Arizona. On route through this vast and unpopulated landscape, they come across some locals (headed up by an excellent J.T Walsh) who kidnap his wife and demand ransom money.

Not since Spielberg’s Duel has their been a film which bristles with the same amount of tension as this one. In a constant cat-and-mouse chase the tension is turned up to 11 and neither party has the advantage for too long. This film works wonderfully, as Kurt is an everyday middleclass man who is out of his depth with the locals he encounters. He has many things to do and problems to solve if he is going to see his wife alive, and whilst he is resourceful, he never starts performing superhuman feats. This keeps story real and allows you to easily relate to his predicament.

Video

The picture is a non-anamorphic presentation with a 2:35:1 aspect ratio. The wider ratio is needed in a film like this to show the vast landscape and the isolation the protagonists feel. It is unfortunate that this is non-anamorphic, however the picture has been well encoded and is still very sharp and clear. Admittedly, you do loose some definition on the picture compared to anamorphic releases, there is a ‘jaggedness’ to some edges - however once the film has got a hold of you, the picture is good enough and so doesn’t remain a concern.

Audio

Like his later film U-571, Mostow invests as much in the quality of the sound as he does the film, and for his first main foray into Hollywood mainstream he has come up with a wonderful soundtrack to suck the viewer in. The film opens up with the sound of lonely thudding drums, giving a feeling of the impending doom you are about to witness. Dialogue is clear and easily intelligible throughout. Mostow keeps the films’ sound rather subdued initially, giving the impression of wide-open spaces and loneliness. As the tension increases, so does the dynamic range of the music, making aggressive use of the LFE channel on a number of occasions. There are some wonderful throbs registered with the double bass, and the truck has a suitably menacing growl whenever it gets screen time.

Features

The DVD is rather light on the features front. You get a trailer and some production notes, and that’s about it.

Conclusion

OK, so this isn’t a heavily feature-packed DVD, but at the end of the day, this is a wonderfully exciting and tension packed 90 minutes. The non-anamorphic picture is clean and sharp, and the sound is excellent. If you think there are no new DVDs worth purchasing at the moment but your wallet is feeling itchy, check out this film, if you liked U-571, also check out this film... you won’t be disappointed!