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The Others (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) |  | Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Actors: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann, James Bentley
Studio: Dimension
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $6.49
as of 9/10/2010 21:45 CDT details
You Save: $8.50 (57%)
New (52) from $3.15
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  739 reviews
Sales Rank: 3014
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Discs: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 02416800
UPC: 786936166552
EAN: 0786936166552
ASIN: B00003CYLJ
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
Release Date: May 14, 2002
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
OTHERS, THE (2001)
Amazon.com essential video
A welcome throwback to the spooky traditions of Jack Clayton's The Innocents and Robert Wise's The Haunting, Alejandro Amenábar's The Others favors atmosphere, sound, and suggestion over flashy special effects. Set in 1945 on a fog-enshrouded island off the British coast, the film begins with a scream as Grace (Nicole Kidman) awakens from some unspoken horror, perhaps arising from her religiously overprotective concern for her young children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). The children are hypersensitive to light and have lived in a musty manor with curtains and shutters perpetually drawn. With Grace's husband presumably lost at war, this ominous setting perfectly accommodates a sense of dreaded expectation, escalating when three strangers arrive in response to Grace's yet-unposted request for domestic help. Led by housekeeper Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), this mysterious trio is as closely tied to the house's history as Grace's family is--as are the past occupants seen posthumously posed in a long-forgotten photo album. With her justly acclaimed performance, Kidman maintains an emotional intensity that fuels the film's supernatural underpinnings. And while Amenábar's pacing is deliberately slow, it befits the tone of penetrating anxiety, leading to a twist that extends the story's reach from beyond the grave. Amenábar unveiled a similarly effective twist in his Spanish thriller Open Your Eyes (remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky), but where that film drew debate, The Others is finely crafted to provoke well-earned goose bumps and chills down the spine. --Jeff Shannon
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 Fantastic Movie - Disappointing Blu Ray July 7, 2010
J. Michael Denton (Charlotte, NC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Others is a favorite movie of mine and many reviews here appropriately laud the movie. It's one that I come back to time and time again, so I was excited to see it out on Blu-Ray. While the video is appropriately stunning on blu, the audio I found very lacking. I had to turn my surround sound volume up much higher than any other blu rays or dvds I've ever played. It is a quiet movie, but it was just hard to hear.
The lack of any type of real menu - there are audio options only that pop up in movie - is a major flaw for any blu-ray disc. Although you can skip scenes with the remote, you cannot select a scene, since there is no menu. Scene selection is a standard feature for any disc almost since the first dvd. I personally also don't like the movie just starting up when I pop in the disc, but that's a minor quibble.
To have no other features - nothing in the way of behind-the-scenes, making of, interviews, commentary, not even the theatrical trailer (also pretty standard now) - for such a fine film is surprising and highly unfortunate. If any movie deserves such attention, this one does.
To reiterate, the movie is fantastic and well worth the $10 dollars I paid from a third party seller. Had I paid more (especially the $33 that Amazon is asking for), I would have been angry given the lack of even the most standard of features.
 The Ultimate Ghost Story July 6, 2010
R. Schultz (Chicago)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Atmospheric, brooding, eerie - this movie is all that and more. "The Others" isn't filled with shocking emanations. Actual scares are few and far between. You'll realize the haunted nature of this house isolated on one of the Channel Islands just after World War II - more by soft, suggestive steps.
When Nicole Kidman's character explains that her children are photosensitive and have to be shut away from all natural light - the scene is set for flickering candlelight and dark corners. But it isn't all these elements of the classic ghost story that make "The Others" memorable. It's the brilliant way it's all wrapped up.
There isn't a lot of essential material on the separate "Extras" disc that comes with this Collector's Edition. The only feature I found to be really interesting is the mini-documentary about photosensitivity, a rare condition whose medical name is "Xeroderma Pigmentosum." A family that has a child living with the condition explains the lifestyle adjustments that they've made to accommodate the condition. One of the most helpful things they've done is to get their children in touch with other children who have the condition. They gather from all over periodically and have, not a day camp - but a night camp. They learn to appreciate the beauties of the night - as the characters in this outstanding movie must.
Excellent movie - pretty good blu-ray... June 25, 2010
DMA (Dallas, TX United States)
To clarify, I would give the movie itself 5/5 stars while the blu-ray would get 3.75/5 stars. As for the movie, I think The Others is a very atmospheric, intelligent ghost story, with solid performances and a well-written story. I highly recommend watching the blu-ray version; though an American studio will eventually bring the film to the blu-ray medium, this Canadian version will suffice -- I recommend purchasing it from one of the Marketplace sellers to take advantage of better pricing.
