A Mighty Heart Blu-ray Review

A Mighty Heart

Blu-ray Review
Paramount
Released: March 24, 2009

A Mighty Heart has hit the Blu-ray format from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The film when released received critical acclaim from the majority of the big name critics in the film industry, greatly complimenting the performance by Angelina Jolie as her best performance to date, and rightfully so!

A Mighty Heart is based on the true story of the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, the South Asia Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal who was beheaded by Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

The film is based on the memoir by the wife of Daniel, Mariane and has turned out to be a stellar and moving film.

Daniel is played by Dan Futterman and tells the story of the kidnapping and how it all played out.  It then shows how the home of Pearl is turned into a command post for the CIA, FBI, etc as Mariane, played by Angelina Jolie, awaits any news and hopes he stays alive.

The film was directed by British director Michael Winterbottom and the way it was shot was done so in a way that it has an extremely natural look.  The story is about finding clues and putting named together as they try and track down who kidnapped Daniel, where he is, and if they can get him back. Angelina Jolie plays an amazing role as Mariane, who acts in a power role and constantly texts Daniel saying “I Love You,” even though she never gets any reply.  The film may end sad with his death but shows the brighter side of the story as the forces from around the world in Pakistan, and the U.S. joined to try and come together to save Daniel.  It is truly moving from start to finish and will touch you if you allow it to.

A Mighty Heart on Blu-ray is presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen and is not really a film to be praised for its video quality.  The video quality is decent but due to the grittiness of the film, you can’t expect much.

Audio is presented in English 5.1 Dolby True HD which is very impressive actually with great quality to the dialogue and much more.  The ambient noises from the detective work are presented very clearly and in such a way that it does not overdo anything.  The audio does just enough to present the emotional scenes to make them as powerful as they truly are.

The special features on the Blu-ray release starts out with “A Journey of Passion: The Making of A Mighty Heart.”  This 30-minute feature shows footage of the film and also connects it with footage from the media tied to the actual tragic events leading up to the beheading of Daniel Pearl.  Jolie and others talk about the film and its incredible importance in such a way that make it a great viewing.

The other two features include the 2-minute Daniel Pearl Foundation which has Christiane Amanpour of CNN talking about how dangerous it is for journalists overseas and how a foundation has been started in the name of Daniel to remember him and others who suffered the same fate.

The other feature is “Committee to Protect Journalists” which runs for around eight and a half minutes.  It focuses on the fact that over 500 journalists have been killed in the last 15 years.  This talks about the committee which has been formed to try and protect journalists as they go into the line of fire.

Overall the Blu-ray release of A Mighty Heart have to be respected due to the high quality of the film and performance from Angelina Jolie.

It tells the story of Daniel Pearl with great respect to the man and the tale without giving it much Hollywood glitz and glamour.

It is a rough, realistic up-close and personal presentation which is very moving for a drama.  Unfortunately the special features may not make it worthy of a full purchase on Blu-ray, but it is worth a rental.

Film: 8.5 A great presentation of the true story of Daniel Pearl with a tremendous performance by Angelina Jolie making it all come together with great emotion and realism.

Video: 7.9 A great Blu-ray video transfer,  very gritty looking film.

Audio: 8.0 The audio is crisp with great use of dialogue, the Dolby True HD track is very nice.

Special Features: 6.5 Nothing in terms of Blu-ray exclusives.

Final Score: 7.5

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