'Rabbit-Proof' a great DVD pick

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 21, 2003 by Chris HicksDeseret News feature editor

A sad true story, a campy story somewhat based on truth and a ridiculous story that trashes a childhood fantasy figure are among the newest DVD releases:

-- "Rabbit-Proof Fence" (Miramax, 2002, PG-13, $29.99). The name player here is Kenneth Branagh, though his role is relatively small. But don't let that deter you; this true story is riveting, and the three child actors who play the lead roles are subtly affecting.

The story is true. It seems the Australian government once had a policy that required half-aborigine children to be taken from their mothers and integrated into "white" society. The children would be kept in an orphanage that seems more like a POW camp in the movie, and if any of them escaped, trying to get back home, they would be put into a hot box (not unlike the one "Cool Hand Luke" was continually thrown in).

But three young children decide to chance it, and they follow a fence the runs some 1,200 miles across the country (protecting one side from rabbit infestations). The film chronicles their adventures as they try to avoid police, an aboriginal tracker and anyone who might turn them in.

It's harrowing, sometimes humorous, always tragic and utterly compelling. The DVD documentary and audio commentary (by director Phillip Noyce, with help from several others), are also illuminating.

Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary, making-of documentary, etc.

Extras: Widescreen and full-screen options, audio commentary, deleted scenes, making-of documentary, etc.

-- "The Carpetbaggers" (Paramount, 1964, PG, $19.99). This glossy widescreen adaptation of the Harold Robbins best-seller is more high camp than high drama today, a thinly veiled . . . very thinly veiled . . . Howard Hughes biography (he's called Jonas Cord here), a soap opera set in the 1920s and '30s, focusing on his years in aviation and in Hollywood.

Bland George Peppard tries his best to bring some life to the character, but the supporting cast outshines him: Carroll Baker in the Jean Harlow role (called Rina Marlow here), Bob Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley and especially Alan Ladd, in his last film.

Enjoyable trash, or trashy nostalgia for baby-boomers like me.

Extras: Widescreen, etc.

-- "Darkness Falls" (Columbia/TriStar, 2003, PG-13, $26.95). Without having seen it, I made fun of "Darkness Falls" in a column written when the film debuted in theaters. After all, the Tooth Fairy is such an odd horror villain. But now that I've watched the movie . . . it's even worse than I imagined.

The story has a woman lynched in the 1800s by a mob that wrongly suspects her of killing a pair of children, so her ghost haunts the town over the next 150 years. Because she gave children gold coins when they lost their last baby teeth, she was nicknamed the Tooth Fairy. Now her ghost, wearing a porcelain mask, kills anyone who catches a glimpse of her. And maybe even if they don't.

Logic is not this film's strong suit . . . but then, neither is acting. Or directing. Or the screenplay. And you know you've embraced every horror clich when a cat jumps out and scares the female lead (but not the audience).

What's next, a killer Easter bunny?

E-MAIL: hicks@desnews.com