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| Paul Newman, Sally Field, Bob Balaban,
Melinda Dillon, Barry Primus, Don Hood, Wilford Brimley |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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James
A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General (Wilford Brimley): Now
we'll talk all day if you want to. But, come sundown, there's gonna
be two things true that ain't true now. One is that the United States
Department of Justice is goin' to know what in the good Christ -- scuse
me, Angie -- is goin' on around here. And the other's I'm gonna have
somebody's ass in my briefcase.
A
man's life is turned upside down when a journalist reports that he is
a target of the investigation into a murder case.
 Absence
Of Malice has an interesting and worthy backbone in the storyline:
the conduct and ethics of the press in regards to dealing with misinformation
in their stories and the possible slander that can evolve from that.
Both victim (Paul Newman) and reporter (Sally Field) get equal screentime
in bringing both sides of the story to life. Newman is surprisingly
effective and low-key here, but Sally Field has a hard time convincing
the viewer she really is a good person or even an intelligent reporter.
Hardly a feminist character by any stretch of the imagination, it
doesn't help that her whiny, helium voice stays on the same tone
throughout the movie, seemingly incapable of shifting gears for
her character. To be fair, the story is also not in her favor as
she's the one who makes the mistakes from which grave consequences
follow. In an entirely unbelievable subplot Newman forgives her,
so we even get a romance of sorts which is then quickly abandoned
in the last 20 minutes. This awkward interlude almost drowns out
any believability the story had up until then, but the movie somehow
still manages to stay afloat and meanders to a close with only the
great Wilford Brimly livening things up in a small role towards
the end.
The script was written by former journalist Kurt Luedtke and although
it rings of authenticity (probably even more so today than 20 years
ago) it never comes to life in a major way. It doesn't help that the
movie was made in the days of Hill Street Blues and not of Miami Vice
or even post-Scarface: the city of Miami never looked so drab, only
the blue sea in the background occasionally gives the local setting
away. Director Sidney Pollack has made his share of great (Three
Days Of The Condor), popular (Tootsie), decent (The Firm),
mediocre (Out Of Africa) and really bad movies (Random Hearts).
Absence Of Malice creates a new category for him: the watchable
but rather ho-hum TV movie of the week as presented by Sydney Pollack.
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Versions
are available for both Region 1 and Region 2. Region 2 has an additional
30-minute documentary and seems to have the better image and sound quality.
The R2 edition served as basis for this review.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The original cinematography uses a lot of natural lighting, even indoors,
giving the picture a somewhat dark look. But the transfer is pretty
good for a 1981 movie. Some print flaws and minor damage show up but
colors are well saturated and detail is fine. Overall a better experience
than what I was expecting.
The audio is big fat mono but nothing to complain about here. It's all
dialogue for the most part, which sounds natural and undistorted. Even
more intense car and plane sounds come across fine.
This
Region 2 release has a nice 30-minute documentary, presented
in letterbox format. It's a recent work, with new interviews from Paul
Newman, Sally Field, Sydney Pollack and Kurt Luedtke. It mostly deals
with the on- screen story, although Sally Field is honest about some
of the difficult aspects of here role (as is Sydney Pollack). The fact
that the movie was considered midly controversial at the time of its
release is now frowned upon by Paul Newman who of course is right in
noting that things have become much worse with the press nowadays. As
such the movie holds some kind of relevance. There's also one deleted
scene of 55 seconds, without any commentary or introduction available.
The theatrical trailer rounds out the extras.Menus
are static and are designed in the same manner as the cover art, which
is decent enough.
Gerard Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Absence
of Malice.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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