How would you like to see a great film, which has a little bit of everything in it, with the choice of watching the original or extended version, with loads of extra’s on the DVD?, interested?, then perhaps you should take a look at The Abyss DVD.

~~The Abyss - The Film~~
The Abyss was made in 1989, it stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. This Twentieth Century Fox film was written and directed by James Cameron, produced by Gale Anne Hurd, and rated 15, for the UK. Its 163 minutes in length - but that’s just one of the versions.

~~Plot~~
The film begins with a US submarine experiencing a loss of power and crashing. Due to a storm the only hope of rescuing survivors and checking the nuclear arms haven’t been damaged, are a bunch of oil rig workers on the first test underwater oil rig.

Everything is not as it seems - the oil rigs’ designer goes along for the ride, much to the annoyance of her estranged husband who works on the rig. An unknown lifeform makes an appearance, and - cut of from his chain of command the navy SEALs commander starts to behave a little oddly. With a nuclear weapon, a gigantic chasm and a storm on the way, you get the feeling not all is not going to go to plan.

~~My Opinion Of The Film~~
I wanted a great Saturday night kind of film, something you can really sit back and enjoy, and I got it. Its one of those films where you don’t notice the time passing because there’s so much to keep you interested, various aspects of the plot - just when you think you know what’s its all about, something happens you didn’t expect and opens up a whole new area of interest.

There’s all the underwater shots, they look superb and are fascinating to watch. A large percentage of computer graphics in films these days, you can tell its not real, it doesn’t look genuine, and so fails to fully come across to you. Though there are computer graphics in The Abyss, it seems there is very little, it was filmed in huge water tanks, so what you see is real, and what isn’t real is model work, so it looks good and more importantly, believable.

The plot is quite original, going back to the various aspects of the film, what you have is a space film - but not, a disaster movie, a love story, a social comment movie, a great action film and a sci-fi film all rolled up into one. On first thoughts you might think that this would be too much to handle in one movie, but think again, its another great achievement for this film, because it handles them all so well.

In watching a good disaster movie you should be all tensed up, watching your heroes battling all odds and wanting to see them escape alive. In The Abyss, with it being set underwater, it succeeds at this spectacularly, the threat of danger is ever present, and you really feel the pressure.

The sci-fi element doesn’t really come into effect until the end, when I first saw this film, I wondered why they spoiled an extremely good and well made film, by putting a load of sci-fi stuff in it. Well the sci-fi stuff is where the social comment comes into play, and its isn’t bug eyed monster stuff, its very adult, intelligent and its low key which is why it only adds to the quality of the film.

The fact that this is such a diverse film makes it more appealing to a wider range of people. Its well acted, believable, it has a good script, and doesn’t disappoint. There are some great moments, some of which are really heartfelt, and its a film that stands out from the rest, because its not quite like anything else.

~~The Abyss - The DVD~~
It cost me £22.99 from MVC, a little more than I wanted to pay but still, for what you get, its pretty good, and at the time, it was a treat. Recently its been on sale, for £9.99, typical isn’t it, the only difference is that mine came in a cardboard case, whereas the sale one is a plastic one. There are two DVD’s, one with the two film versions, and the other with all the other extra’s.

~~Extra’s~~
Original theatrical, and special extended edition versions of the film, Text commentary (for both versions), 12 page booklet, Trailers, Behind the scenes, Documentary, Original screenplay, Featutette, Special effects reel, Photo gallery, Cast biographies, Mutli angle shots.

~~My Opinion Of The DVD~~
Well I only bought it because it looked like such a good DVD, and it is. The only drawback is the card board cover, which is easily damaged otherwise, if you get the plastic case then nothing at all.

The 12 page booklet is good, a little disappointing though, you kind of expect a lot of info about the film and such but in fact its just the restoration notes telling you what bits were reinstated and where, which is great if, like me, you love this kind of info, of course its very interesting as well. Also are the chapter list of both film versions and the documentary.

The menus are great on these discs, they’ve really taken the time to produce a good DVD, they’re animated and look like part of the oil rig, its a really nice touch, you really feel like you’ve got something special.

The extras are fantastic, not just the quantity, but standard. Talking about quantity, the back cover doesn’t do the DVD justice because there are loads of bits and pieces. Included are, bits of behind the scenes stuff, the model work, the original screen play, photos, cast biographies and so on, its all great and very interesting stuff. If you love
this film you’ll be in heaven with this DVD, you find out so much stuff.

The multi angle shots are interesting, you see the film with the actors acting with nothing to react to - as the effects have to added later, its odd to see, but it makes you appreciate how good the actors are, because the end result is so convincing.

There is a time lapse video showing the construction of the set, and you have to speed that up to really take it in, they did so much work, and built such a huge set - another example of how well they made this film.

The Making of The Abyss, and the featurette are both great, a good insight into how the film was made - you just don’t realise what goes into making them, with all the other extras on this DVD you get to see how many different ways and methods of film making they used to create all the different shots. All the underwater shots they filmed, how difficult and dangerous it was - and it really was. You learn a lot about what went on in the production of the film, there’s stuff I’d love to tell you, but if you
want the DVD I won’t spoil it for you, but trust me its fantastic. The featurette is 10 minutes long, but the documentary lasts around hour, you really get your money’s worth.

In writing this opinion I found some inaccuracies in the running time of the film. The booklet says that the original film was 140 minutes long, and the special edition has 28 minutes of reinstated footage with 3 minutes of expended credits, being 171 minutes in total. Actually, and as the cover states the extended version is 163 minutes long, the cover also states that only 24 minutes has been reinstated.

As far as I can tell, the original was/is actually 138 minutes long with 9 minutes of credits, the special edition is 163 minutes including only 7 minutes of credits, so its 25 minutes longer. Discluding the credits your getting about 27 minutes of extra footage (I love maths).

~~Conclusion~~
This is everything a DVD should be, a really good film, with both original and extended versions, well presented, with great animated menus. Also a nice booklet, a terrific amount of good extra’s, and well packaged, What more could you want in a DVD?.

OK, so I have seen this film before, but having the special edition its even more enjoyable, because there’s a whole sub plot that was cut out, that you now get to see, that brings a new edge to the film and of course a couple of things make a bit more sense.

For what you get, the price is good, I kind of feel that this is what DVD was made for, that is, well made outstanding films, well presented with everything they can find to make a good DVD.

So why not like me, and treat yourself to The Abyss DVD.

seagulls lost horizon