Cheap Road to Perdition (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) (Sam Mendes) Price

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Customer Reviews of Road to Perdition (Widescreen Edition)

A brief comment
I thought this movie was surprisingly good given that it's based on a graphic novel, so I didn't expect it to have the depth and subtlety of something based on a novel. But it's a fine movie nevertheless. And a movie starring both Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, as well as Jude Law, is certainly one to make one sit up and take notice from the standpoint of the cast. <
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>The movie chronicles the fall from grace of Mike Sullivan, a hit man working for a local mob boss, played by Paul Newman. Sullivan's life up till then has been a priviledged one, especially for the Depression era--his family lives in the biggest house on the block, and he is relatively prosperous. He is said to be respected by his cronies and a couple of times people in the movie compliment him on his doing "good work." But despite his esteemed position in the mob, Sullivan's life starts to unravel as a result of one unfortunate event, caused by his boy, which wasn't his fault. Now Sullivan is the hunted victim, who eventually returns to wreak his vengeance. At that point the danger lurking beneath the otherwise highly polished surface of his comfortable life becomes evident. The movie is really another variation on the theme of those who live sword eventually die by the sword. <
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>The DVD discusses the making of the film and includes a lot of extra footage with many deleted scenes, probably 8 or 10, more than I've seen on most DVDs. Some fans of the movie might be interested in all this missing material. I watched most of them just to see what was edited out. Also there are comments on the making of the movie that I found interesting. <
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>For example, the costume designer had an especially hard time duplicating the clothing of the period, which was the early 30s. He said that they had trouble finding good examples from the period, and that the style of the time was sort of plain compared to what came before during the Roaring Twenties and after. They also couldn't find the right sort of heavy cloth used at the time. They finally found a manufacturer who was able to do a special order for them so it was basically custom made for the movie. <
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>The movie was shot on location in Chicago, using some historic locations, and in the Illinois countryside. I was born in Chicago so I had a little interest in that. Most of the movie is shot in winter, and one time they were actually shooting in 30 below zero and everyone was freezing. Overall a fine movie that does justice to the original graphic book.

Hall Leaves On A High Note
Conrad Hall went out with a bang. The great film photographer finished his illustrious career with this movie before passing on. He did himself proud as this is one of the best-looking crime films you'll ever see. <
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>Of course, the acting ain't bad when you have Tom Hanks and Paul Newman playing the leads! The amount of action in here is just right, too: not too much; not too little. <
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>None of the characters in here, frankly, are "good guys" as Hanks is a professional hit-man for town boss Newman. Hanks' only redeeming quality is not wanting his young son to wind up a killer like him, although he does teach him how to be the getaway man in robberies! Huh? <
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>As good as the acting is and as interesting as the story is, the real star of this film is cinematographer Hall, who paints scene after beautiful scene with his lens. His work is just awesome.