Human Stain (DVD)

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Then there's Farley's ex-husband, Lester (Harris), a tough guy, a Vietnam vet, and a dedicated psycho. He wants his wife back, and he'll stop at nothing to get her.

You put all these loonies together and you get the equivalent of an afternoon soap opera. I mean, what are the odds that this many dysfunctional people could wind up together? An African American posing as white, a woman running from her lurid past, a homicidal lunatic, a wife dying of shock, and a failed writer living as a hermit?

The time of all these goings on is 1998, and President Clinton's sex scandals form a backdrop for the story, supposedly to underline the insincerity of Silk's various deceptions. None of the film's gimmicks work, though, not even the frequent flashbacks to Silk's youth when just out of high school he decides to pass for white. We see how cruel he was even back then. On one occasion he takes a blonde girlfriend home to meet his mother without first telling the girl that his mother is black. It's a test, which, naturally, the girlfriend fails. What sort of a man would do that to another person? I suppose the same sort of man who would turn against his own race and family in order to pursue his personal vision of the American Dream. I understand that it's author Roth's way of showing how desperate the situation is for minorities even in our own day and age, but is this idea of racism news to anyone, is this a revelation of some deep, dark American secret? Hardly.

Worse, the movie's structure is all over the place. First, the focus is on Silk; then it's on his lover, Farley; then it's back on Silk; and then it shifts to Zuckerman. All the while, these flashbacks I mentioned are happening and the Clinton thing is going on, which, to make matters even more unsatisfactory, eventually disappears altogether as though it were a bad idea to begin with or just an afterthought. Nor is the musical soundtrack of much help, being about as nondescript as it can be; nor does the acting compensate, being mostly on the sensational or histrionic side, with people shouting or crying or behaving weirdly. Oh, dear.

"The Human Stain" is a movie for viewers who want to wallow in depression and despair. It has little to say to the rest of us.

Video:
The opening shot at twilight in the snow is rather grainy and would not appear to bode well for the rest of the video quality. Fortunately, things pick up from there, and daylight shots are much more acceptable. The color depth is also good, with most hues showing up richly and solidly. That said, the overall impression is dark, faces are a touch too pink, and there are occasional shimmering lines despite the enhanced, anamorphic transfer. Incidentally, the keep case mistakenly identifies the screen size as 1.85:1 when, in fact, the movie was released at 2.35:1 and shows up across a standard television at about 2.13:1. Doesn't anyone at BV double check these things?

Audio:
There's not much to talk about in terms of audio except to say that the Dolby Digital 5.1 reproduction does its job, barely. Frankly, there is no reason for the rear speakers to be used at all, and so they are not. Not much, in any case. The front channels are used mainly for dialogue, which works out commendably well, but even here the stereo spread is limited. In its defense, the sound is clean, clear, and every now and then effective in its ambience reinforcement.

Extras:
As if to complement the mediocrity of the movie and the picture and the sound, the extras are close to nonexistent. There's a brief, seven-minute, behind-the-scenes special where the filmmakers praise one another's work and call Roth's book a great American classic. There's a two-minute "Tribute to Jean Yves Escoffier," the late cinematographer who died shortly after the movie was completed. There are three Sneak Peeks at other Buena Vista releases but no trailer for this film. And there are twenty scene selections. English and French are the spoken language options, with French and Spanish subtitles and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Shots:
"The Human Stain" is rated R mainly for sex and nudity, and for the profanity that starts in immediately during Sinise's opening narration. That kind of sensationalism pretty much sums up the picture. It's a potboiler disguised as a work of art. Maybe Roth's novel had something to say about the American condition and the country's chronic racism, I don't know, but the film uses these issues as excuses to delve into the sordid lives of sordid people, while making no valid points we aren't already well aware of.

If you like the actors involved, you might enjoy this flawed and pretentious film. Other than that, the DVD seems a waste of good plastic.

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