The Hitcher

Although the film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, it is only anamorphic to 16:9 - a ridiculous state of affairs. The picture is very clear, apart from one scene in a dust storm, which is slightly blurry, but that may be the source material. The biggest problem is that the evening and night scenes are too dark and it becomes hard to see what's going on. Draw all your curtains and you'll be OK, but it's annoying.

The DTS 5.1 sound is brilliant; the gunshots, car crashes and explosions place you right in the action. The subtitles have no errors, but it should be noted that they are not available on any of the extras, which is somewhat disappointing.

There's no disappointment when it comes to the extras, however. Robert Harmon (director) and Eric Red (writer) make for one of the better feature-length commentaries I've come across, which never gets boring, or repetitive. The scene-specific commentaries with Harmon, Red, Rutger Hauer, Mark Isham (composer), John Seale (director of cinematography) and Edward S. Feldman (producer), are just as interesting. Particular mention should go to Isham's insights into composing The Hitcher's score, which are eloquent and informative, and could easily have sustained a full-length commentary.

How Do These Movies Get Made? is almost a continuation of the commentaries. Although it would be easy for the documentary and commentaries to repeat the same anecdotes and opinions, they are able to stay fresh and individual. Fans of The Hitcher have everything they could hope for here.

The two short films are extras in the true sense of the word. China Lake was used as a showcase to get The Hitcher made, and there are notable similarities between the two. The Room bears no similarity whatsoever, and is only included because of Rutger Hauer's involvement. Both are fine pieces of film-making, and are well worth watching. Wouldn't it be great if more DVDs had short films packaged with them, however irrelevant they are to the main feature?

The Hitcher is an excellent DVD, albeit with slight question marks over the print.