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It seems an unwritten law of Hollywood etiquette that only films released in the waning months of the year are Oscar contenders. The acadamy's nominating board, it seems, has a short memory, unable to pluck worthy titles from more than a month past. Perhaps if Road to Perdition (1 hour 57 minutes, Dreamworks Home Entertainment, rated R) had been released on DVD sooner, it would have gotten more recognition; as it is, the only 'big' nomination was Paul Newman for Best Supporting Actor.

Set in the Greater Chicagoland Area of 1931, Road to Perdition is as entrenched with Capone's gangland empire as the area itself. Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is a local enforcer several levels removed from the big man, directly in the employ of John Rooney (a very much alive Paul Newman). Intrigued by the mystery surrounding his father's profession, young Mike Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) stows away one rainy night as Sullivan and Rooney's biological son Connor (Daniel Craig) go on a mission for the old man. Michael Jr. bears witness to the evening's bloody outcome, setting off a series of events that leads to the elder Sullivan and his son taking to the road. They're hurting, so this Lone Wolf and his Cub decide to hurt the gangs in return.

This is director Sam Mendes' first film since American Beauty, and his second take on American mythology. Where Beauty deconstructed modern suburbia, Perdition seeps through the soot of the Prohibition era. Gangsters are heroes, anything can be had if you visit the right clubs, and everyone is at least a little bit crooked. There's a lot of (quintessential American painter most famous for "Nighthawks") Edward Hopper to be found in both the sets and the settings, from his sense of urban abandonment to scenes that are at once uncomfortably alluring and frustratingly offset.

Based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins, Road to Perdition is another step in the maturation of comicbooks as literature, joining From Hell and Ghost World on the list of non-spandex comic adaptations. Perdition hasn't shed all the superheroic tropes of the genre, however; Sullivan just wears a fedora and trenchcoat rather than a mask and cape. He's got an arch-enemy, several lackeys on his trail and a specific mission. Even a lot of the staging and shot compositions reflect the panels of the printed page.

The late Conrad Hall, who worked with Mendes on American Beauty, brought his expert cinematographic sense to this film, creating a rich and textured world that captures both the fact and the spirit of the 1930s. His work garnered the film one of its six Academy Award nominations, this time for Best Cinematography.

The disc's picture quality is excellent, beautifully reproducing Hall's often monochromatic palette and the smoky atmosphere. Three more nominations were earned by the sound team, and while the soundtrack isn't very dynamic (mainly because the film favors imagery over dialogue), the disc preserves their work well.

Road to Perdition has fairly run-of-the-mill special features: a director's commentary, production notes, deleted scenes, a "Making of" from HBO and a photo gallery. The commentary, fortunately, is quite informative (at least from the story side) with Mendes discussing everything from the process of adapting the novel to the motivations of the characters. It's odd that Dreamworks chose not to include any trailers for the film, so who knows what they were thinking?

Several of the 11 deleted scenes (with optional commentary) could have served the film well, particularly those involving Jennifer Jason Leigh as Mrs. Sullivan; women are woefully under-represented in the final cut in favor of multiple father/son dynamics. Conversely, though Anthony LaPaglia did a wonderful job in his cameo as Capone, I have to say I agree with the choice to leave him out of the finished movie; Capone works better as a force of nature than as a man in a rumpled shirt (and what are deleted scenes for, if not to preserve otherwise good performances and show us what might have been?).

One section of the story that the film did expand is the role of crime photographer Harlan Maguire. Played by Jude Law (who should have earned a nomination of his own), Maguire was based on real-life photog Arthur "Weegee" Fellig, one of the first reporters licensed to carry a "scanner" radio to listen to police department frequencies. He would often arrive at crime scenes before the authorities, earning him his telepathic nickname (an Anglicanization of 'Ouija'). Maguire, barely a presence in the original book, is more of a threat on film, dogging the Sullivans' heels all the way.

Road to Perdition is available in three versions: the standard widescreen, with all the features mentioned here; a widescreen that ices the HBO documentary in favor of a fairly superfluous DTS track; and, for absolutely no good reason, a fullscreen version.

If Road to Perdition had been released later in the year, it might have had a better chance at the Oscars. While its nominations are deserved, there should have been more. It seems likely that the studio scheduled the DVD's release for after the academy announced its nominees in the hopes that Oscar buzz would help drive sales. As it is, you'll have to settle for buying the Best Overlooked Picture of the year.



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD

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