Producer Joel Silver pairs John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, and Halle Berry in the early 2000s Hacker Action Thriller Swordfish. New to 4K UHD from Arrow Video.
The Film
He exists in a world beyond your world. What we only fantasize, he does. He lives a life where nothing is beyond him. But you know what? It’s all a facade. For all his charm and charisma, his wealth, his expensive toys… he’s a driven, unflinching, calculating machine. He takes what he wants, when he wants… and disappears. – Axel Torvalds, Swordfish (2001).
The little ditty of a speech could only come from a Joel Silver Picture. Swordfish the techno thriller action bonanza is the most Joel Silver flick that ever did Joel Silver. That is a compliment to the Dominic Sena directed summer event film. Crass, funny, fun, ridiculous, stupidly stupid in the most adroit way possible. This is a film that has a bus being flown through downtown LA via a helicopter as its finale and its anti-hero John Travolta ultimate endgame to outwit the FBI led by Don Cheadle. Also, within the same breath Swordfish has its hacker hero played by Hugh Jackman creating a computer virus as if he was composing a symphony swaying and dancing whilst smoking a joint and drinking merlot. All to the sounds of EDM mastermind Paul Oakenfold.
It’s that kind of film.
Swordfish is removed from any sort of reality or verisimilitude that some of the best of the Silver Pictures are set. Though the film is set resoundingly in the Silver Pictures Universe. Somewhere between the brilliance of the grounded of Die Hard to the science fiction perfection of The Matrix – lies Swordfish. That is not to say that Swordfish is as smart as those two pictures. In fact, it isn’t in any way shape or form close.
Swordfish resides in the same world as John Matrix’s Commando. Like Commando’s less capable younger brother Swordfish excels at being entertaining, not as fleet footed as that 80s marvel but no less dumbfoundingly fun. The script by Skip Woods always sides on being a fun summer ride at the behest of being logical. Woods imagines a world of shadow operators that just want to party in the hills of Hollywood as they prep for the heist of all techno heists in the abandon rundown theater in the heart of the Garment District of Southern California. Director Dominic Sena working with cinematographer Paul Cameron creates a lush sweaty burnt overly saturated world of darkened corners and mid-century architectural structures to compliment Woods’ ridiculous plot.
The film looks cool but isn’t cool the way that most of Silver’s Pictures are. It tries too hard with its action and violence but not able to just exist in the same realm as other Silver entries. It’s a great facsimile of the best action thrillers but just not the real deal. Even at that, there’s something so Joel Silver about Travolta’s Gabriel in a $5000 suit pulling a 50 Caliber machine gun out of a $500,000 car’s trunk to mow down some assassins. In that moment Swordfish recalls the best of Joel Silver’s filmography. Where reality be damn, this is an Action film with a capital A. In that regard, Swordfish is most certainly a Joel Silver Picture.
The Transfer
The 4K Ultra HD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) is an excellent presentation of the film. Arrow’s collaboration with Warner Brothers continues to be a hugely successful one and one that home video enthusiasts and collectors can only hopes continues if Swordfish and other recent films (see Demolition Man and Deep Blue Sea as other examples of how amazing their 4K work has been) are the indication of the quality of transfer we are to get. The 4K transfer provided by Warner Brothers is as good a transfer as this reviewer has seen for a later era 35mm shot film. The film’s presentation in Dolby Vision is near flawless. The transfers color reproduction and film grain are so good its looks like a freshly struck archival print. There is nary a scratch, blemish or speck of dirt to be found during the runtime. Fans and non-fans alike jaws will drop at just how stunning this film looks and will more than likely found another demo disc to show off the virtues of 4K UHD.
