The Movie: The fact that American Beauty won 5 Academy Awards, including best picture, cinematography, actor in a leading role (Kevin Spacey), director (Sam Mendes), and writing (Alan Ball), and was nominated also for best leading actress (Annette Bening), editing (Tariq Anwar), and original score... should probably tip you off that this is a damned good movie. In fact, the number of awards and nominations received by this film is just plain stifling, and I believe it truly deserves to have them all. American Beauty is a truly beautiful movie -- everything from the script to the lighting and camera work and of course, the actors' performances work together to build a funny, yet powerful film that pulls emotional strings from deep within that you may have never even known you had.

Kevin Spacey's Oscar-winning performance was great, but I thought Annette Bening gave an especially powerful delivery -- I mean just truly amazing. And the cinematography! Oh the lighting and framing was just exquisite! And the music... driving, yet slightly... off kilter... what a perfect match. I'm not making much sense here am I?

I was particularly struck by one specific shot -- at the end of the movie, Annette Bening stands in front of an open closet, and just wails. In the context of the story, I found it an especially beautiful and moving image... it just makes me want to say "wow".

I suppose I didn't really say anything about what this movie is actually about, but if you're one of the few who don't know, don't worry, it won't matter... you should watch this movie anyway!

The DVD: The anamorphic video transfer of this film is quite good, with very little grain and almost no dirt or dust visible. Although it isn't quite as sharp as it could have been, the transfer is still excellent and perfectly conveys the many subtleties of lighting and color. This disc contains both DTS and Dolby Digital audio tracks, and you DTS users will very much appreciate that when you pop in the disc, the audio selection screen is the very first thing you see! No hunting around menus before being able to start the movie just to select the DTS track! And now on to the audio itself -- you get perfect, crisp clarity, with very subtle (and entirely appropriate) surround effects.

The director, Sam Mendes, decided that he would not include any deleted scenes on this DVD, but he makes up for it with some excellent commentary (also with writer Alan Ball), which does make reference to some of those deleted scenes. The commentary goes in depth into the process of making this film, from the camera and lighting techniques used, working the script and storyboards, and the performances of the actors. I didn't listen to the whole commentary track, but I did watch enough to find out that the closet wailing shot I mentioned above was actually Annette's idea. There is also a storyboard presentation, also with Mendes and this time with D.P. Conrad Hall. On this disc you will also find two trailers (with 2.35:1 anamorphic transfers), cast and crew bios, and some production notes, and a behind the scenes featurette, which features a whole lot of self-back patting (blech!). And oh yeah, there's some DVD-ROM features too, if you have a DVD drive in your computer.

All in all a great disc, with good commentary that's actually somewhat interesting. Highly recommended!