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Blu-ray extras (almost all transported over from the 2005 DVD release) include Barbara Kopple's excellent 97-minute documentary A Conversation With Gregory Peck; audio commentary by director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan Pakula; a 90-minute feature on the making of the movie; a 1999 interview with Mary Badham; and excerpts from Peck's Oscar acceptance speech, his AFI Life Achievement Award speech, and daughter Cecilia's speech at the Academy's tribute to Peck after his death.
Incidentally, To Kill a Mockingbird will be just the first of many titles released this year on Blu-ray to commemorate Universal Pictures' 100-year anniversary. It's a sound selection, not only due to the popularity and prestige of the movie but also because it's enjoying its own 50-year anniversary. The studio has already announced the 13 pictures it plans to release in restored editions throughout 2012: Along with Mockingbird, the others will be the Best Picture Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front (1930); Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963); the Abbott and Costello hit Buck Privates (1941); the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula (1931); the Spanish version of Dracula, filmed at the same time on the same sets as the Lugosi one; the Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein (1931) and its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein (1935); Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975); Spielberg's Best Picture Oscar winner Schindler's List (1993); the Best Picture Oscar winner Out of Africa (1985); the Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy Pillow Talk (1959); and the Best Picture Oscar winner The Sting (1973). Of course, that's hardly the extent of the company's plans: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial will also be released on Blu-ray this year for its 30th anniversary, and the "Universal 100th Anniversary" banner is already being slapped onto Blu-rays (and DVDs) that have already been in circulation, including American Graffiti, Do the Right Thing and The Breakfast Club.
Movie: ****
THE WHISTLEBLOWER (2011). Here's some pertinent information about DynCorp, culled from various sources (including The Guardian, The New York Times and Human Rights Watch): "DynCorp International is a United States-based private military company [which] has provided services for the U.S. military in Bolivia, Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo and Kuwait ... Throughout the world, DynCorp employees have been accused (and frequently found guilty) of murder, torture, fraud, and paying for male child prostitutes." And the sickening punchline: "DynCorp currently receives more than 96% of its $2 billion in annual revenues from the US federal government." Why is this relevant to a review of The Whistleblower? Here's why: "DynCorp had a $15 million contract to hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia at the time Kathryn Bolkovac reported such officers were paying for prostitutes and participating in sex-trafficking. She was unfairly dismissed due to a protected disclosure (whistleblowing)." Although the name DynCorp has been changed for the film, the name Kathryn Bolkovac remains, and this picture relates her harrowing experiences while working in Bosnia. Needless to say, this is a prime example of feel-bad cinema, and one scene in particular — a teenage girl who tries to escape is punished for her actions — is practically unwatchable. But film has a responsibility to educate as well as entertain, and for those up to the task, The Whistleblower is an ofttimes powerful experience, with Ukrainian-Canadian writer-director Larysa Kondracki (making her feature debut, as is co-scripter Eilis Kirwan) avoiding unnecessary embellishments and letting the story speak for itself. As Kathryn Bolkovac, Rachel Weisz brings the same no-nonsense demeanor and steely conviction that informed her Oscar-winning performance in The Constant Gardener: We share her frustrations when dealing with sexist U.S. peacekeepers and unctuous h.r. personnel as well as Bosnian police officers who chuckle and crack jokes when confronted with battered or murdered women. For all its righteous indignation, The Whistleblower never soars as high as comparable titles like The Killing Fields and the aforementioned The Constant Gardener. But those needing a break from such imbecilic fantasies as The Smurfs and Transformers: Part Trois won't mind subjecting themselves to its uncomfortable truths.
Blu-ray extras include a piece on the real Kathryn Bolkovac.
Movie: ***