It isn’t all that rare these days for a studio to release a movie on DVD with little or no special features, but many Blu-ray owners feel that they should at least be rewarded with something other than enhanced video and sound for spending the extra cash. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. doesn’t feel the same way, because the Blu-ray release of “Pride and Glory” contains the same extras as its DVD counterpart. Even worse, the studio is apparently so ashamed of the lack of bonus material that it actually tries to hide it by having the movie start the minute you stick the disc in your player. No trailers to fast-forward through or menus to navigate.
How disappointing, because while there may only be one special feature to speak of, it’s better than the movie itself. Running just over an hour long, “Source of Pride” takes the traditional making-of featurette to a whole another level with a documentary that showcases the struggle director Gavin O’Connor went through in order to get his film made. From holding unconventional rehearsals (which co-star Noah Emmerich dubs “rewritings”) and casting bit roles days before they’re ready to shoot, the pre-production portion is so stressful that when filming begins, things really go to hell.
The script is in a constant state of flux, Nick Nolte must be recast at the last possible second with Jon Voight, and yes, Edward Norton is extremely difficult to work with. Apparently, all those stories about Norton being a pain in the ass were true – though O’Connor downplays the situation considerably by noting that his star actor is just really dedicated to the job. Meanwhile, an ending to the movie still hasn’t been written, and in fact isn’t written until the night before they’re scheduled to film the scene. Anyone that thinks making movies is easy, or wonders why “Pride and Glory” turned out so bad, needs to watch this documentary right away. It would have been nice to have some additional material to go along with it, but considering all of the trouble that the studio was put through during the making of the film, it isn’t at all surprising that they weren’t willing to front the cash to do so.