As far as this blu-ray transfer (1080i/DD/DTS) goes, I found it to be pretty solid overall. It suffers somewhat from telecine "jitter" and a few artifacts, but the colors are rich, and the contrast and sharpness are quite good. This is a very dark film, and the blacks are inky, but the shadows still reveal a good deal of detail. As some reviewers have noted, there is no menu, but the "pop-up" menu button on my remote brought up the Audio selection menu, and chapters can be browsed by using the "|<<" and ">>|" buttons. When I compared this blu-ray to the DVD version I already had, I was stunned at how much better the blu-ray is! If you can find this blu-ray at a good price, I recommend it -- I would also recommend watching it in the dark with a good surround system (set on the DTS soundtrack); you might not want to watch alone, though! ;)
Excruciatingly haunting (I mean that in a good way)... June 1, 2010
Andrew Ellington (I'm kind of everywhere)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Once `The Sixth Sense' opened to major critical acclaim back in 1999 it seemed that there was a sudden rush of `ghost films' making their way to your local theater. Some of them failed miserably to capitalize on what made `The Sixth Sense' so remarkable and groundbreaking. And then there were a select few that just got it right.
`The Others' is one of those few.
Now, working off of my last review for `Planet of the Apes' where I showed a negative example of `suffering' through the same film twice in a row; I actually saw `The Others' in the theater twice in the same day as well. Yes, I had a lot of time to kill back in 2001 (apparently). I also worked in the mall, so when I got off work I moseyed over to the theater (right around the corner from the store I worked in) and picked a flick to watch. After watching `The Others' I was moved to call my friends and recommend they see it. I was lucky enough to accompany them.
This movie still gives me shivers today.
I think what makes `The Others' so compelling is the way it uses the genre clichés to its benefit. There is a lot going on here that is `standard' so-to-speak when you consider the genre, but this film manages to make it all work for it in a way that appears fresh and new to us. The scares may be familiar (loud stomping in the dark) but this film pulls it off flawlessly. The mood is beautifully set, with sets that are genuinely creepy without ever `trying to hard' to accomplish something. The direction is sharp and the attention to detail is stellar here, actually building tension with every slipping frame.
And then there is the acting.
A lot of my friends consider Nicole Kidman's performance in `The Others' to actually be better than her Oscar nominated performance in `Moulin Rouge!' It's hard for me to judge really, since they are so different, but truth be told that 2001 was a great year for Nicole. She brilliantly captures the whole essence of this character, flawlessly exhibiting the right amount of chilled desolation needed to bring us into her shoes. I also really enjoyed the young actors here, Alakina Mann and James Bentley. They really understood the layers their characters needed to appear relatable and engaging.
And Fionnula Flanagan is just brilliantly creepy.
One thing I really LOVED about this film was the surprise ending that I NEVER SAW COMING. There is a lot to be said about a twist ending that catches the viewer off guard without ever appearing to be forced or manipulated or preposterous. This twist may even be better and more shocking than the one presented in `The Sixth Sense'!
Just watch this movie; and then watch it again.
A cinematic masterpiece and a fascinating existential puzzle April 22, 2010
Juha K. Tapio (Oulu, Finland)
Please note: As I have seen only the one-disc version of this movie, this review concerns only the movie, not the extras.
The Others is perhaps the finest psychological horror movie ever made. It is NOT your usual kind of ghost story. It is a ghost story as Kafka might have written it.
Everything here is perfect: the acting, the screenwriting, the dialogue, the camerawork. Nicole Kidman performs her greatest movie role yet (besides her acting Virginia woolf in The Hours, another masterpiece). The child actors are very good, and so are everyone else in this movie. There are nice touches all over. To mention only one: when Grace exhibits her anxiety that there is something wrong in the house to the elderly housekeeper, the woman drily remarks: "There isn't an answer to everything." Bear that in mind when watching the rest of the movie...
The ending is especially horrifying if you consider it from the main characters' point of view. When you reach that point in the movie, ask yourself the question: in what kind of a situation the main characters are? Is the ending happy or sad? Both? Neither? In my opinion, this masterpiece of a film is entirely beyond such easy dichotomies.
Sure, the film has a twist ending; but that is not to say that once you know the ending, you know all there is to learn about this movie. The Others is a film that can be watched many times with much enjoyment. Watching it the second, third or fourth time brings into play an element of "romantic irony", as you by then know more about the characters than the characters themselves...
As a classical music fan, I'm also fascinated by the soundtrack, which was actually composed by the director himself! This music really works, adding wonderful atmosphere to the scenes the way only the best film music can.
After directing this perfect gem, I sincerely wish that Alejandro Amenabar has not exhausted his creativity, but will give us more splendid films to admire also in the future. He certainly is a name to watch.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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