An American adaptation of the hit novel by the late Swedish novelist Steig Larsson (he died in 2004 of a fatal heart attack), the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is directed by well known director David Fincher and adapted by screenwriter Steven Zaillian who also co-wrote Moneyball and also wrote the 1985 thriller the Falcon and the Snowman among his credits.
This version stars Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, Blomkvist has been convicted of Libel charges in a Swedish court and is down on his luck but an opportunity to escape the bad press comes from Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) who asks him to investigate a decades old family murder mystery which has more to it than at first glance.
Having not seen the 2009 Swedish adaptation which starred Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist I went into this version cold and came out the other end delighted, it was dark, edgy, had a great story and had two great characters in Blomkvist and Lisbeth and in terms of her Mara is the real show stealer which is quite a feat considering the cast includes Craig, Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright and Joely Richardson, not bad at all for a young and generally unknown actress prior to this, hopefully this leads to good fortunes in the future for her.
The Video:
This Blu-Ray release is a 2 disc release with one disc for the film and another for the extras.
The Video here is simply beautiful to watch, brilliantly capturing Jeff (son of Blade Runner DP Jordan) Cronenweth's impressive cinematography with its combination of deep blacks, ice cold blues, vibrant colours and pastels of fiery red, it's an impressive transfer no matter which way you look at it.
The Audio:
The main audio track is a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and is probably more impressive than the video transfer was, being effective when it needs to be and being quiet when it needs to be, it's also a nice example of a HD sound mix that finds a nice middle ground between making sure the dialogue is easy to hear and the music and sound not be overpowering which can sometimes happen.
The mix also nicely recreates Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's score (the opening titles sound very impressive) and Ren Klyce's sound design (when you see the scenes of snow, you'll start freezing as well even though your just watching it) so all in all this is a fine sound mix.
The Extras:
David Fincher is well known for creating in depth special edition releases for almost all of his movies and this film is no exception and there is a lot to watch here and surprisingly all of it is pretty good.
This starts on the feature disc with a solo commentary track by Fincher himself which is a very clinical look at making the film with many topics covered such as casting, creating the snow in some shots, title song ideas and even revealing the name of the Cat used in the film which saddened me a little as I liked the fact he was just called Cat, still its a good commentary.
Disc 2 is where the vast bulk of the extras lie and the menu here is brilliant set in the Vanger warehouse archives that Lisbeth uses in the film to aid Blomkvist in his investigation.
It starts off with a featurette called "Men who Hate Women" which kicks off proceedings nicely with a general overview of the cast and crew's thoughts on the book and the original Swedish film.
From there the extras divide into 4 separate categories; "Characters", "On Location", "Post Production" and "Promotion."
The first section "Characters" has three segments in itself concerning Lisbeth, Mikael and Martin Vanger.
Starting off with the Lisbeth section we have 6 features, the first of which is "Casting Salander" which is a general look at the casting process and how Mara came on board to play Lisbeth in the first place, Mara comes across here as a very interesting interviewee and at times a funny one as does Trish Summerville the Costume Designer who looks like Lisbeth in her own way in these featurettes, a good look at the casting of such a pivotal character.
Featurette - Different in Every Way: This featurette looks at the impact of the Lisbeth character in current day pop culture, some interesting observations are made in terms of her character but it kinda feels like an overview of Lisbeth as a whole though it is an interesting one nonetheless.
Featurette - The Look of Salander: A general piece about Lisbeth's overall look ranging from the piercings to the hair and clothing that she wears in the film, Summerville makes some interesting points here as do some of the other interviewees in terms of differentiating Mara's look from Noomi Rapace's look, a good featurette.
Featurette - Mara/Fincher: A general look at Mara and Fincher's working relationship throughout the movie, probably the closest to a complimentary featurette on the entire disc set.
Featurette - Irene Nesser: A look at how the scenes where Lisbeth disguises herself as Irene were made, Mara gives out some good comments here and there is some cool production footage here as well.