The Extras
They include the following;
- Audio commentary by director Dominic Sena
- Soundtrack Hacker
- How to Design a Tech Heist
- HBO First Look: Swordfish
- Effects in Focus: The Flying Bus
- Planet Rock Club Reel
- Swordfish: In Conversation
- Two alternate endings
- Theatrical trailer
The archival audio commentary by director Dominic Sena begins with how the original scripted opening started in all black without visuals and why he changed it. Some of the details include his first interview with John Travolta to discuss the actor’s role and convince him to star; his visual approach to the opening scene and why he chose to drop from getting traditional coverage; what attracted him to the screenplay – specifically its structure; the alternate casting choices for the senator played by Sam Shepard; how they came to cast Hugh Jackman – the various casting what-ifs the studio suggested; the casting of Halle Berry; the technical consultant Rick Lubtant they used for the film; working with 2nd unit director Dan Bradley; the work of composer Christopher Young; a gag that Travolta pulled on the set – which leads to a discussion of Travolta onset demeanor; the building and construction of the car chase action set piece; the explosion that Joel Silver considered one of the best explosions he’d ever seen; how they were able to fly the helicopter with the city bus around DTLA; a larger discussion of the various locations in and around Los Angeles and elsewhere they used in the film; a larger discussion of the script changes made; a larger discussion of the work of cinematographer Paul Cameron; a larger discussion of the work of production designer Jeff Mann; a larger discussion of the various actors that appear in the film; and much more.
Soundtrack Hacker (12:31) – is an all-new interview with co-composer Paul Oakenfold begins with his love of cinema and seeing films weekly with his father early in his childhood. The legendary EDM Producer discusses his work in Paul WS Anderson’s Shopping then the massive hit of the Big Brother UK theme that he remixed and released, the single Ready Steady Go, all of which led to Joel Silver reaching out to do work on Swordfish. Oakenfold goes on to discuss the collaboration between himself and Christopher Young – and how that came about; the collaboration of director Dominic Sena; how he approached the scoring of the film; and much more. It’s always wonderful when they get composers to discuss their work on film doubly so when it’s someone of Oakenfold’s stature in the music industry.
How to Design a Tech Heist (20:49) – is an all-new interview with production designer Jeff Mann begins with the history of how he became involved in music video in the late 80s even though he never went to art school with the help of fellow production designer KK Barrett and how the music video boom transitioned him into film with director Dominic Sena. Mann goes on to discuss his collaboration with Sena, the work in Swordfish – including the search for the perfect town to work in for the bank heist location and how Ventura Ca was chosen; the challenges they faced both on locations and making sets for this film; his huge contribution to the helicopter and bus finale; and much more. Again, it’s great that Arrow is getting the creatives that normally don’t get screentime in Special features for these films but are the vital bedrock for the visuals of big budget productions.
HBO First Look: Swordfish (15:02) – is an archival promotional behind-the-scenes featurette. For those cineastes who grew up in the 90s until the early 00s will instantly have a hit of nostalgia with this HBO behind-the-scenes piece. This fifteen-minute ad combines cast and crew interviews, b-roll footage, scenes from the film to create a piece that hypes the film.
Effects in Focus: The Flying Bus (8:14) – is an archival featurette goes behind the scenes in how the finale was put together. The featurette combines interviews, b-roll, behind-the-scenes footage, VFX footage, and more. Featuring interviews with the director Sena, producer Silver, visual effect supervisor Boyd Shermis, 2nd unit director Dan Bradley and others.
Planet Rock Club Reel (4:11) – is a music video by the film’s co-composer Paul Oakenfold for a track that appears in the film.
Swordfish: In Conversation (12:47) – an archival featurette with interviews from cast and crew members that’s more EPK based with topics like “Dancing with Travolta”, “i/o?”, “The Right Man for the Job”, “The Nude Scene”, “Bringing More to the Table”, “Adding the Flair” and so on – getting the point that these are not substantive topics. Interviews include actors Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle and Sam Shepard, director Dominic Sena, and producer Joel Silver
Alternate Ending #1 (3:48) – A slight variation on the original theatrical ending with a different outcome for Travolta and Berry’s characters as well as Jackman’s. Travolta gets to monologue about The Maltese Falcon. You can play with or without commentary by director Dominic Sena on the reasons why they cut this version of the Ending – which was the original as scripted ending.
Alternate Ending #2 (2:08) – Another variation on the original theatrical ending with the difference being the final explosive moment has been taken out. You can play with or without commentary by director Dominic Sena on the reasons why they added that additional pop in the original theatrical version of the Ending.
Theatrical trailer (2:12)
The Final Thought
Arrow continues to deliver great upgraded 4K UHD Editions of Neo Classic Genre titles Swordfish is no exception. Highest recommendations!!!