A Mighty Heart Blu-Ray
Angelina Jolie stars as Mariane Pearl, a reporter herself, she is trying desperately to get her husband released after being kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan.
Film making 18/25
Cinematography 19/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 15/25
Total 72/100
A Mighty Heart is based on a true story about the kidnapping and eventual beheading of reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Angelina Jolie delivers an Oscar nominated performance as Daniel’s wife who is exhausting all avenues to get her husband returned safely.
The film follows pretty closely to the facts surrounding the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in 2002. The scenes move one to the next with very realistic camera footage and does not glamorize the locations or even the actors in the movie and comes across as very realistic.
The film starts with a few scenes of life before the kidnapping for fellow reporters Mariane and Daniel as they go about their lives covering the news abroad in the hotspots of the world. Just before they are traveling back home Daniel has an interview with a Sheik at a restaurant in Karachi and is kidnapped by terrorists.
During the ensuing nine days before he is killed Mariane struggles with diplomats trying to have her husband released or just found to no avail. The demands of the terrorists are a bit too great even if our country did meet demands of terrorists.
The terrorists demanded the release of all Pakistan’s being held prisoner as well as the release of everyone in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the immediate withdrawal of US forces from Pakistan. After the death of Daniel Pearl the film goes on to show how US Diplomatic Security Service and officials tried to bring the terrorists to justice and who they did catch.
The film not only touches on the personal life of two reporters in the field being married and trying to cover the story of 9/11 and its after math but the political aspects of the kidnapping as well. They do get into the efforts of the fellow reporters, various agents and US Diplomats as they try their best to uncover what has happened and where Daniel has been taken.
Eventually they do discover his body that has been cut into pieces and bring it to the United States to be interred at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles California. The movie continues on with the efforts of the State Department to uncover the people behind the kidnapping and bring them to justice.
A Mighty Heart is a true story based on the actual kidnapping and events surrounding it and makes for a really good film. While the actual events have been speculated at on some points much of the film is true to the memoirs of reporter Mariane Pearl.
Angelina Jolie does an excellent job in a very tough role and does not bring the sexy hero type to the part but a real emotion filled and heartfelt performance. The film is worth seeing at least once and with the bonus content well worth purchasing but maybe not on Blu-ray.
The Blu-ray edition comes with a making of feature that is a 30 minute look at the behind the scenes filming and how they felt about the entire situation of the real events. The making of goes a lot into the situation as well as the real life people that were studied and even talked with by some of the actors when possible.
The film also includes a public service announcement from the Pearl Foundation and a feature from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The film does a great job of showing the need for journalism and journalists being able to cover important news around the world and how the world needs to let them report.
A Mighty Heart was filmed in a more grainy and neutral tone and left as that for the real world feel of the less than perfect video. The video was shot to give it a close and personal touch and they did an excellent job not only with how they filmed such as positioning of the cameras but the use of more neutral tones.
The audio is also very well done with some good music but there is also more background clutter type sound you get throughout the film that maybe annoying to some. With this added noise you get more of a feel that you’re actually in the type of setting the film is about instead of a film lot so it works well.
A Mighty Heart is a great film showing the problems that journalists have to bring the truth to the public even when some do not want it to be shown. The film was well made and they did an excellent job to recreate the mood and feeling of the situation for a well made film.
A Mighty Heart is a film that is worth viewing but the Blu-ray does not bring anything more than the DVD version in terms of quality or additional content.