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Foxcatcher (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - E1 Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (25th May 2015). |
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The Film
 Taking place in 1987, 3 years after the Los Angeles Olympics, Men’s Wrestling Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Schultz (played by Channing Tatum) is struggling to make ends meet. The only thing that keeps him going for the most part is his continued passion for wrestling, practicing with his older brother Dave (played by Mark Ruffalo), who had also won a gold medal in wrestling in a separate class in the 1984 Olympics. Though unlike Mark, Dave had found happiness in his life through marriage and having a family to take care of. Both were raised in a family which went through divorce when they were very young, and so Mark looked at Dave as not just an older brother, but as a mentor as well. Mark suddenly gets a phone call from a representative of a man named John du Pont, who wants to fly Mark out to Pennsylvania first class by airplane and then by helicopter to the du Pont estate, called Foxcatcher Farms for a meeting. With nothing to pin him down (a wrestling pun), Mark decides to meet du Pont (played by Steve Carell), a millionaire who has a very strong passion for wrestling. Du Pont offers Mark a chance to train at Foxcatcher Farms, all expenses paid, with full training facilities built on the farmland, and to build a team of his choosing, all to support Mark towards the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Mark tells Dave about the generous offer by du Pont, and tells him that du Pont also wants Dave to come to train together, but Dave reluctantly declines since he cannot suddenly move his entire family out. Without Dave, Mark takes the opportunity and moves onto Foxcatcher Farms by himself. During the time that Mark starts to build up “Team Foxcatcher”, du Pont’s eccentricities start affecting the team. As part of the “du Pont Family Dynasty” and growing up in a powerful millionaire family, John du Pont found many hobbies to follow: marksmanship, ornithology, conchology, and stamp collecting to name a few. His love for ornithology went so far as to writing a book on birdwatching and being an important figure in the science community. But he also had a fascination of guns and weapons, being an expert marksman, even to the point of buying a tank. Although he was the financier and leader of Team Foxcatcher, he starts to lose his position of power as Mark starts doing very well and becomes the main coach and mentor toward the younger wrestlers training. In what becomes a power struggle, he finally enlists Dave to move to Foxcatcher Farms with the condition that he could bring his wife and two children along for an untold amount of money, to make sure someone could be around to control Mark and put him in place. With du Pont’s erratic behavior and obsession with control and power, and Mark’s descent into depression and destruction, Dave is the only person who has the ability to try to maintain the situation in the middle. But what happens between the three comes to a tension filled shocking climax… Based on a true story, “Foxcatcher” was a long project in the making by director Bennett Miller, who had been pursuing making the film for years. Financing was especially difficult, as was receiving cooperation from the wrestling committee because of the subject matter, but with his 2 narrative based-on-a-true-story films “Capote” and “Moneyball” receiving wide acclaim for both directing and for the performances, Miller finally able to secure financial support. Miller was known for getting his actors to deliver performances that were unexpected: Philip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of Truman Capote was truly unlike anything Hoffman had ever done and won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Jonah Hill, who is known very well for crass comedy films, gave an excellent dramatic performance in “Moneyball” which gave him his first Academy Award nomination. With “Foxcatcher”, Miller’s choice of casting Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo for the roles was highly unorthodox, considering their acting careers. Carell, known best for his hilarious bumbling character of Michael Scott from the TV series “The Office” and Tatum for his pretty boy looks seemed like a strange choices, as well as Ruffalo playing a wrestler being unexpected as his resume is not exactly filled with physical action oriented roles, but with drama or comedy. Carell’s performance as John du Pont is a creepy and disturbing portrayal that went beyond his usual call. With a makeup job that transformed his face into something unrecognizable, Carell made sure to stay in character as much as he could, making sure to even distance himself from Channing Tatum during off screen time. The performance earned Carell an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and rightly so. Whatever you thought about Steve Carell in the past was completely (back)flipped for this film. Tatum has mentioned that the role of Mark Schultz was the hardest so far in his career. Not just because of the pressure that he was playing a real-life person, but the physical conditioning he had to go through