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Equilibrium (2002)


Commentaries on this disc:

Commentary 1: Director Kurt Wimmer Rating:7.8/10 (9 votes) [graph]Login to vote or review
Reviewed by villek on October 16th, 2004:Find all reviews by villek
Nice one. Wimmer talks about the film (his first) in an informative but entartaining and fun way. He often talks about technical stuff, like giving advice to other first time directors. He's talks about the films and stories that inspired him and critisizes scenes that he thinks could have been better.
Reviewed by pat00139 on February 28th, 2006:Find all reviews by pat00139
Mr. Wimmer is a very open fellow. He talks pretty much throughout the movie and talks about a lot of things. He talks about the actors, the style, the editing, the budgetary limitations (this movie only had a budget of $20 million, which is very impressive when you look at the movie) and what he wanted to do as opposed to what he had to do. For example, he wanted a Beethoven arrangement that would’ve cost some $75 000, when he only had $1500 allocated for that piece of music (needless to say he didn’t get the recording he wanted). He mentions the gun kata and how he came up with it, as well as the art in the movie and the locations. He also talks a lot about being a first time director and the many obstacles he faced. That leads in to many suggestions he mentions to aspiring directors. That’s a really nice gesture on his part. Like I said, he’s a very open fellow. He talks about his mistakes he sees now, what he would’ve changed, what he had to change because of the budget and other such things. It’s a very good commentary. He’s very pleasant to listen to and you really see what he was going for with this movie.
Reviewed by grimjack on June 5th, 2021:Find all reviews by grimjack
Actually I found it to be as big of a surprise how good this commentary is, as the film is. He covers a bunch of technical stuff well, explains scenes, talks about the concepts and meanings, and praises all the right people; All like a great commentary track should.

He devotes a lot of time here about how the small budget forced him to do things in different ways then were written. He really goes on and on about this a little too often sometimes, not that it is not interesting, but it begins to sound like whining.

He has good stories like how he came up with Gun Kata, and the way he practiced this on his own, afraid his family (and neighbors) would think he were crazy trying out stuff in his backyard. He also has bad luck stories, like batteries failing when burning the only copy of his Mona Lisa painting, so did not get the shot.

Another story is how two different actresses played the wife because the first one left and could not be found to shoot the later scenes. Another is a time he really wondered if Bale was only testing him, and he still does not know.

Also a few too many times, he talks about how he wishes something was filmed differently to make it better. Sometimes he knows what he wants, and sometimes he just says he know it could be better but still is not sure how. These come off as just honest, and not whiny.

Diggs was actually cast first, because his smile was so perfect, he just knew he had something to hide. (That is a great line!)

His initial shot of Bale staring empty into the camera is to tell us everything about the character. We can see there is nothing in there. And he admits, few actors can pull that off.

One great quote: "It was really vilified in a measure that I have usually only seen reserved for established directors who have made a $100 million flop."
Commentary 2: Director Kurt Wimmer and producer Lucas Foster Rating:7.0/10 (6 votes) [graph]Login to vote or review
Reviewed by pat00139 on February 28th, 2006:Find all reviews by pat00139
This is another good track, although I prefer the other one better. This one acts more as a technical track. The pair talk about the editing, the locations, the acting, the props, the effects/stunts, the sets and other elements of that kind. They both talk a lot and you get more information about the movie. This track was recorded after the other one and as such overlap is minimal, or if there is, Mr. Wimmer sometimes expands on what he said. The track has humour, like when Mr. Wimmer talks about the ‘remarkably stupid’ dog. They also get into the design – architecture and such – and what they wanted to do with it. Mr. Wimmer also talks about the genesis of the script. It’s an interesting track, but, like I said, more technical and somewhat drier than the other one. If you’re bored during this track, why not try counting the amount of times ‘essentially’ and ‘at the end of the day’ are said?
Reviewed by grimjack on June 5th, 2021:Find all reviews by grimjack
A little pointless of a track considering the director is now just joined by his producer, but I did not hear a lot of overlap. But the more interesting stuff is on the first one.

This one mostly talks about budget cost and locations (a lot about the locations - actually the location stuff was pretty interesting, and their going into detail about the various German architecture, what was Nazi and what was not. How great some of the locations were, and felt it equaled a quarter million dollar worth of set design had they tried to make it themselves).

At one point the director mentions how unlike every other director, he is fine with the studio testing his film. He says "I did not make this for myself. It is a genre film. I want the audience to enjoy it."

They talk to the very end of the credits, talking about names. But in the first commentary, he ends the commentary about 60 seconds before the credits start to roll, after saying the critics hated the film in a way he usually only saw done with 100 million dollar flops.