Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13035 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-02-26
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 163 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top- secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerised water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favour of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute

Amazon.co.uk Review
James Cameron's 1989 aquatic epic The Abyss was, quite literally, a watershed in the annals of filmmaking: not only was it the first (and only) movie to be shot almost entirely underwater, in the largest tank ever used for a movie set, and to use live dialogue from specially designed headsets, it also pushed forward the boundaries of computer animation in one gigantic leap. The famous water tentacle sequence is now regarded as the defining moment when CGI came of age; ironically perhaps, its very success has ensured that the punishing realism of the setting, which is the best thing about the movie, is likely never to be attempted again.

But the impressive technical aspects aside, is the movie any good? Granted it contains any number of striking moments, from forcing a rat to breathe liquid (it really works, apparently) to resurrecting a drowned Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. But the story is a slim one for the running time, especially in the extended Special Edition version which plays almost half an hour longer than the theatrical cut and contains a completely excised subplot featuring much too much heavy-handed moralising: "How all the world can stop fighting and learn to get along with each other", by James Cameron esq. All you need is love, apparently. Here is one rare example of the theatrical cut being preferable to the director's. Now, if only he had cut the love story from Titanic too

On the DVD: The Abyss Special Edition two-disc set has plenty of neat extra features, but is let down a little by the non-anamorphic 2.35:1 letterboxed picture. Sound, on the other hand, is vivid THX mastered Dolby 5.1. Happily, the first disc contains both the original theatrical cut and the extended special-edition version. There's a reasonably informative though inevitably rather dry text-only commentary. The principal extra on Disc 2 is a 60-minute documentary, "Under Pressure", with retrospective interviews in which cast and crew detail the extraordinary challenges involved in making the film, and more than one near-death experience. In addition there's the complete screenplay, various different pieces on the effects sequences, storyboards, artwork, DVD-ROM features--in short, plenty to keep even jaded DVD enthusiasts amused for hours. The menu interfaces for both discs are a treat and the set comes with a good 12-page booklet. --Mark Walker

Video Description
Special Features (To be confirmed):

Disc 1 :
Digitally THX Mastered
Multi-Story Option: theatrical/special edition versions
Text Commentary
Disc 2:
3 Theatrical Trailers
Behind The Scenes Footage
"Deepcore time-lapse segment"
ZM Featurette
Under Pressure: Making The Abyss
Visual Effects Reel
Multi-angle "Pseudopod" Sequence
Stills, Scripts and Storyboards
Biographies
12 Page collector's booklet

Customer Reviews

WHAT CAMERON DOES BEST.
I have always considered this to be James Cameron's most underrated film - often overlooked, its a fine example of what Cameron does best - make really cracking, edge of the seat action movies. This is easily on a par with his more famous sci-fi efforts (Aliens,Terminator,T2) - and urguably more impressive than Titanic,because the characters are far more three dimensional and believable.

Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are great as the estranged couple whose relationship is reconciled in the murky depths of an underwater trench,which is home to some peace-loving extra-terrestrials.

Despite the initial cuteness of the watery aliens, there is a very deep, thought provoking message in this film - especially intensified in the extended special edition version, which is way superior to the theatrical release. And how's this for value, BOTH versions are included in this box set.

Solid performances,excellent special effects and probably some of the best underwater photography you'll ever see in a movie, make this is a film that you MUST watch.

Despite excellent sound quality, and some astonishing extra features, this DVD is ruined by the fact that (like Cameron's Titanic before it), it is NOT presented in anamorphic widescreen - WHY are they STILL releasing some movies in this format?? This was a real let down for me, and I'm sure will be for other DVD buffs.

What a shame this ruins an otherwise excellent film and a great value DVD package.

Some flaws but none of them fatal
James Cameroon has directed some fine films (Terminator and Terminator 2, Aliens, Titanic) but The Abyss gives the impression of being a bit of an experimental indulgence by a director with lots of cash behind him. It's a schizophenric movie, changing direction and focus from start to finish, never quite sure if it's a thriller or action flick or simple sci-fi schlock affair. The story centres around a US submarine that goes down in deep water after an encounter with a bizarely fast underwater craft, and follows the crew of a deep sea mining rig that is subsequently taken over by the Navy to mount a rescue operation. Technically the film is fantastic with, at the time, ground-breaking underwater photography and sequences, and the director pays great detail to the physics of deep sea diving. But this technical proficency can't make up for a generally weak storyline. As you watch the ensuing events many years after the film was made you'll wonder if certain scenes were just an experiment for later work on Terminator 2 and Titanic. And that really is the problem. Although it's an accomplished film with good character development, adequate acting, thrills, spills, tension and drama it's let down by a weak ending (I STRONGLY recommend the Director's Cut version), some poor dialogue and that nagging sense that it's just trying too hard to be all things to all people. Definately worth seeing but be prepared to feel a little disappointed at the end of it all but not quite able to put your finger on why.

The Abyss
James Cameron's third film proper is a suitably grandiose action adventure about human exploration and development. Where his two previous films (The Terminator, Aliens) had used emotion mainly as a counterpoint to the action scenes that followed, here Cameron manages to sustain an engaging level of emotional content throughout the runtime, drawing a vivid cast of characters (helped by two stand out performances from Ed Harris and Mary E. Mastrantonio) and then pitching them into the deep end. So to speak.

In fact, what makes The Abyss so interesting is the ways in which it differs from the films that he'd already made. If Aliens was all about the idea of species colliding, and Terminator was a unstoppable violence-fest, then Abyss is the total antithesis; it's underlying subtext speaks of fear over unmitigated aggression and all the destructive tendencies of mankind are unashamedly condemned. Where in Aliens Michael Biehn's Cpt. Hicks is totally cool under pressure, severed from his chain of command, and forced to endure a situation beyond his training, Lt. Coffey is forever simmering just below boiling point.

Cameron's other films also talked about machines, and The Abyss is no exception. The other two pitched humans in direct conflict with two forms of mechanical beasts - The Terminator, famously "living tissue over metal endoskeleton", and the horrific xenomorphs of his action sequel which are undeniably mechanistic. In The Abyss, though, all the machines are passive and/or ameliorative forces. Plotwise it would be sinful to give away any more, but as a counterpoint to his previews works The Abyss makes an interesting study.

The Abyss is oft-overlooked. It is overlong, and there is sometimes a mis-balance between the tense buildup periods and the action sequences that follow - both sometimes seem either too long or too short. However, for the most part few audiences will take issue when Cameron's vision is so frequently awe-inspiring, and the polished production provides as many exciting moments as it does. The underwater photography is consistantly stunning, and the director never fails to involve the water when it should be part of the filmic environment - lesser helmers would have worked out numerous work-arounds for tricky sequences, like Ed Harris swimming around bubble-less under the belly of the rig (although the actor has since famously prickled over the making of the film). Because of this, the water maintains a brooding and threatening presence even when off-screen, the sense of the action being many, many metres below sea-level is never lost and adds a terrific subconscious element to the emotional fireworks. The finale is star-gazing film fantasy at its best, (and was later echoed in a similar sequence in Contact).