Domino appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The film offered consistently strong visuals.
Sharpness consistently appeared crisp and detailed. At no time did I discern any signs of unintentional softness or fuzziness, as the movie always came across as well-defined and accurate. Some shots were purposefully distorted, but I didn’t count them as an issue. Moiré effects and jagged edges showed no concerns, and edge enhancement appeared absent. Print flaws were non-existent. Stylized grain popped up at times but no unintentional flaws could be found.
Domino went for a heavily stylized palette. Ugly yellows and greens dominated, and other unnatural tones showed up most of the time. Nonetheless, they came across as accurate and distinct within those parameters. The hues rarely looked natural, but they weren’t supposed to generate that appearance, so I was satisfied with the tint found during much of the movie. Black levels seemed to be deep and rich, while shadow detail was clear and appropriately opaque. Domino offered a strong transfer.
The DVD for Domino packed both Dolby Digital EX 5.1 and DTS ES 6.1 soundtracks. Both seemed similar, as I discerned no substantial differences between the pair. I thought they were essentially identical.
Music dominated the soundfield. The score and song snippets mixed together well to create a broad, involving field. Stereo separation was excellent, and the music spread to the surrounds neatly. Effects focused mostly on gunfire, explosions, and various vehicles. All of them blended well and transitioned smoothly. The surrounds bolstered those sequences nicely and gave the movie a fine sense of atmosphere.
Audio quality was excellent. Speech consistently sounded natural and distinctive, with no edginess or problems connected to intelligibility. Effects were concise and tight, and they showed no distortion or flaws. Music demonstrated fine dynamics. Highs were clean and bright, and bass response was consistently deep and firm. This ended up as a terrific soundtrack.
Heading to the extras, we start with an audio commentary from director Tony Scott and writer Richard Kelly. Both recorded separate running, screen-specific tracks, and this one edits them together. The program covers the expected subjects. We learn about the project’s development and writing of the script, basing matters on real-life and factual liberties, cast, characters and performances, sets and locations, and technical elements. In the latter category, we learn a lot about the movie’s visual style as well as music, editing, and other related topics.
Both Kelly and Scott prove to be solid commentators. They have experience with the format and that shows as they tear through a mix of useful issues. They cover the requisite material nicely and give us good insight into the making of the movie. This ends up as a strong and impressive commentary.
We also get an Alternate Audio Track. This features script notes and story development meetings with Scott, Kelly, executive producer Zach Schiff-Abrams, and singer/actor Tom Waits. Waits only pops up briefly around the time his minor character appears onscreen; the others are more consistent participants.
This turns out to be a terrific “fly on the wall” way to examine the creative processes. We listen as those involved work through the script and fine-tune it. We get great insights into the issues they confronted and how they resolved them. Scott and Kelly also give us a nice glimpse of the pressures related to directing films. This is a very cool and fascinating way to get a look at the production.
Two featurettes appear. First comes the 20-minute and 31-second I Am A Bounty Hunter: Domino Harvey’s Life. It offers movie clips, behind the scenes and archival materials, and interviews. We hear from Scott, Kelly, Domino herself, Domino’s mother Paulene Stone-Burns, producer Samuel Hadida, childhood friend Annabelle Neilsen, former bounty hunter Choco, technical advisor Zeke Unger, co-producer Peter Toumasis, and actors Keira Knightley and Edgar Ramirez.
As you might expect, “Hunter” looks at issues connected to Harvey’s life. We get a quick overview of her childhood, move to bounty hunting, and death. Some of this reiterates topics discussed in the movie, and the show doesn’t expand a whole lot. It’s not exactly detailed, so don’t anticipate a lot of new information here. It is good to get reflections from her mother and Choco, though, and we also find some interesting notes from Domino herself.
For more of that, we can also watch this featurette with an alternate audio track. That presents Richard Kelly as he interviews Domino Harvey. They discuss her move into bounty hunting and her experiences there, reflections on her cohorts, her attitudes about her Beverly Hills life, and a few other biographical bits. The interview focuses largely on the bounty hunting side of things, which I guess makes sense since that’s the emphasis of the movie. This is interesting, though I’d have preferred more reflections on other parts of her life.
For the second featurette, we find the 10-minute and 37-second Bounty Hunting on Acid: Tony Scott’s Visual Style. This presents comments from Scott, Kelly, Hadida, executive producers Skip Chaisson and Barry Waldman and director of photography Dan Mindel. This looks at the movie’s photographic choices to show us what the filmmakers wanted to do and how they did it. Some of this repeats from the commentary, but we get more technical details, and it helps that we can see the material as they discuss it. The program offers a decent exploration of the movie’s flashy visuals.
Seven Deleted/Alternate Scenes run a total of seven minutes, 53 seconds. These primarily include an alternate version of the lovemaking scene, more with Domino and her mother, and additional shots of the TV bounty hunting. The parts with Domino’s mom are reasonably interesting, but the others seem superfluous. We can watch these with or without commentary from Scott. He gives us the appropriate notes about the scenes and why he cut them.
The DVD opens with ads for Final Destination 3, The History of Violence and Blade: The Series. These also appear in the DVD’s Sneak Peeks area with promos for 11:14, Havoc and 50 Cent: Refuse 2 Die. We get both the theatrical and teaser trailers for Domino too.
From what I know, the life story of Domino Harvey would make for an interesting flick. Too bad Domino apparently has so little to do with reality, as it prefers to use Harvey as a gimmick and not a full-fledged character. The DVD features excellent picture and audio along with a mix of good extras. I especially like the recordings of script meetings since they give us a terrific look behind the scenes. I don’t think much of Domino as a movie, but it makes for a strong DVD.