Salander Test Footage: In August 2010 David Fincher filmed Mara dressed up as Lisbeth walking around Los Angeles to see how it would look before main production on the film was underway, this is interesting in a sense given that this was clearly filmed on DV video and you can see the compression artifacts at times, still this is a most interesting early look at Mara in the character and am glad to see it here in full.
Following that, we go into the section on Blomkvist where there are only 4 features.
The first is a featurette about the casting of Blomkvist which is really Daniel Craig talking about his first meeting with Fincher after the release of Fight Club and wanting to do the film with him, Craig comes across as very charming in his interview sections and also feels like the kind of fellow you'd want to have a beer with, not bad for an actor of his stature.
Featurette - Daniel Craig on Film Acting: A short feature where Craig talks a little bit about his process in regards to film acting, not bad though a little short.
Featurette - Dressing Blomkvist: Another costume feature which this time looks at designing Blomkvist's costumes for the length of the film, some interesting observations are made in terms of wanting to differentiate Craig from his Bond costumes and making him look more down to earth, interesting stuff.
Investigation Still Galleries: Some very cool galleries taking you into some of the pictures taken for the film, the cottage where Blomkvist stays and even a Vanger Industries newsletter for the most part, some nice gems are to be found here and they are well worth a look.
And finally we come to our final Character segment which focuses on Martin Vanger, this has 6 features in it also.
The first is another Film Acting feature this time with Skarsgard who comes across as borderline eccentric but in a very fun way, as with Craig's feature this is a short feature about Skarsgard talking about his process and comparing working with Fincher with Lars Von Trier, Skarsgard has always been a favorite of mine and it was a pleasure to see him in this movie.
Featurette - Psychopathy: Skarsgard talks about the process of playing his character in the movie, so some minor spoilers are revealed if you haven't seen the film yet so I suggest not watching any of the extras until doing so, still this is a fun feature due to Skarsgard's fun charm.
Featurette - Bondage: The first of some very cool production features which takes you into a firsthand look at the making of the film, this one looks at the creation of the torture device used in one of the film's climatic moments and its very cool to see Fincher hard at work to make this happen.
Featurette - Torture: Another production featurette about the making of the torture sequence, some very cool production footage is found here as with the previous featurette.
Featurette - Wrapped in Plastic: An extremely cool look at how the Point of View shots of the Plastic bags were created, a process which I won't spoil here but again it plays into a key climatic moment.
Set Design Galleries: Some more straightforward still galleries regarding some of the films sets, not as good as the investigation ones but still really cool to see here.
And that's that with the character sections, next we move on the Production section which is divided between the shoot in Sweden and Hollywood, first off is the Sweden section which has 5 features.
Featurette - Stockholm Syndrome: A general overlook at filming in Sweden and the problems this brought in regards to the Swedish crew plus a look at why this new American version chose to shoot there, terrific stuff.
Featurette - Stockholm's Tunnelbana: For such a small scene in the film, the scene where Lisbeth's laptop is stolen and she fights to get it back and catch her train required a bit of time to shoot due to the technical needs required to make it, a very interesting and really good look at how this was done.
Featurette - Fuck These People: One of the scenes that was set in the cottage was meant to be set outside but rain kept interrupting the filming of that version of the scene, this is the featurette that goes into the attempts to shoot it, there's even a fun bit of Craig singing "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head"
Featurette - The End: A general look at the much debated final scene in the movie in terms of the meaning behind it and the shooting of it, I quite liked the scene myself though I can understand why some would have a problem with it though I think its due to Mara's hidden warmth that the scene comes across the way it does.
Featurette - Picture Wrap: A general overlook at the wrapping of the shooting with a small scene in the Vanger archives with Lisbeth, a pretty cool feature.
From there we now go to the Hollywood section of the shoot with 7 features.
Featurette - Casting Armansky: A pretty cool feature with Goran Visnjic talking about his audition for the part of Armansky which we see some of in this feature, Visnjic comes across as pretty cool here and pretty funny as well.
Armansky Audition: The full audition of Visnjic as he goes up for the role of Armansky, interesting to see but probably not more than once.