to master wrestling moves as well as the emotional downfall was painstaking. Ruffalo had some wrestling background, but nothing to the level of what Dave Schultz had been. After some practice and proving himself to being committed to authenticity, wrestlers who practiced with Dave and Dave’s family were extremely supportive of Ruffalo, who was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Both the characters of John du Pont and Mark Schultz had an equal flaw: never being able to find true recognition from the parental figure in their lives, for du Pont it was his controlling mother (played by Vanessa Redgrave) and for Mark it was his older brother Dave. As much as du Pont tried to prove himself as a man, his mother had always controlled or had been critical. From learning that his mother paid had paid local children’s parents to play with her son, and using the family’s wealth to further him in life. Even when he tells his mother about the pursuit of forming the wrestling team, she shuts him down saying that wrestling is a low form of sport. With Mark, even with a gold medal and numerous awards, he had always been overshadowed by the success of his brother. It was always “Dave and Mark” and never “Mark and Dave”. The two characters having a bond that seemed equally toward the right direction was consequence for tension, as with any sport, there can only be one at the top. Bennett’s directing style can be said as “an actor’s director”. Instead of fancy visual technique, it is about being able to see and feel the performances of the actors. He often uses the technique of not showing the actor who is speaking but showing the reactionary shots of the listener instead. Some of the dialogue scenes are very long and drawn out with pauses, increasing tensions toward disturbing breaking points. Not only that, but there are quite long periods of scenes with inaudible dialogue, only relying on the actors’ performances to guide us along in a silent movie style. As with almost all filmed adaptations of true stories a few liberties have been taken, mostly with the timeframe of the movie (for example Mark had met du Pont in 1986 and not in 1987, Dave stayed on Foxcatcher Farms until 1996, much later than the film seems to suggest, and that du Pont’s mother passed away a few months after the date stated in the film). The film was released at the end of 2014 during the awards season, and was a critical success, but failed to find a wide audience, and was financially not a success. But regardless, the film was nominated for 3 Golden Globe awards, 5 Academy Awards. Bennett Miller received the Best Director award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Note: This is a Region B-locked Blu-ray disc and will only play on a Region-B or Region Free Blu-ray player.
Video
The film is presented in the 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The picture quality is what is to be expected of a new theatrical release. It looks pristine. Colors look great, especially the beautiful green of Foxcatcher Farms. An excellent transfer by E-One.
Audio
There are 3 audio tracks on the Blu-ray: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo English Audio Descriptive DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo The 5.1 track is a very subdued track, as this is a film which also uses silence and quietness in many scenes as opposed to heavy sound effects or heavy dialogue. The minimal score sounds good, but the volume was sometimes quite low compared to other films so dialogue was hard to hear at times, though when David Bowie’s “Fame” starts to play and the shooting range scenes come in quite loud and clear. Optional English HoH subtitles are available.
Extras
Mirroring the US Sony release, the extras consist of: "The Story of Foxcatcher" featurette (16:20) The featurette directed by Lance Bangs is an overview of the film, with interviews of director Bennett Miller, the actors, and some of the real life counterparts. As well as the make-up created for Carell’s transformation. For such a short runtime, it has a lot of information, but one could only wish for something more comprehensive. In 1.78:1, 1080p Deleted Scenes (5:14) Two deleted scenes are presented, although it seems like three. The first scene is with Dave and his family and suddenly followed by a runaway tank driven by du Pont. The second scene is a confrontation between Mark and Dave’s wife. In 1:85:1, 1080p Start-up Trailers - "Mr. Holmes" (0:50) - "Danny Collins" (2:34) - "Lost River" (1:55) These can be skipped. In 1080p except "Mr. Holmes" in 1080i Considering there is a lot of archival footage such as the wrestling matches, interviews with du Pont and the Schultz brothers while Team Foxcatcher was in motion, and the history of the du Pont family, none of those things included is “criminal”. Also considering that Miller provided 2 commentary tracks for “Capote” and Sony put together excellent making-of materials for both “Capote” and “Moneyball”, this is a big disappointment.
Overall
The performances of the actors in “Foxcatcher” is worthy of the accolades it received. The film may not be worthy of repeated viewings, but it shouldn’t be missed out on. Recommended, though I had hoped for more in depth special features than what was given here.
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