Search - Songcatcher on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG-13 Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Adult Situations Movie Release: 2000 DVD Release: 10/23/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 49 mins Studio: Lions Gate Members Wishing: 12 Genres: Drama, Period Film, Rural Drama See Also: Songcatcher [Signature Series]

Janet McTeer follows up her Oscar-nominated performance in Tumbleweeds (1999) with this period drama set during the 1910s. Dr. Lily Penleric (McTeer), an uptight musicologist, is furious after getting denied tenure again at an elite all-male East Coast university. She promptly quits out of protest, and having nowhere else to go, she joins her sister in a remote mountain school. Her high-minded, refined ways quickly clash with the locals, yet her academic interests are peaked when she realizes that this bucolic mountain culture is thoroughly infused with music that harkens back to traditional English and Scottish folk ballads. After retrieving some tools, including a primitive recording device, from the East Coast, she sets out collecting songs. The locals react with a mixture of amusement, bafflement, and suspicion. Meanwhile, a mining company is strong-arming the impoverished residences into selling their coal-rich land for a pittance. Lily soon realizes that the culture she's seeking to preserve is quickly being torn asunder. Aidan Quinn and David Patrick Kelly also appear in this film, which was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Janet McTeer - Dr Lily Penleric
Aidan Quinn - Tom Bledsoe
Pat Carroll - Viney Butler
Jane Adams - Elna Penleric
Gregory Cook - Fate Honeycutt
Emmy Rossum - Deladis Slocumb

Maggie Greenwald's atmospheric Songcatcher comes to DVD with a widescreen transfer that, though not anamorphic, does preserve the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1. English, Spanish, and French subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a commentary track from various members of the cast and crew, a behind-the-scenes featurette, a theatrical trailer, and a music-only track that highlights the film's distinctive musical performances. The film may have failed to reach a wide portion of the moviegoing public, but this DVD does everything it can to rectify that situation. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide