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| Special Features: |
Audio Commentary by Directors Andy & Larry Wachowski, Editor Zach Staenberg, Actors Susie Bright, Joe Pantoliano, Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon
The Original theatrical trailer
Single-Layer
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| Video Format: |
Widescreen (1.85:1)
[SS-SL]
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| Languages: |
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
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| Captions: |
English, Spanish.
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| Casing: |
1-Disc Keep Case
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The Wachowski brothers dazzled the indie film world with this stylish directorial debut, winning the coveted Grand
Jury Prize in 1996. Seductively introducing classic film-noir elements to a modern-edged Lesbian-lover heist-thriller,
"Bound" tells the tale of Violet (Jennifer Tilly), a softer, wiser femme-fetal who wants out of the mob life.
Her soft voice and voluptuous curves are the perfect front for her calculating persona. Her attraction to
the sexy paroled thief next door, Corky (Gina Gershon), leads Violet to devise a plan to steal $2 million from her
mob husband Caesar (Joe Pantoliano, more affectionately known as "Joey Pants").
The plan gets melded in a heated Lesbian relationship between the two, as they attempt to outwit
"more clever than meets the eye" Caesar and his mob goons. There's a nice twist, though I'm not spoiling that one for you.
The film is masterfully shot, using elegant vertical angles to capture every nuance of movement,
and the film's darkly lit atmosphere is a brilliant counterpart to the ensuing sequences. Probably
the most talked about scene is, of course, the Lesbian sex scene between Lilly and Gershon, which
is, to put it mildly, steamy. As a warning, listening to the commentary track takes some of the fun away, as
the actresses discuss all the cold details of the difficult shot.
Great flick, so-so disc. Though the picture quality falls a bit short, a fantastic audio track and insightful commentary by the Wachowski brothers makes this an intriguing disc indeed. The DVD is unrated, though after watching both the theatrical release and the DVD, I didn't notice a difference.
Picture Quality: 7/10
This disc was made during the early years of DVD, and thus errors in the transfer are midly acceptable. The transfer comes out very dark, though this doesn't pose a serious problem for a film that's already so dimly lit. Surprisingly for a single-layer disc (lower bit-rate = lower quality), there are not any noticeable grainy artifacts. This is not an anamorphic widescreen transfer, though there doesn't seem to be any glaring weaknesses in the digital enhancement process.
Sound Quality: 9/10
Much more impressive is the sharp 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track. Though dialogue heavy, the film comes out crystal clear, with excellent channel separation and smooth low ends. The surround spectrum is fantastic too: at one point in the film when Violet is knocking on Corky's door, the knocking presented in the left rear channel actually caused me to get up off my seat and attempt to answer my own door. Damn surround sound!
Menu: 1/10
This is one of the ugliest menus I've ever come across, not just amongst DVDs but in any form. For such a stylistic film, it's a shame the menu looks like it was designed by a fifth grader with a home PC.
Extra Features: 6/10
A full frame (ugh!) original theatrical trailer and a solid commentary track with insights of co-writers/co-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, film editor Zach Staenberg, Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, and Lesbian sex consultant Susie Bright (score!). The audio track is interesting, and you can tell just how brilliant these Wachowski brothers are. But they also come across like total assholes, especially towards actresses Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon, continually talking "down" to them. One can argue that this superiority complex is laced within the film itself, but that's a topic that belongs in another discussion altogether...
The Final Word:
Debuting brother directors, Larry and Andy Wachowski made a serious splash in the film world with this contagiously stylish noir-thriller. Fans of "The Matrix" will realize the vast similarities in framing styles between that film and "Bound", though the tongue-and-cheek treatment of Lesbian attraction and the mob is at the heart of this uniquely entertaining heist-thriller. A must-see gem of 1996's Sundance Film Festival.
Rusty White
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