I first saw Primal Fear in the year 1996 and went in knowing nothing about it. It didn’t take long for me to get wrapped up in the movie and newcomer Edward Norton’s performance. Near the movie’s end, I felt I was hit with a steel bat across the face at it’s the first movie I can remember seeing with such an effective twisted ending. The marvelous ending and the performance by Edward Norton makes this movie an instant classic. Luckily, Paramount is releasing a special edition of the movie on Blu-ray called the Hard Evidence Edition. I’ve seen this movie on DVD a bunch of times and was delighted to re-visit it years later on Blu-ray.
In Primal Fear, Martin Vail (Richard Gere) is a famous defense lawyer who sets out to defend Aaron
(Edward Norton) who has just been accused of killing an Archbishop. Aaron tells Vail that he doesn’t remember anything except blacking out. Vail, becomes convinced that Aaron is innocent. However, it is soon discovered that Aaron suffers from multiple personality disorder and that he killed the Archbishop after blacking out and becoming the angry, aggressive Roy. Vail now sets up the court to declare his client insane and the director sets the audience up for a twist.
Watching this movie back in 1996 was a real joy and discovering Norton’s performance felt like something special. The movie on its own is good and effective, but Edward Norton’s performance takes it to the next level. Which is why it is without question that Norton got his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. Cuba Gooding ended up winner that year for his performance in Jerry Maguire.
The picture looks good on Blu-ray High-definition, but suffers from looking a bit soft and flat. However it does look a lot better than the DVD version. The disc also contains a bunch of extra features including The Final Verdict-where producer Luccheis speaks about keeping the ending of the book, Casting Edward Norton-a delightful interview with Norton and his experience during the casting, and The Psychology of Guilt-a feature discussing the insanity defend and multiple personality disorder.
Review By Brad Peterson
Release Date: March 10, 2009
