Antwone Fisher

This is a good story, an honest story. There’s something very brave about autobiographising your life, particularly when you haven’t always been such a good person. Such is the case with Antwone Fisher. He wrote this screenplay based on his own experiences with life and growing up and how the Navy got him straightened out and flying right (so to speak).

Blowing up over nothing and striking a superior officer, Antwone Fisher is sentenced to a shitload of hard labour around the big ship he lives on, as well as having to see a psychiatrist for three mandatory visits. The visit doesn’t begin though, until he starts talking. Deciding he has nothing to gain from this, he sits in silence for several weeks until finally he decides if he talks, he can go. And so, with these tentative steps, we begin to learn of Antwone’s tortured past and why he has such a problem with anger.

Being raised by foster parents after his mother abandoned him, he suffered many indignities and found his only release in his friend Jesse. As he grows however, the few things he has to hold onto crumble away and he is left alone again, and his resentment is what is causing him such inner turmoil.

Beautifully shot and directed by Denzel Washington, this story is a bit too long and drawn out, using longer scenes where shorter ones would have done. Still, Antwone is an interesting fella and it is entertaining to watch him grow as an individual. There is a subtle backstory playing out between Denzel’s character and his wife, and this isn’t played up enough until when it resolves in the end, and we are given too much information in too little a time, making it all appear rather tacked on.

However, the film is good watching and a nice story if you’re looking for something not too heavy, yet not too light some evening when you just wanna sit back with a bowl of popcorn and get lost in something.

Perfectly faultless picture here. Made last year, this has no artefacts I could see and is delivered in the full 2.35:1 cinema ratio with 16:9 enhancement. Some beautiful opening photography of Cleveland wheat fields and massive battleships sailing through the harbour make full use of the aspect ratio.

There is really nothing to fault here, as the shadow detail is fine, blacks are natural and flesh tones are even and realistic. Top hole stuff that earns its ten yellow spots.

The first thing we hear from this film is its unusual score. The music is nice, eerie, moody, melodic or topical whenever needed and isn’t afraid to experiment a little to get its feeling across. Attributed to Nicholas Dodd, he has created a really inventive work here that goes a long way toward helping the film’s eerier flashbacks and dream sequences.

Dialogue is all fine, although once or twice I had trouble working out sporadic words. This isn’t anything major though and doesn’t really affect the story. What sound effects are used are well synched and subtle and there are no problems with them. The sound here is delivered in Dolby Surround 5.1 and it doesn’t really get much to do by way of surround activity and could just as easily been granted in 2.0 for the same basic effect.

The animated menus are truly beautiful here and while we don’t get a lot of extras, we do get some interesting material nonetheless. An Audio commentary with director Denzel and producer Todd Black is worth the listen and features the two of them having a bit of a laugh while telling us the backstories of the set, the shoot and the budget woes. They repeat themselves a little occasionally, in regards to further extras, but this is forgivable, as they are quite fun to listen to.

Meeting Antwone Fisher is a 14:14 featurette that plays in 4:3. This contains a lot of interview time with the real Antwone Fisher plus a bit of film footage. There are also the usual soundbite interviews from cast and crew all speaking about this Fisher guy. Interesting backstory here about Antwone Fisher that the film doesn’t cover too.

The Making of featurette is up next and this runs for a TV sized 22:17 in 4:3. This one has heaps more interview time with probably the head of every department who ever worked on the film discussing their roles or whatever. worth a look, but features bits from the same interviews as seen in Meeting Antwone Fisher.

Finally, a shorter featurette about Hollywood and the Navy. This only runs for 4:43 unfortunately and while sounding like a commercial for the Navy in points, it does reveal some very interesting information about the help the Navy gives to filmmakers, particularly post September 11.

So, this is a fairly comprehensive collection of further information for anyone intrigued by this humble young man and his life story.

As noted, this is a good film to bury yourself in if you are so inclined. I felt it didn’t need to be so long, and the passage of time wasn’t clear enough, so we never really get an idea of how long the whole process of Antwone seeing the psychiatrist goes on. This is Denzel’s first directorial film and in that regard he has done a reasonably admirable job. It’s certainly not a bad film, in fact, I enjoyed it very much. There’s a good moral here about not letting the past beat you, nor allowing where you are now affect where you want to go.

It’s a good story and one well worth checking out, although I’d be inclined to rent it first and check it out before committing to purchase.