Thanks to the strongly evocative sets and persuasive acting, I found the tale gripping, even though I had heard and seen the story many times before.
A couple of concluding observations: First, the British accents, which differ from actor to actor, and the wide dynamic range of the soundtrack, which renders voices at times too quiet, make hearing every plot detail difficult. I would advise keeping one finger on the volume control and another poised on the repeat button. Second, the film's final resolution, the denouement, seems too facile and even anticlimactic. Nor is it particularly new or original. The Hughes Brothers apparently chose it because it's popular, not because it's necessarily right. I found the solution shaky at best, but at least it ties everything together into a neat little package.
Video:
In terms of picture quality, everything is gorgeous. The film has been THX mastered in an approximately 2.11:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, conveying an image of superb clarity and definition. The combination of bright, opulent colors in daylight scenes and dark, dingy, dimly lit, rain-drenched, fog-enshrouded alleys and passageways in nighttime scenes are captured with equal ease. Variations and gradations of hue and shade are also well rendered, with virtually no grain, line wavering, or other digital transfer artifacts.
Audio:
The audio, conveyed via Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1, holds up its end of the bargain as well. In DD 5.1, one will hear excellent use of the surrounds to create an all-encompassing sonic environment. London streets come alive with the ambient noises of horses, birds, rain, wind, rats, and people. It's just the kind of sound the film needs to complement the reality of the set designs and to create the overall illusion of nineteenth century England.
Extras:
Fox's Directors' Limited Edition set comes on two discs and provides enough details about both the filmmaking and the real-life Ripper to satisfy movie fans and Ripper fans for hours. Disc one contains the widescreen presentation of the film itself, the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, English, French, and Spanish spoken languages, and English subtitles. The two major extras on disc one are an audio commentary with directors Albert and Allen Hughes, screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, cinematographer Peter Deming, and actor Robbie Coltrane; and twenty-one deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, all with optional director comments. Finally, there is a THX Optimizer group of audiovisual calibration tests and thirty-two scene selections.
Disc two contains the majority of the bonus items, and most of them are worth watching. The primary attraction is a documentary called " Six Degrees of Separation," thirty-plus minutes long, that not only provides primary information about the real Ripper murders but optional supplemental material accessed via magnifying-glass icons that appear on the screen from time to time. Next, there's a twelve-minute featurette on "Production Design," in which production designer Martin Childs shows us some of the locations and sets used for the film. The crew went to Prague to shoot most of the interior scenes and built an elaborate replica of the Whitechapel District in a field just outside the city. Needless to say, the actual murder sites were exactingly represented. After that, there's a book-to-film comparison, showing how the graphic novel by Allen Moore and Eddie Campbell inspired the motion picture. Then, there's another featurette, "Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder," ten minutes of everything you ever wanted to know about the liqueur. Following that is yet another featurette, this one an eight-minute "Tour of the Murder Sites," hosted by the Hughes brothers, wherein they take the viewer around the enormous set they built of the various murder locations. Then, there's a fourteen-minute promotional featurette titled "A View From Hell," hosted by Heather Graham. The most interesting bit of news in it for me: The Hughes boys were fascinated by Jack the Ripper ever since their youth when they saw an old Ripper episode of the Leonard Nimoy series "In Search of" that scared the pants off them. So, thank Mr. Spock for "From Hell." The disc concludes with two theatrical trailers, a widescreen one for this film and a pan-and-scan affair for another Fox title.
Parting Thoughts:
Is "From Hell" the definitive story of Jack the Ripper? Surely not. It isn't even the scariest or most complete film on the subject because the case will probably never be closed. Of all the possible crime scenarios, the Hughes Brothers have chosen the most popular and, in some ways, the most controversial one as the basis for their film. Thanks to the strongly evocative sets and persuasive acting, I found the tale gripping, even though I had heard and seen the story many times before. I dunno; maybe I'm just morbidly minded. I liked this show. It won't have you jumping out of your seat, but it will surely make you squirm.
Video:
In terms of picture quality, everything is gorgeous. The film has been THX mastered in an approximately 2.11:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio, conveying an image of superb clarity and definition. The combination of bright, opulent colors in daylight scenes and dark, dingy, dimly lit, rain-drenched, fog-enshrouded alleys and passageways in nighttime scenes are captured with equal ease. Variations and gradations of hue and shade are also well rendered, with virtually no grain, line wavering, or other digital transfer artifacts.
Audio:
The audio, conveyed via Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1, holds up its end of the bargain as well. In DD 5.1, one will hear excellent use of the surrounds to create an all-encompassing sonic environment. London streets come alive with the ambient noises of horses, birds, rain, wind, rats, and people. It's just the kind of sound the film needs to complement the reality of the set designs and to create the overall illusion of nineteenth century England.
Extras:
Fox's Directors' Limited Edition set comes on two discs and provides enough details about both the filmmaking and the real-life Ripper to satisfy movie fans and Ripper fans for hours. Disc one contains the widescreen presentation of the film itself, the Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, English, French, and Spanish spoken languages, and English subtitles. The two major extras on disc one are an audio commentary with directors Albert and Allen Hughes, screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, cinematographer Peter Deming, and actor Robbie Coltrane; and twenty-one deleted scenes, including an alternate ending, all with optional director comments. Finally, there is a THX Optimizer group of audiovisual calibration tests and thirty-two scene selections.
Disc two contains the majority of the bonus items, and most of them are worth watching. The primary attraction is a documentary called " Six Degrees of Separation," thirty-plus minutes long, that not only provides primary information about the real Ripper murders but optional supplemental material accessed via magnifying-glass icons that appear on the screen from time to time. Next, there's a twelve-minute featurette on "Production Design," in which production designer Martin Childs shows us some of the locations and sets used for the film. The crew went to Prague to shoot most of the interior scenes and built an elaborate replica of the Whitechapel District in a field just outside the city. Needless to say, the actual murder sites were exactingly represented. After that, there's a book-to-film comparison, showing how the graphic novel by Allen Moore and Eddie Campbell inspired the motion picture. Then, there's another featurette, "Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder," ten minutes of everything you ever wanted to know about the liqueur. Following that is yet another featurette, this one an eight-minute "Tour of the Murder Sites," hosted by the Hughes brothers, wherein they take the viewer around the enormous set they built of the various murder locations. Then, there's a fourteen-minute promotional featurette titled "A View From Hell," hosted by Heather Graham. The most interesting bit of news in it for me: The Hughes boys were fascinated by Jack the Ripper ever since their youth when they saw an old Ripper episode of the Leonard Nimoy series "In Search of" that scared the pants off them. So, thank Mr. Spock for "From Hell." The disc concludes with two theatrical trailers, a widescreen one for this film and a pan-and-scan affair for another Fox title.
Parting Thoughts:
Is "From Hell" the definitive story of Jack the Ripper? Surely not. It isn't even the scariest or most complete film on the subject because the case will probably never be closed. Of all the possible crime scenarios, the Hughes Brothers have chosen the most popular and, in some ways, the most controversial one as the basis for their film. Thanks to the strongly evocative sets and persuasive acting, I found the tale gripping, even though I had heard and seen the story many times before. I dunno; maybe I'm just morbidly minded. I liked this show. It won't have you jumping out of your seat, but it will surely make you squirm.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]9884[/release]