Posted by tonester on 7th January 2003 02:50 PM:

The Yards
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“I know it’s pretty tough in jail, but the business world ain’t that much different.”

The Yards is a slow, bleak and quiet film, operating in the moral shadow lands explored so successfully in The Godfather. Now this film is not a patch on that one (despite the presence of James Caan), but it is the ambiguity, the blurring of the line between hero and villain, right and wrong, that makes The Yards an interesting movie, especially with its stellar cast.

It’s been a long time between drinks for writer/ director James Gray: his debut, 1994’s Little Odessa was a moody, atmospheric character study that received critical acclaim, but little else due to studio politics. That film starred Tim Roth, Edward Furlong and Vanessa Redgrave, and the quality of his material has allowed him to again assemble a stellar cast, and put on another dark look into its characters’ soul.

The film opens with a party thrown by the widowed, sickly and poor Val (Ellen Burstyn) in honour of her sole child Leo (Mark Wahlberg), who is returning home after three years of prison – he was done for car theft as an 18 year old, but went down alone, protecting his best friend Willie (Joaquin Phoenix). Willie has done well for himself whilst Leo was away, working for Leo’s new uncle by marriage, Frank (James Caan), and being engaged to Frank’s daughter, and Leo’s stepdaughter (Charlize Theron). Frank owns a subway train repair company, dependant on government contracts for work, and only the corrupt survive. When Leo, looking for work and money to support his mother, goes out on a muscle job with Willie, everything goes wrong, and it looks like Leo might have to carry the can as well, but this time the charge will be murder.

Despite its slow pace, The Yards is rich with detail, and Harris Savides beautifully evocative cinematography (unsurprisingly, he worked on Se7en) and underexposed, sepia look makes the plot hard to ploy in time: the themes are modern, yet the photography and direction give it a real 50’s feel. The cast are all fantastic, and develop a real chemistry, and their respective abilities to portray inner turmoil give credence to the ambiguities posed by the script – what happens when you do bad things for a good reason, and if you don’t do it, someone else will? This is the sort of question asked by The Yards, and it goes to show that such themes, when craftily made and brilliantly acted, are timeless.


Technical Specifications
Distributor: Roadshow Home Entertainment
Studio: Miramax
Cinema Release: 2000
DVD Release: 2002
Video Format: 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced
Audio Format(s): Dolby Digital 5.1
Classification: M15+


Video
This 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced transfer is certainly up there with the better ones that we have seen from Roadshow in recent times.

Almost the entire film is set in the night, and with the dark and shadowy cinematography, probably the most important aspect of the transfer is shadow detail, which is uniformly good throughout. Sharpness and detail level are also very good, although at times there is a little evidence of excessive edge enhancement, but you have to look hard to spot it.

As the filmmakers have give this one a real sepia tone (think Se7en), colours are muted, and there is nothing at all in the way of vibrancy, with yellow and orange tones dominating. The blacks, too, have a real brown tinge to them, but this is as a result of the filmmaking process (underexposure) rather than a problem with black level.

Aside from a few film artefacts occurring singly, the only other real defect to report is a couple of isolated instances of aliasing: a film centring on train yards probably made those mastering this transfer a little nervous, but thankfully the only two main bits of aliasing were in a scene that featured a whole lot of stationary trains, and then another when a large brick building dominates the frame.


Soundtrack
For the most part, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is quite front heavy, but this is the result of the material, but when necessary, the sound expands right out to fill the whole soundstage.

The dialogue is generally very quiet, and at times you have top strain to hear, but I think that this is intended to underline the nature of the dialogue. There is a nice stereo spread for the times that there isn’t much else happening.

The surrounds, although not often appearing, are utilised well when necessary to underline the tension of various scenes, and nicely provide ambience in the factory and nightclub scenes. The subwoofer, too, is sparingly engaged, but like the surrounds, when it is used, it adds to the scene.


Extras
Director’s Commentary - (Dolby Digital 2.0): James Gray provides an insightful commentary, and is certainly easy to listen to. This is a textbook example of a good commentary: it is provides some excellent information about the movie itself, as well as film generally. He does, though, have a lot of material to work with in that the cast is excellent, and the movie has quite some depth.

Behind the Scenes - (11:32) (1.33:1, Dolby Digital 2.0): Unfortunately, this featurette is only brief. Although it contains the usual cast and director interviews sprinkled with production footage, the actors that are talking are some of the best, and their insights (particularly when older actors like Faye Dunaway discuss their impressions of younger ones like Mark Wahlberg) are fascinating. The video is quite soft.

Trailer - (2:09) (1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby Surround encoded): A suitably dark trailer accurately describing the movie. Also a little soft in the video department.

Biographies - Quite detailed biographies and comprehensive filmographies for Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn, James Caan and James Gray.

Previews - (1.78:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Dolby Surround encoded) Here we have a trailer for Boiler Room (2:14) and one for The Hurricane (2:21). Both are reasonably well presented.


And The Survey Says...
The Yards, with its slow pace richness of detail and theme, goes against the grain of modern movies, to a time when filmmaking was an art form. A good commentary, and a couple other tidbits in terms of extras make this one a buyer.


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