Product Description

Bridges and perez are the sole survivors of a plane crash. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/01/2004 Starring: Jeff Bridges Rosie Perez Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R Director: Peter Weir

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28192 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-06-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
When Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) finds himself facing imminent death as his plane hurls toward the ground, he finds inner calm and release from fear in his acceptance of his own unavoidable end. His panic erased, he helps other passengers to relax, and when he survives the impact, to escape. What follows is his difficult and complex journey back to emotional and spiritual equilibrium. Along the way he helps Carla (Rosie Perez), a woman smashed by the belief that her infant son's death in the accident was the direct result of her inability to hold him tightly enough, and alienates his wife, Laura (Isabella Rossellini), who tries desperately to understand what he's experiencing. Peter Weir's film is emotionally intense in an absolutely unsentimental way (very rare), and the complexity of the protagonist's experience is refreshing (if you don't mind feeling deeply). The handling of the crash sequences is chilling in an unsensational way, and the directing in general is a triumph of story-serving restraint. Not the usual Hollywood fare, but intensely rewarding for those who are tired of mind candy. --James McGrath

From The New Yorker
The central event in Peter Weir's new movie is the crash of a commercial airliner. Weir knows a metaphor for the fragility of modern man's existence when he sees one, and he seizes on this calamity as if it were something that he had been searching for all his life: an ideal vehicle for the sort of apocalyptic imagery and metaphysical speculation that dominated his early films, like "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975) and "The Last Wave" (1977). In terms of imagery and rhythm, this is a stunning piece of filmmaking; it's also a shamelessly florid exercise in therapeutic uplift. Essentially, Weir hijacks a fairly straightforward story about a couple of crash survivors (played by Jeff Bridges and Rosie Perez) and takes it to the Twilight Zone. Also with Isabella Rossellini, John Turturro, and Tom Hulce. Screenplay by Rafael Yglesias, based on his novel. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Five star movie...conflicting opinions on the DVD
This is a fabulous film. Emotionally deep, flawlessly directed and acted, without a false note throughout.

Jeff Bridges is (as always) excellent as a man who has undergone a transcendent experience so profound he cannot find his way back to his real life and world. Rosie Perez is not always my favorite actress, but here she is deeply moving as the guilt-racked, nearly destroyed mother of a dead child. The interplay between these two as they relate to each other and cannot relate to their families is told simply and eloquently, building to a shattering emotional climax.

Throw in terrific supporting performances by Isobella Rosselini as Bridge's loving wife who wants to reach him but cannot find the key to understanding his experience, Tom Hulce as a weasel lawyer, Benecio Torres as Rosie's husband who sees no harm in getting money for the tragedy and you have a full cast of three dimensional characters.

Oh, and there is a frightening plane crash that is grippingly done.

First rate in all departments, I originally thought this DVD needed to be in widescreen, but I have been advised that Pan and Scan is not used, and what you get is pretty much the movie as it was presented in the theatre. Others say no. I agree with many of you that a better presentation of this film would be nice (Criterion?). It is a film of great depth and beauty and well worth your while.

Good Movie, But DVD Issue
Although the theatrical aspect ratio of this movie was 1.85:1, while the DVD aspect ratio is 4:3, this is not a "Pan&Scan" DVD. In other words, almost none of the original theatrical image has been removed for exhibition on a 4:3 television screen. The film negative aspect ratio was 1.37:1 (almost 4:3), and for theatrical exhibition, the image was "matted" (partially covered from the top down and bottom up) to produce a 1.85:1 image. For exhibition on a 4:3 television screen, the "mattes" have simply been removed. So the DVD exhibition actually shows 25.9 percent more image than the theatrical exhibition. The movie was likely filmed this way so that the theatrical image wouldn't be butchered on television by the "Pan&Scan" process, and because the filmmakers didn't foresee the current state of the home video market, where consumers prefer movies presented in their theatrical aspect ratio, rather than in a ratio in which the image will fill up their 4:3 television screen (if there is a difference). This DVD presents the movie in the aspect ratio in which the filmmakers wanted people to see it on a 4:3 television, but it does not present the movie in the aspect ratio in which the filmmakers wanted people to see it in a movie theater (for that, the DVD would have to present the movie in a "matted widescreen" format). If you're okay with that, enjoy!

I Thought I was A Ghost...
Fearless is like no other movie, it treads in dangerous water. The story follows a plane crash survivor and the trauma that affects him and changes his day to day life. In many ways, the viewer comes to realize that what Max Klein is going through is actually far worse than being killed in the crash he survives. Fearless is a life affirming experience and an important overlooked film. Jeff Bridges may be the most underrated American actor of his time and he turns in another stellar performance here. I was also surprised by the range of Rosie Perez who gives a great performance as a crash survivor who loses her 2 year old son. Peter Weir is a master director and the use of sound in this film is astonishing. This movie has one of the best endings I have ever seen. Buy this DVD.