Flatliners

Summary

“Today is a good day to die.”

This year has been pretty kind to the filmmaking career of Joel Schumacher. The director died in 2020 at the age of 80, but his most popular films were made in the Eighties and Nineties. I was a big fan of Schumacher’s work growing up, and I still love his best work. This month finds two of his most popular films arriving on 4K UHD within weeks of each other – Arrow Video has released Flatliners and Warner Bros. has released The Lost Boys. I was lucky enough to watch both of those releases over the course of the last couple nights. I had grown up watching The Lost Boys on television when it aired, but for some reason or other I had missed out on Flatliners. I was always aware of the film, but had never watched it. I was excited to watch the film the other night. Having now seen the film in the prior Blu-ray format and the new 4K UHD format from Arrow, the Arrow UHD is the only way to really experience the film.

Medical student Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland) convinces his fellow medical students – David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Rachel Mannus (Julia Roberts,) Joe Hurley (William Baldwin,) and Randy Steckle (Oliver Platt) – to meet him back at the medical school later that night to conduct an experiment. Nelson wants to use medical techniques to achieve a status of brain death, or “flatlining,” in order to explore what lies on the other side. Labraccio has recently been suspended from the medical school for stepping in and saving a patient’s life during his practice hours without waiting for a doctor. Joe is set to marry his long term and long distance girlfriend Anne (Hope Davis,) but he has been sleeping around. Unbeknownst to the girls he seduces, he is secretly filming them when they have sex. Rachel works with elderly patients and interviews patients that have had “near death” experiences. She has her own reasons for being curious about what happens when people die. Randy wants to be a famous surgeon and is trying to document his life through audio recordings. While the students are hesitant to help Nelson with his experiment, they all borrow equipment from the school, and meet in an abandoned wing of the school that is being restored. They proceed to help Nelson flatline while Joe films the experiment. Labraccio is meant to bring Nelson back. When Nelson flatlines for two moments, Nelson sees a moment from his past that was of great importance to him. He is brought back by his colleagues, and they all begin to jockey to be able to go under next. What they don’t realize about visiting the other side, is that their sins come back from the other side with them and must be dealt with.

Flatliners is an entertaining film that rides the line that separates plausibility and creativity pretty closely. The script has an excellent central idea that is intriguing and full of promise. Who doesn’t want to see the other side with their own eyes? What if someone could medically induce death, be resurrected, and live to tell the tail? Unfortunately, some (not all) of the writing probably comes across better on paper than when visualized (this is particularly the case with Nelson’s violent sin, but there are a couple sequences that fail to land the desired effect.) I think that this is a case where warts-and-all the film largely works, but there are moments in the film that work better than other moments. There are some moments that simply fail to work. I think the strongest sequences in the film revolve around the character of Rachel and her unresolved childhood trauma. These scenes are very well done. Schumacher and Jan de Bont create an atmosphere in those scenes that is sufficiently eerie and unsettling. Like I said, despite the moments that destroy plausibility, the good outweighs the bad and the audience will want to see how the film resolves.

A lot of the reason the film works is due to the direction of Joel Schumacher. He had a strong cinematic eye and as a director he could make an interesting premise look much more interesting. In Flatliners, the cinematography was performed by the great Jan de Bont. De Bont cut his teeth on films like Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, and Basic Instinct before directing the mega-hits Speed and Twister. Working with Schumacher, they navigated a wide gambit of color schemes to create a visually enticing film. I love the way that Schumacher and de Bont focused on the Gothic architectural elements available to them in Chicago. The film looks great. I think that the well crafted visuals have kept the film relevant with fans for over thirty years. It may be a little bit of style over substance, but when the visuals are that interesting, I tend to hold my complaints. Experiencing those visuals in 4K UHD really brings them to the next level. Any fan of the picture owes it to themselves to see it in this new format.

