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Fields, The

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    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Fields, The



    Released by: Breaking Glass Pictures

    Released on: April 24, 2012.

    Director: Tom Mattera, David Mazzoni

    Cast: Cloris Leachman, Tara Reid, Joshua Ormand

    Year: 2011

    Purchase From Amazon


    The Movie:


    Directed by Tom Mattera and David Mazzoni based on a script by Harrison Smith, The Fields begins in 1973 when a young boy named Stephen (Joshua Ormand) comes downstairs to find his disturbed father, Barry (Faust Checho) threatening his alcoholic mother, Bonnie (Tara Reid), at gunpoint. The next morning Bonnie decides that Steven is going to go stay with his paternal grandparents for a while as she and Barry try to figure out what to do about their obviously troubled marriage and soon enough she drops him off at the old family farm run by Barry's mother and father - Hiney (Bev Appleton) and Gladys (Cloris Leachman). On the ride to the farm, however, Steven is frightened by radio news reports about the Manson Family.


    While Steven adapts to his new surroundings he's more or less allowed to run around and play as he wants, though Gladys reminds him in her charming foul mouthed way not to go into the cornfields nearby - once he goes in there, they'll never find him. Steven does as any kid would do in that situation and promptly runs in there only to come across the corpse of a murdered woman. He reports this to Hiney, who he calls Pappy, but the old man doesn't believe him. As a gang of hippies move into the area and start causing problems, Steven and the other members of his family soon find themselves being harassed in increasingly bizarre ways.


    First things first - The Fields is a slooooooow movie. It isn't in the least bit concerned with keeping you on the edge of your seat, instead it sort of creeps in behind you as it all starts to play out. The ending picks up the pace considerably and delivers a little bit of action to compensate but if you're not in the right mood for what is essentially a character driven atmosphere piece, this might not be your bag. With that out of the way, if you appreciate a slow thriller and don't need jump scares or gore scenes to entertain you, this turns out to be a well made low budget movie with a lot to offer.


    The performances are fairly strong here - Cloris Leachman is endearingly crass in her role as the rough around the edges grandmother, and her relationship with Bev Appleton as the equally surely grandfather partially anchors the picture. Tara Reid and Faust Checho aren't given nearly as much to do and so their performances don't amount to as much, though credit should go to young Joshua Ormand, who plays the odd little kid that the movie revolves around surprisingly convincingly. Where often times child actors deliver performances that feel forced or fake, Ormand fits the role quite naturally and shows some serious dramatic chops in the picture.


    The locations are also excellent as the film makes use not just of a few rundown farm houses and similar buildings but also of the overgrown cornfields surrounding the area and even an abandoned amusement park. The camerawork captures all of this very well, using a lot of slow and lingering takes to pull us into the story and to make sure we get a good look at just how unsettling some of these places are - the visuals play a huge part in the success of the movie.


    All in all, this isn't a perfect film. The ending comes a little too soon and feels a little too convenient to close the story with as much impact as you might have hoped for and there are times where it feels like the cinematographer is a little too in love with the locations and some of those aforementioned lingering shots feel a little padded. On top of that, there are a few plot devices and supporting characters that are tossed in that don't ever amount to much other than 'quirky for the sake of quirky.' The good definitely outweighs the bad though - this is one definitely worth checking out.


    Video/Audio/Extras:


    The field looks good on Blu-ray in 1.78.1 AVC encoded 1080p high definition widescreen. Some noise shows up here and there and the film's low budget roots are sometimes obvious but a good eye for lighting and composition can obviously go a long way and we see that in full effect here. Detail is good in the close shots, a bit less so in the medium and long distance shots but always noticeably better than what you'd get out of a standard definition presentation. There aren't any issues with compression artifacts or edge enhancement and the mild shimmering that shows up is forgivable. All in all, a pretty solid looking disc.


    The sole audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track with optional English closed captioning provided, and it too sounds quite good. Dialogue is always easy to understand and there are no problems with any trace of hiss or distortion. Levels stay consistently balanced and the score has a good bit of punch behind it without ever sounding overbearing.


    The primary extra on the disc is an eighteen minute behind the scenes featurette called 'The Making Of The Fields' that gathers up cast and crew alike to discuss the inspiration for the story, show off the locations, discuss the casting of the film and more. It's a good mix of behind the scenes clips and more formal interview clips and it does a good job of letting us get a feel for what it was like on set and what all went into getting this project up and running. From there, check out the shorter collection of 'Behind The Scenes Featurettes' that may or may not have originally been intended for web broadcast given that they're all very short and have similar intro and outro credits. Covered here are the real life events that inspired the movie, some interview clips with the son of the real life Hiney and Gladys, a look at the locations and details on other more specific aspects of the production.


    'Ladies And Gentlemen… Cloris Leachman!' is an amusing three minute outtake reel with Leachman, trying to shoot an introduction for a screening of the movie that she was unable to attend. It's essentially a blooper reel but it's a funny. Similar is 'No Funny Stuff' which is a collection of outtakes and snippets of the cast and crew goofing off behind the scenes. Aside from that, look for a still gallery, a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Breaking Glass releases, animated menus and chapter stops. All of the supplements are in standard definition. More input on the real life events that inspired the picture would have been welcome and a commentary might have been a nice addition but otherwise this is a good batch of supplements.


    The Final Word:


    A really well made slow burn thriller, The Fields features some great camerawork and locations, some impressive performances and an atmosphere ripe with tension. This won't appeal to those who want jump scares and gore scenes but if you appreciate brooding ambience and creative filmmaking it's absolutely worth a look. The Blu-ray from Breaking Glass offers up the movie in a very nice presentation and with some great extras too - all in all, a very nice disc.


    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!




















    • Mad Dog
      #1
      Mad Dog
      Senior Member
      Mad Dog commented
      Editing a comment
      Just watched this on Netflix. Glad to see you enjoyed it Ian. It really resonated with me. Very creepy.
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