Primal Fear

This film has Richard Gere AND Edward Norton. Add a deep story line and try to catch all the subtleties in one viewing.

This item took a three week trip around the West and Midwest playing lost and found before it finally arrived. The product itself was as expected once it was delivered.

Great twist

FORMAT: Blu-RayUPC: 8-83929-30112-6RELEASED: 2009-05-10TITLE: Primal Fear (1996) • R • 2:10:28Richard Gere, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Alfre Woodard, Maura Tierney, Andre Braugher, Steven BauerGregory Hoblit (Director)The movie that made Edward Norton a star (well, made him somewhat more widely known, anyway). This movie is the kind of intelligent, well written, well acted and well made adult drama that you rarely see anymore. It relies on its story and the performances of its actors to keep you engaged — and, it does an excellent job on both fronts in achieving the goal of having you on the edge of your seat for the entire movie. As fine an example of psychological/courtroom drama as you will ever see (and, yet another vivid example of things NOT being as they appear). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.See the other reviews for more detail and/or other opinions regarding the plot of the movie.VIDEO: 1.78:1 • Color • 1080p • MPEG-4 AVC (34.1 Mbps)Mostly, the images in this movie are fairly sharp, and they have decent shadow detail. They also feature richly saturated colors in most of the outdoor daylight scenes and muted colors in most of the indoor and nighttime scenes. However, the entire film appeared ever-so-slightly soft, and lacking in fine detail — as was evident in many of the close-ups of faces and clothing (I can't tell if this "slight" softness is due to the original film stock and lens or to some deficiency in the transfer — though, I suspect, it is due to the source elements). Otherwise, there were no other major picture anomalies (such as: dropped frames, specks, hair-lines, white dots, color fluctuations, etc.) to mar the image. Overall, this movie's picture quality is pretty good, and it should satisfy most viewers.AUDIO: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48 KHz, 24-bit)It is hard to believe now, but when this movie was initially released on Laser Disc (as one of that format's first movies to feature an "AC-3" [i.e.—Dolby Digital] soundtrack) it was considered a state-of-the-art, and demo worthy, soundtrack! Fast forward a few years (quite a few years, actually), and, while it still sounds pretty good, it is NOWHERE NEAR the current state-of-the-art in movie soundtracks. None of this is say that it is a bad soundtrack — to the contrary, it has dialog that is clear and well placed, and it has fairly active surround channels (which are somewhat directional when they are used). But, the subwoofer isn't used very often, and when it is used, it isn't very loud or particularly deep. However, the music is very well recorded, and it is spread very effectively into the surrounds. Overall, considering the age of this film (and the fact that it is primarily dialog-driven), its audio presentation should satisfy the vast majority of listeners.EXTRAS: Director's commentary'Behind-the-Scenes' VideoSeveral FeaturettesTrailersNone of the extras were reviewed.

Primal Fear is an amazing movie with an amazing performance by a very young, and still new-to-movies Edward Norton. The standard DVD has been part of our library for many years, and when I saw the Blu Ray version was out and so reasonably priced, I had to make an exception to my "don't replace" policy and bought the HD version.Watching it again, I'm struck by just how believable the characters are. While the movie is technically a murder-mystery, it's really the character study of the lost boy that drives it. Edward Norton is simply perfect in the role. You accept the character, feel for him, and are shocked my him, all at the same time. Richard Gere is fine form, and brings a combination of raw ambition and sincere believability to his role. The chemistry between the two is hard to match.The Blu Ray is a good upgrade in picture quality. It's not perfect, but it's an older movie. The studio avoids doing too much noise reduction, so you do get some film grain. But I always find that preferable to soft edges and blurred textures.If you have the standard DVD, should you upgrade? I'm glad I did. At the price, it's hard to beat, and is giving me a new round of appreciation for a truly suspenseful movie!

Just what wifey wanted.

As described, dvd in good condition

An oldie but a goodie. Great acting.