Featurette - Thinking Evil Shit: Like the creation of the scene with Lisbeth's laptop theft, this is another small scene in the film that required some technical trickery to pull off as well as giving the viewer a look at what was first intended for the scene.
Featurette - Rape/Revenge: One of the best featurettes on the disc talks about the making of some of the most violent scenes in the film, all involved give very interesting takes on the scenes and some thoughtful observations on those involved, probably the best featurette on the disc.
Featurette - Int. Blomkvist's College: A look at filming inside Blomkvist's college.
Featurette - Int. Martin's House: A look at Fincher directing scenes inside Martin's House.
Featurette - Int. Salander's Apt: Another firsthand look at filming inside the Salander's Apartment set.
With the Production side now finished, it's time to go into the Post Production section in which there are 4 sections.
Featurette - In the Cutting Room: A look at the editing process in the film in terms of editing key sequences and how they were put together into the film as a whole, we also see Fincher working with his editors in terms of the then current cut they are showing to him, both editors (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall) rightly won a Best Editing Oscar for their work on this movie.
Featurette - ADR: A 6 and a half minute look at Fincher and some of the actors doing ADR work on the film, interesting to watch maybe once but it's nice to see this feature here as it's a part of the process we don't see very often.
Multi Angle Main Title Sequence: This was a really cool feature, it's basically a 3 way look at the impressive main title sequence that opens the film, the 3 ways to watch it are an early concept version, an early wireframe version and the final title sequence without the production credits.
There's also an option to watch all three at once and there's an optional commentary by its creator Tim Miller who gives us a brief look at what his ideas were and the notes he got from Fincher on the creation of this sequence, its really cool to see but I wish it was longer as it's such an impressive scene to watch no matter how many times you've seen it.
Visual Effects Montage: Essentially an 8 minute montage of scenes being altered with visual effects, worth watching probably once.
With Post Production out of the way, it's time to head to the Promotional section.
Hard Copy Viral Video: A 9 minute viral video created by David Prior to help promote the movie on the internet, it's a really interesting piece of promotional material and its made all the more fun by the VHS artefacts scattered throughout it.
Prior's commentary is also fascinating as it covers some of the original ideas planned, the notion of memory as media in our modern age and how this particular special was created, it's a really good listen and its worth taking the time to do so (Prior is also the creator of the extras on this 2 disc set)
Trailers: 4 Trailers are presented here including the very cool teaser set to Reznor's cover of the Immigrant Song and three more general trailers to help promote the film, I really liked seeing these here as most Blu-Ray releases don't bother putting the trailers on their releases so it's great to see them here, not to mention seeing the red band teaser in the cinema earlier this year was a real treat as it looked and sounded great on the big screen.
TV Spots: 7 TV Spots are presented here as well, these act as a nice companion piece to the collection of trailers in this section though I doubt you will watch these more than once I must admit.
Metal One Sheet: This feature (the last in this section) looks at the creation of a metal version of one of the posters created for the film, it's said these have gone for quite a bit of money at auction.
Any Further Objections?:
After such a thorough and thoughtful package that covers just about everything you could ever want to see covered when it comes to the making of the film I wish the post production section had a bit more in it as it does feel a bit light compared to the other sections, I mean there's nothing on Reznor and Ross's great score or the sound design as a whole but sadly that is due to the schedule Prior had as he has stated that he simply didn't have the time to interview Reznor, Ross or Klyce for the disc and that is a real shame as a look at those would've made this set feel complete but still after devouring the extras this really just feels like a minor nitpick.
And on one last note, if you put both discs into your Blu-Ray player and play them for a period of time and then press stop and eject them out of the player, when you put them back in a pop up will come up asking you if want to resume where you left off, a really nice touch.
Overall:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a fantastic Blu-Ray release and one of the best I've seen for the format as it delivers near perfect Audio/Visual quality and a remarkable array of extras that aren't just the usual press materials slapped on most releases but extras that truly take you behind the scenes as the film is being made and put together, I can see now why Fincher has won so much acclaim for his home video releases as this one was fantastic and comes with my highest recommendation.
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