Dead Ringers | | Cast : | Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold | | Director : | David Cronenberg | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | September 23, 1988 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 16, 2005 | | Summary | Gyenecological Instruments for operating on mutant women | Content
 | By far this is the best David Cronenberg film ever made! The sheer beauty of the film makes me sit back and think every single time I watch it. The metaphor and mythology of the thing astounds me. Jeremy irons is superb as both Doctors Elliot and Beverly Mantle. His performance is better than any other actor who has played a split role. Getting to the instruments created by the brothers and made by a gifted artist, they are awe inspiring. I have never seen such perfect work in the creation of a prop before. They should be in a museum. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 11, 2005 | | Summary | Even if you have Criterion's DVD, you'll want this one, too. | Content
| First off, the commentary on this DVD is brand-new. It is Irons by himself, and if you're like me and rank Dead Ringers at the top of the DC heap, you will find this Warner disc well worth the money just for the commentary alone.
Secondly, the sound is much better. The Criterion disc -- and the Canadian 15th Anniversary edition, which simply duplicated all of Criterion's contents -- used the same 2.0 mix found on Anchor Bay's VHS and DVD releases from 1997/1998. The high end on the string instruments crackled and sounded fuzzy, the low end was completely missing. The emotional impact of the score in the film's devasting final image was simply ruined. Both the 5.1 mix and the new 2.0 mix sound much better on this disc.
One partial caveat: the nitwits that they are, Warner once again released the film in the matted ratio that THEY prefer -- which is always 1:85.1 -- and not DC's preferred framing of 1:66.1. (This particularly enrages me with their release of Hammer movies like Horror of Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein.) But fortunately it doesn't seem to make that much difference here, possibly because Dead Ringers was filmed with the knowledge it would be masked for various aspect ratios; and the picture quality seems to be a little bit better than Criterion's.
If you can pick this up discounted, especially in a larger order with no shipping charge, I would recommend this to all DC viewers who still remember and cherish the day 17 years ago when they stumbled out of their local movie theatre in complete flabbergasted numbness as a result of experiencing Cronenberg's melancholy masterpiece. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 05, 2005 | | Summary | The saddest, most though provoking film ever made | Content
| This film moved me. The acting, the intesnity of the story...it was just breath-taking. I am not easily affected by movies being I'm a gorehound/horror buff, but Jeremy Iron's performance was so awesome! He conveyed the emotions perfectly with his dual-role. I am not going to go into too much detail but if you like disturbing films that will make you think and stay with you long after you watch it then this is the film. One of the best made films ever. Nuff said |
| Rating | | | Date | February 28, 2005 | | Summary | Dead Ringers | Content
| The film was described to me as "horror." No. That individual failed to understand the complexities of twins-ship. Yes, the surgical instruments for mutant women, downward spiralling drug addiction, co-dependency of twins were superior in the technical (split-screens) and acting categories. But the fact that this was a true story about the Marcus twins is utterly fanastic. Cronenberg, Irons, & Bujold perform exceptionally well in this deeply sad portrayal of brilliant surgical reproductive gynecologists, making Barber's Adagio for Strings apropos for closure. Kafka once said that one should read books that melt the iceburg within us; the same adage applies to film. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 28, 2005 | | Summary | Jeremy Irons does more than just clone himself in this role! | Content
| The Mantle brothers, Beverly and Elliot, are more than just identical twins. They're like two aspects of one person's internal character turned into two separate external realities. They're both brilliant gynecologists specializing in infertility problems with women and have spent their whole lives living as if they were one individual. They live in the same flat, work at the same clinic and share the same unsuspecting women until Beverly falls in love and no longer wants to share. This emotional break initiates an evaluation of the self, ultimately calling into question the very nature of the brothers symbiotic relations. Can they survive without each other? Jeremy Irons does more than just clone himself in this role, but engenders the brothers Mantle with two distinctive characterizations that are convincing and compelling. Based on an actual case. |
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