Angel Heart [Special Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The time is the 1950s: seedy Brooklyn private eye Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired by shady Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to locate a pop singer who reneged on a debt. Harry ventures into Harlem, the first step of a Heart of Darkness-inspired odyssey. Each time Harry makes contact with someone who might know the singer's whereabouts, he or she is killed in a horrible, ritualistic fashion; a Satanic cult seems to be at the bottom of all the carnage. Harry solves the mystery, all right. He just didn't know that he had the answer all along -- even before Louis entered his office. Also available in the "unrated" video version, Angel Heart is best known as the film that nearly got an X-rating due to a no-holds-barred sex scene involving Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Soft-Matted WSE for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • cc
  • Newly remastered widescreen feature
  • 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital Sound
  • New interview and DVD introduction by director Alan Parker
  • New interview and selected scene commentary by Mickey Rourke
  • Vodoun Truths: A collection of new documentaries discussing the facts, history, and beliefs of Voodoo. Includes "New Orleans Voodoo Connection" (history of Voodoo in New Orleans); "Voodoo...the Truth" (a look at Voodoo in the media); "Dance as Worship" (the meaning of dance and music in Voodoo); "Voodoo Macumba Dance Ensemble" (authentic extended dance sequences); "Ashe!" (an informational look at the African Spirit Forces [Orisha] and some Voodoo Loa).
  • Original production behind-the-scenes footage
  • Original director commentary
  • Original production featurettes
  • Spanish and English subtitles

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Mickey Rourke - Harry Angel
       Robert De Niro - Louis Cyphre
       Lisa Bonet - Epiphany Proudfoot
       Charlotte Rampling - Margaret Krusemark
       Stocker Fontelieu - Ethan Krusemark
       Brownie McGhee - Toots Sweet
       Michael Higgins - Dr. Fowler
       Elizabeth Whitcraft - Connie
       Eliott Keener - Sterne
       Charles Gordone - Spider Simpson
       Dann Florek - Winesap
       Kathleen Wilhoite - Nurse
       Judith Drake - Izzy's WIfe
       Gerald L. Orange - Pastor John
       Peggy Severe - Mammy Carter
       Courtney Peldon

• Director:

  Alan Parker

• Producer:

  Alan Marshall, Elliott Kastner, Robert Dattila

• Screenwriter:

  William Hjortsberg

• Book Author:

  William Hjortsberg

• Screenwriter:

  Alan Parker

• Cinematographer:

  Michael Seresin

• Composer (Music Score):

  Trevor Jones

• Featured Music:

  Gus Arnheim

• Songwriter:

  Sunny Clapp, Anthony Evans

• Featured Music:

  Arthur Freed

• Songwriter:

  Eddie Green

• Featured Music:

  Abe Lyman & Band

• Songwriter:

  Brownie McGhee

• Featured Music:

  Spencer Williams

• Editor:

  Gerry Hambling

• Production Designer:

  Brian Morris

• Art Director:

  Armin Ganz, Kristi Zea

• Executive Producer:

  Mario Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna

• Set Designer:

  Robert Franco, Leslie Pope

• Costume Designer:

  Aude Bronson-Howard

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Danny Michael, Steve Maslow

• Makeup:

  David Forrest, Robert Laden, Carla White

• Special Effects:

  J.C. Brotherhood

• First Assistant Director:

  Ric Kidney

• Camera Operator:

  Michael Roberts

• Stunts:

  Harry Madsen, Shirley Walker, Jeff Ward, Webster Whinery, Roy Thomas

• Choreography:

  Louis Falco

• Casting:

  Billy Hopkins, Risa Bramon

REVIEW:

• Always teetering on the edge of perversity, Angel Heart polarized audiences and critics; the squeamish considered it dehumanizing drivel, the unflappable applauded its daring. The truth is somewhere in between. Alan Parker's graphic forays into amorality do often seem to exist primarily for their shock value, including -- but by no means limited to -- the famous sex scene between Lisa Bonet and Mickey Rourke. But the clever script more than redeems its seedier elements by the close, making Angel Heart more like an extension of Parker's fascination with mental torture (following Midnight Express and Pink Floyd: The Wall) than the kind of sleazy late-night noir that would soon become synonymous with Rourke. At the brief height of his career, Rourke radiates the mounting hysteria of a man caught in purgatory, surrounded and eventually engulfed by sadistic evil. By the time he pieces together the mystery, the audience has walked in his shoes enough to absorb his emotional outpouring. Although the "look what I can do" quality of Parker's envelope-pushing will never agree with everyone, Angel Heart does offer rewards to those viewers willing to penetrate its grisly surface. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi