Product Description

A nuclear sub is lost in a deep chasm, and the Navy commandeers the civilian crew of an experimental deep sea oil rig to help in the search and rescue.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: UN
Release Date: 1-JUN-2004
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3969 in DVD
• Brand: HARRIS,ED
• Released on: 2003-02-11
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 171 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute

Customer Reviews

A Claustraphobia Inducing Deep Sea Thriller - Now with Bonus Aliens!
Cameron's lovingly crafted underwater 'first-encounter' thriller has no shortage of watery mayhem, but the E.T. action is surprisingly sparse, especially given that Cameron also directed 'Aliens'.

Abyss is essentially a disaster film a la 'Apollo 13' or 'Poseidon' albeit under 3000 feet of water. The majority of the plot chronicles the struggles of Ed Harris and his crew of deep sea oil explorers to survive amidst the deteriorating condition of their rig. It doesn't help that their efforts are hampered by a half-crazed Navy Seal with a nuclear warhead. The aliens pop in every now and again, but you won't give them much thought as the suspense on board the rig reaches critical levels.

Sometimes corny, but more often touching, Abyss offers an exiting tale of survival with aliens tossed in for good measure. The ending, and its moralizing, comes from out of left field, but feels appropriate none the less.

The Special Collectors Edition (not just special edition) has even more extras and added footage, though it might not be worth the added price for casual fans.

This is how a DVD should be done
Wonderfully written. This was one of the first films that I remember thinking how a brilliant, imaginative script can make a film live to its infinite credit. The acting was well on par with a tremendous script. The extended version is much better than the theatrical release. This DVD takes full advantage of what DVDs are good for. Other producers should take what Gail Hurd & James Cameron did on this DVD as a template on how to do it right.

The Abyss
The vhs was in very good repair, and I usually do not do SiFi, but this had an auroa of kindness, (almost Christian) which would be an improvement in our sad world. There was much action and suspense as well
to keep all ages interested. I rate this 4 stars!