Antwone Fisher Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
Based on a true story, a biographical drama centering upon Antwone "Fish" Fisher who--once a
Sony Pictures security guard--eventually gained fame as an acclaimed writer and a Hollywood
producer. In the earlier part of his life, he was a sailor prone to violent outbursts. On the
verge of being kicked out of the Navy for repeated fighting, he is sent to a naval psychiatrist
for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a
horrific childhood rife with abuse. With the help of a Navy psychiatrist, he turns his life around
and decides to embark on a search to find the family that abandoned him as a baby. Through
the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family
he never knew. In the course of that search, his life changes dramaticall
We all bring our own personal baggage and history to any film we see, and that often colors our responses to it. Antwone Fisher is a perfect example for me personally. I've heard from several people through the years who felt the film was too manipulative and treacly, while others proclaimed it one of the most emotionally devastating films in recent memory. Though perhaps tangential to my "official" critical response to the film, I couldn't help but think of my own father as I watched. My Dad was, along with his siblings, placed in foster care after his mother died giving birth and his father felt he couldn't effectively parent six very young kids on his own and simultaneously make a living. That left my father, his brothers and one sister, feeling not only abandoned but also victimized, at least emotionally, by a rotating series of foster families. Like the title character of this film, my father finally found structure and a life's calling in the military (in my father's case, the Army, as opposed to Fisher's stint in the Navy). Also like Antwone, my father was pretty much emotionally shut down about his childhood and upbringing and I, along with my sisters, knew it was verboten to ever explicitly ask my Dad about his upbringing. The few times I deigned to muster enough courage to ask him about details, I knew instantly it had been a big mistake. My father never had the benefit of psychoanalysis (at least that I'm aware of), something that plays a big part in Antwone Fisher's plot arc, as well as Antwone Fisher the character's personal metamorphosis from an angry young man to a more mature adult at least facing his emotional turmoil, instead of running from it and masking it in bouts of violence.
Antwone Fisher marked co-star Denzel Washington's first foray in the director's chair, and it is to Washington's credit that he maintains focus on Fisher himself (Derek Luke), rather than Navy psychologist Jerome Davenport (Washington). The film begins with Fisher being referred to Davenport after the latest in a long string of scuffles. Navy regulations require "talking it out," but Fisher doesn't feel like talking, at least at first. Davenport's calm and patient approach to his "patient" finally leads to a breakthrough, and Fisher begins to confront the demons which have haunted him for years, sometimes subconsciously. Washington doesn't shy away from depicting some pretty horrible examples of at least emotional, and actual physical, abuse which Fisher suffered at the hands of one of his foster families. There's also a fairly explicit hint of sexual impropriety which the then six year old Fisher was exposed to. It makes for a patently unseemly element running just under the surface of this film, but one which Washington wisely doesn't exploit for prurient purposes. In fact the film is a model of emotional restraint, at least for the first two thirds of its running time, which actually helps bring the wallop of its closing act home with surprising force.
Derek Luke as Antwone Fisher
Washington has become an increasingly mannered actor at this stage in his career, and he frankly drives me crazy some of the time. I found his performance in Inside Man, for example, a jumble of "Method Acting" tics and ridiculous indicating. Antwone Fisher on the other hand proves that he is an exemplary performer when he doesn't try so hard. His understated approach toward the character is not only perfectly in keeping with the film's overall emotional tenor, it plays very well off of Lane's showier turn as the troubled Fisher. The film often plays like a twisted nightmare version of the American Dream. Fisher famously went on to at least address, if not outright conquer, his demons, becoming a security guard at Sony, where stories of his life's travails became legion. Could a film deal be far behind? To Fisher's own credit, he evidently turned down score of offers before he ended up writing the screenplay himself and agreed to this version with Washington helming his story.
Washington acquits himself beautifully in his first directorial assignment. There are few "whiz bang" directorial effects, and that allows the film's emotional nuances to be developed slowly but surely. Too often first time directors are out to prove how much they know, but Washington quite rightly lets the characters take center stage without Washington drawing overt attention to "directorial craft." That craft is most evident in the performances themselves, which are true and compelling. This is especially true of Luke, who made his feature film debut in this role and offers a uniquely well rounded performance, especially for a newcomer, and most especially for a character who demands both depths of rage and a sort of sanguine dissociative quality. It's interesting to note that Luke himself, like Fisher before him, was a Sony employee (in the gift shop) before being offered the role. This might raise the eyebrows for any actors or writers with Hollywood dreams; evidently Sony is the studio to get a foot in the door, albeit in sometimes unexpected ways.
Though the film may be faulted for relying too heavily on a sort of rose colored glasses happy ending stereotype that seems strangely to undercut the very real trials and tribulations through which Fisher passed, is there really any other way the Hollywood machine would have approached a subject of this pathos? Fisher's story is, in a way, the Hollywood story written both small and large. Here is a man who experienced years of emotional turmoil and ended up in La-La land, where everything more or less turned out surprisingly well. Hollywood has largely lived by a "happily ever after" ethos and Antwone Fisher, both the film and the man, are sterling examples of that trend. My hunch is most audience members wouldn't have it any other way.
As you'll see in many of the screen captures I've included here, Antwone Fisher exists largely in a bitonal world made up of either cool, often very dark and moody, blues, or, conversely, the drab beiges and browns of everyday Navy life. This AVC encoded 1080p transfer supports both sides of the spectrum very well, with a surprising amount of detail pouring through the darker blue segments due to some really exceptional contrast. When the film explodes into brighter colors, as in the childhood memory sequences, it's exceptional, especially in some outdoor scenes which burst with fine levels of detail. Washington's directorial choice to frame most of this film in midrange to close-ups gives us the chance to count the wrinkles on Denzel's forehead and see beads of sweat pop out on Luke's face during high emotions. This is a solid effort from Fox which ably supports the film's "kitchen sink" ethos.
There's really little high definition material for Antwone Fisher's DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix to work with. This is a dialogue heavy film, and while that dialogue is clear and always directional, there are very few moments of surround utilization, and therefore immersive elements are similarly few and far between. Fidelity is certainly top notch and there are no anomalies to report. Mychael Danna's nicely developed score is mixed well into the soundfield, and utilizes a goodly amount of low end which the soundtrack otherwise largely lacks. The bottom line is, there's nothing really to complain about here, but there's nothing that's going to "wow" any audiophile. This is a good, competent soundtrack for a film which consists almost entirely of dialogue.
All of the (SD) supplements from the SD-DVD have been ported over to this Blu-ray release, including:
Commentary Track by Denzel Washington and producer Todd Black
Making of Antwone Fisher (22:16), a fairly standard EPK with expected interviews and on set footage.
Meeting Antwone Fisher (14:13) is better, offering us a firsthand look at the man behind the character and, in fact, the film. A more in depth, insightful featurette would have been more appropriate, given the highly personal nature of this film.
Hollywood and the Navy (4:41). Though short, this is suprisingly engaging, showing how filming on base has been affected by 9/11, and providing some insight into how the Navy acts as an extended family for those in its ranks.
The original theatrical trailer is also included, strangely (considering the rest of the SD supplements) in HD.
Antwone Fisher doesn't make any bones about tugging the viewer's heartstrings. It's basically an old fashioned, rags to riches story that had it featured a female and been made in the 1940s would have been perfectly suited for Joan Crawford. It gussies up that foundation in some modern day psychobabble, but never totally falls into the trap of easy answers for difficult problems. If it falls back on a few too many filmic cliches for its own good, it ultimately offers a story of redemption and fortitude and bodes well for Washington as a director.
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