Search - Krippendorf's Tribe on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG-13 Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Adult Humor Movie Release: 1998 DVD Release: 06/04/2002 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 34 mins Studio: Walt Disney Video Members Wishing: 14 Genres: Comedy, Farce, Comedy of Errors

Todd Holland directed this Charlie Peters adaptation of Frank Parkin's novel. Respected anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) and his wife, Jennifer (Barbara Williams), bring their three children along during their failed search in New Guinea for a lost tribe. After Jennifer's death, James reaches a zero point back in the U.S., having spent all his foundation grant money raising the kids as a single parent. Scheduled to lecture at a college and fearful he could be charged with misuse of grant funds, James concocts an imaginary tribe, the Shelmikedmu, and fakes a 16 mm "documentary" film, casting his children as tribe members and editing in footage of a legit New Guinea tribe. Anthropologist Veronica Micelli (Jenna Elfman) contacts cable-TV producer Henry Spivey (David Ogden Stiers), forcing James to continue creating fraudulent footage as the rival Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) gets suspicious. It seems a shame this racially insensitive film was made, while the once-announced plans to film anthropologist Kenneth Good's nonfiction -Into the Heart (Simon & Schuster, 1991) never led to a production. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Richard Dreyfuss - James Krippendorf
Jenna Elfman - Veronica Micelli
Natasha Lyonne - Shelly
Gregory Smith - Mickey
Carl Michael Lindner - Edmund

Todd Holland directs Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss in the comedy Krippendorf's Tribe, which comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that fails to preserve the original theatrical aspect ratio. The English soundtrack is impressively rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1. There are no subtitles, but the soundtrack is closed-captioned. There are no supplemental materials of any consequence. This is a bare-bones release from Disney/Buena Vista that, due to the lack of a widescreen transfer, is difficult to recommend to the average DVD consumer. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide