Payback Straight Up The Director's Cut
April 2007 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: HD DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

This release allows its director, Brian Helgeland, to enact his own payback. The story behind the production of the original film explains why: Payback was first released in 1999 and was Brian Helgeland’s debut as a director. Warner officials (and Mel Gibson, many would say) felt that the main character, Porter, was too reprehensible to be any sort of hero. Helgeland was asked to direct a new third act and refused. Another director was brought in, and the last third of the movie was dramatically altered. Now, eight years later, Helgeland has been allowed to access the original film and has edited it back to his original intent, and then some. Kris Kristofferson’s character, which had been added into the remake, is again absent. The quixotic ending of the original is restored. And now, since the music score made little sense, Helgeland has had a new one composed by Scott Stambler.

You might gather that this is a very different movie from the one that audiences viewed in 1999, and you would be right. Helgeland, who wrote the Academy Award-winning script for the period film L.A. Confidential, wanted a ‘70s feel and got it. The story is based on The Hunter, a novel by Richard Stark, a pseudonym for Donald E. Westlake. It was filmed in 1967 as Point Blank, which became Lee Marvin’s most memorable role. Marvin’s Porter is easier to forgive than the Helgeland character. In the new film, Porter comes to town intent on just one thing: getting back $70,000 from a heist perpetrated, with the help of his wife Lynn (Deborah Kara Hunger), by a half-crazed associate, Val (Greg Henry). Lynn double-crosses him, shooting him twice in the back. Porter has somehow survived that indecency and is back for, well sure, you guessed it: payback. Who wouldn’t want to get back at a guy who snuffs out his cigarette in a pool of your blood as you lie shot and immobile? The people in this flick are anything but nice.

Payback is the movie’s central theme, but the film is almost myopically more about style than substance. Helgeland wanted the staccato, scene-completion style of a ‘70s movie (The Getaway is mentioned in one of the featurettes). The DVD might realize his visual concept better than the finished movie. The 1999 version had a blue tint to it. Since the blue was in the printing process and not on the negatives, Helgeland was able to revise the process, and so this 2007 version is in full color. It’s still gritty, as some filtering and sharper-than-usual contrast gives it the look of an early 1970s presentation.

All images are clearly seen on this HD DVD, which boasts reference-quality sharpness as well as an active surround sound that puts one right in the middle of the frequent gunfire. The new music score, largely jazz oriented, has outstanding sharply focused bass and sweet, ringing highs, and though there is a lot of nearly whispered dialogue, not a word is lost. Once again, Dolby Digital Plus proves its superiority over regular Dolby Digital.

The extras include a very informative commentary by Helgeland as well as four featurettes. The latter are more in depth than the usual. Two demonstrate filming in Chicago and Los Angeles. One discusses the different versions of the movie, and the final one is a candid, lively, and interesting discussion with author Donald E. Westlake.

The reborn film is also available on Blu-ray Disc as well as on regular SD DVD, and it looks and sounds as spectacular on each of these formats as it does on this HD DVD.

It is interesting to note here that Helgeland considers Richard Donner his mentor. There is much mention of the older director in the featurettes. Donner had his own payback last year when his version of Superman II was finally seen on DVD and HD DVD. DVD has made these paybacks possible. Oh that Orson Welles were alive to contribute. He would have loved the concept.

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