6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Action comedy about a group of 12-year-olds who blur the lines of reality and make-believe in their afternoon playtime. Armed with twigs (machine guns), balloons (grenades) and utilizing trees (look-out towers), the group embarks upon the most exciting game of their lives. As rivalries develop, however, the budding soldiers begin to realise who their true friends are and who are their enemies.
Starring: Siam Yu, Gage Munroe, Michael Friend, Aidan Gouveia, Mackenzie MunroDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy (as download)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
The independent Canadian production I Declare War is about a kids' game of "Capture the Flag" told entirely from the point of view of the pre-adolescent boys (and one girl) playing it, but that description barely begins to capture the pleasures of this unique and wonderful film. Writer/director Jason Lapeyre and co-director Robert Wilson treat their characters with utmost sincerity: their passions, their fears, their commitment to the game (or not, as the case may be), their longings and the potency of imaginations that turn makeshift wooden contraptions and water balloons into bazookas, grenades and M-16s. Movies routinely create the illusion of battle; so why not use their tricks to externalize what these kids see with their mind's eyes? Therein lies the subversive visual strategy of I Declare War. No one's getting shot or blown up, but the film shows you what the kids imagine. If the weapons were real, they'd all be dead. Because powerful emotions are unleashed and some of the "play" turns serious, I Declare War has drawn comparison to William Golding's classic novel, Lord of the Flies (adapted for film in 1963 by Peter Brook and in 1990 by Harry Hook), but I Declare War is a different animal. Golding's allegory played out among children cut off from civilization who descended into savagery, whereas Lapeyre's and Wilson's film occurs in the shadow of normal society, with home and hearth awaiting everyone's return. Variations of "let's get together after the war for video games and pizza" are a running gag, and several characters are obsessed with their lives and reputations outside the game. Far from being a social "reboot" like Lord of the Flies, where the essentially savage nature of man is revealed, I Declare War becomes a microcosm of the social order in which these youngsters live their daily lives—but bigger, grander and with pyrotechnics.
I Declare War was shot on Red by Ray Dumas, whose extensive experience as a steadicam operator on such films as the dance-themed Take the Lead and the documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil was undoubtedly useful preparation for following the various members of the warring teams through the wooded and irregular landscapes where their adventures take them. Drafthouse's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray (the last that will be distributed by Image/RLJ Entertainment) offers a superb rendering of the sharp and detailed Red footage, with a complete lack of video noise and exquisite detail that renders all the leaves, twigs, stones and dirt paths with clarity and precision. The clothing looks like the real thing, and the makeup hasn't been applied to prettify the young actors but simply to maintain continuity as they get roughed up, scratched and dirtied. The result is to keep them looking real, which enhances the naturalistic performances. There are no dark scenes, but dark patches occur in the forest, and these benefit from solid black levels. The color palette is natural without overstatement, with the forest's green dominating most scenes. Drafthouse is never stingy with bandwidth, and the average bitrate of 30.00 Mbps (yes, that really is the BDInfo reading) is consistent with its commitment to quality presentations on Blu-ray.
The sound mix for I Declare War, presented in a choice of lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 and lossy DD 5.1, is as witty and imaginative as the visual design. Like the visuals, the audio combines fantasy and reality without any attempt to distinguish between them. One mintue the kids are chattering about school and video games, and the next they're exchanging gunfire and tossing grenades that sound just like the real thing, because that's how they hear them. At various moments, you can hear distant weapons fire or helicopters, as if this were a Vietnam film and the woods had suddenly morphed into a rice paddy. As long as the game is active, so are the players' imaginations, and it's their soundtrack. The dialogue is remarkably clear, considering the relative inexperience of most of the players. (Alex Cardillo's Frost, in particular, is a chatterbox, and Cardillo delivers his breathless dialogue flawlessly.) The score by the composing team of Eric Cadesky and Nick Dyer cleverly manages to echo many different war movies without ever actually copying specific themes.
I Declare War is precisely the kind of off-beat film that Drafthouse specializes in finding and supporting, and it is one of the best from them I've had the pleasure to review. It's not like anything else I've ever seen, and yet LaPeyre, Wilson and their precocious cast make the basic premise feel so obvious and natural that one wonders why no one thought of it before. Highly recommended.
2015
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