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Man, this picture got a lot of bad press.

After struggling with the suits at most of the major film studios in Hollywood, Terry Gilliam was supposed to be aesthetically liberated with Tideland, a movie that gave the master director a chance to do exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it. The Brothers Grimm was a compromised, botched studio effort – and his first film since the ridiculously underrated Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – so Tideland was to bring the guy back into the fold.

Well, it didn’t work.

Tideland was shushed by both mainstream critics and the art house circuit, by critics who found its childish representations of drug use and implied pedophilia to be no laughing matter at all (Gilliam sure seems to think it’s funny). It languished as a paltry independent release last fall and seemed destined to fall into obscurity as Gilliam’s botched opportunity to rise to the occasion of full artistic control.

Not so fast, guys.

Like most people, I didn’t get to see Tideland in a theatre, but when this disc popped into my player, I have to tell you, the effects were staggering. Gilliam introduces the picture as something that some viewers will hate and some (thankfully) will love, but he’s first to admit that it’s not the kind of movie that permits a passive interpretation. And that’s the genius of the film.

Basically, the film is a modern fairy tale told from the point of view of a young girl (Jodelle Ferland) who boils up heroin in the spoon for daddy and stomachs her mother’s methadone-inspired musings in an attempt just to stay alive. As mommy overdoses and daddy takes her away, her adventure takes on a mythic bent, as though she’s Alice falling through the looking glass of present-day drug-riddled counterculture. There’s a dead-eyed mortician on our protagonist’s path (a fantastic Janet McTeer) as well as a whole bunch of crazy, wonderful stuff that would be sinful for me to reveal here.

Don’t believe the bad vibes. If one approaches the film as Gilliam states – not just as a fairy tale, but as a fairy tale directed by an 8-year-old girl – it will blow your mind. I sat riveted at Gilliam’s fever-dream tale with mouth agape, constantly trying to figure out why this wasn’t heralded as a marvelously vitriolic new way of filmmaking. It’s as close as anything I’ve seen to being a true morality tale for the TiVo generation. Again, if you hate it, you’ll know within five minutes (that much is certain), but as far as this writer is concerned, Tideland is the real deal – a film that blows the roof off of convention in a fantastic and otherworldly fashion.

It’s destined to become a classic.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Okay. Here’s the story to the best of my knowledge. Tideland was shot in Super 35 with spherical optics and the distribution prints were 2.35:1 widescreen anamorphic. When Terry Gilliam submitted the film’s transfer to ThinkFilm for DVD release, he changed things a bit; he opened up the image from 2.35:1 to 2.25:1. Are you with me so far? Well, here’s the bitch of it. ThinkFilm did not release the film on DVD in his submitted format. They further opened up the film’s image and present it filling the 16x9 anamorphic video frame, so the DVD is presented in 1.78:1. Consequently, the studio took unreasonable liberties with his compositions.

On the plus side, typical of Gilliam on DVD, black levels are spot on, color accuracy is clear and clean to a point, and contrast is well maintained and presented. But the point remains: this is not Tideland as the director meant it to be seen.

The good news is that ThinkFilm has announced plans to re-release the film on DVD later this year. The bad news is that they’ll re-release it in its theatrical widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is still not the format Gilliam wants the film to have in the home entertainment world. Ugh.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix simply isn’t as enveloping as I was hoping. Not that anything here sounds bad – dialogue is presented clearly and with appropriate fidelity – but surround channels and the usually Gilliam-active .1 LFE channel are not given the workouts they typically get. The film’s musical score comes across beautifully, and there are enough well-timed and excellently exploited sound cues to keep even casual listeners engaged. This mix is good, but not great.

Also included is an English Dolby Surround 2.0 mix and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

We start with a slam-dunk introduction to the film by Gilliam himself; that should do wonders for the film’s naysayers and those supposed Gilliam-heads who think the master is off his rocker with this one. There is an equally riveting screen-specific audio commentary by Gilliam and co-screenwriter Tony Grisoni. Anyone who doesn’t have an exceptional affinity for the movie may find this pair’s musings on why the public and the critics were wrong to discard it to be pretentious and holier-than-thou. But considering that this writer thought the film was the bee’s knees, I was happy to hear more about Gilliam’s and Grisoni’s uphill battle against the movie machine.

Disc two is where the rest of the goodies lie. We start with a lovely documentary – Getting Gilliam – that comes with an optional commentary by Gilliam and the documentary’s director, Vincenzo Natali (the commentary’s overkill, but the doc is really something). We then have some featurettes – The Making of Tideland (5:30), and Filming Green Screen (3:00) – and a handful of interviews (with Gilliam and producer Jeremy Thomas). Last are five deleted scenes (with Gilliam commentary) and the film’s trailer.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.