Flatliners has a great cast. Kiefer Sutherland is well cast in the role of Nelson, but I like Kiefer in pretty much everything. He had already worked with Schumacher on The Lost Boys, and he has no trouble delivering a fine performance. Kevin Bacon does solid work in the role of Labraccio. He carries the role with charm. Julia Roberts is likable in one of her earliest roles as Rachel. Her sequences in the film work the best, and she gives her role convincing depth. I like Oliver Platt in the film, but his role is underwritten (he doesn’t even get to flatline ever, which I thought was a cop-out.) William Baldwin is great casting for the role of Joe. His performance fits the character perfectly, but I don’t know how much of that was skill, and how much was based on just his general look. Either way, it works. Aside from the great cast, the film benefits from a really well done score by James Newton Howard. 

Overall – Flatliners has a great premise that it navigates somewhat haphazardly. It is not a perfect film, but the stylish direction, beautiful cinematography, and great cast keep the film afloat. I enjoyed checking it out, and if you plan to do so, the movie is immeasurably improved by viewing the film in 4K.

Video

Presented in Native 4K in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1, Flatliners looks absolutely wonderful in this UHD presentation. Arrow provided this detail in the booklet: “Flatliners was restored in 4K by Sony Pictures Entertainment, 4K scanning by Prasad Corporation, Burbank, from the 35mm Original Picture Negative. HDR color grading and conformity by colorist Sheri Eisenberg at Roundabout Entertainment, Santa Monica. Digital Image restoration by Prasad Corporation, India. Audio restoration was completed at Deluxe Audio SErvices, Hollywood, sourced from the original 35mm LCRS stereo magnetic tracks. Restoration supervised by Bill Karydes for SPE, with color approval by cinematographer Jan De Bont.“

Fans of the picture should be fairly blown away by how good the film looks in 4K. I watched the film in 1080p from the prior Blu-ray for comparison, and the differences between the new restoration in 4K and the old Sony Blu-ray are vast. Fine detail is excellent with very well resolved grain. Jan de Bont’s colorful cinematography was made to be seen in HDR. The HDR brings out the very best of the film’s colorful palette, and lends a much better viewing experience than could have ever been achieved before. Joel Schumacher would surely be proud of the new transfer and color approval by Jan. I can’t imagine the film looking any better than it does here.

Audio

Arrow Video has presented a great sounding DTS-HD MA 5.1 track alongside a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track has a good amount of surround activity and felt pretty immersive to me. The film’s dialogue comes through very clearly, and James Newton Hayward’s well orchestrated score sounded wonderful in this presentation. While an Atmos track would be a great addition, I was impressed with the current presentation. Fans should be pleased.

Supplements:

• Audio Commentary by critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
• The Conquest of Our Generation – this is an excellent new interview with screenwriter Peter Filardi. He delves into the motivations behind writing the screenplay and his working relationship with Joel Schumacher and Jan de Bont. 
• Visions of Light – a new interview with cinematographer Jan de Bont and chief lighting technician Edward Ayer. I love listening to cinematographers discuss their work, and this feature is well worth your time if you enjoy the colorful work done in the film. Jan de Bont talks through the advantages of working in Chicago and highlighting the gothic features of the city. Edward Ayer had worked with Jan on Die Hard and Black Rain prior to Flatliners and he discusses their work and the numerous techniques used on the film. I particularly liked the discussion of how they used pools of water to give movement to lighting backgrounds in the film.
• Hereafter – first assistant director John Kretchmer is interviewed here.
• Restoration – production designer Eugenio Zanetti and art director Larry Lundy are interviewed.
• Atonement – composer James Newton Howard and orchestrator Chris Boardman are interviewed.
• Dressing for Character – costume designer Susan Becker, who worked with Joel Schumacher on several films, is interviewed.
• Theatrical Trailer
• Image Gallery

Overall Scores:

Video – 5/5 

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements – 4.5/5

Overall – 4.5/5

Flatliners is an enjoyable film that has a few small issues in its writing that keep the film from fully living up to the potential of its premise. That said, this 4K UHD release by Arrow is the only way that I will ever watch this film in the future. Jan de Bont’s beautiful cinematography has never looked better than in this presentation. When I watched the film in regular HD, I was not completely blown away. I was focusing more on the story than on the absolutely amazing visuals, because the visuals truly need the help of HDR to bring them fully to life. Joel Schumacher would be immensely proud of the color approval performed by Jan de Bont for this release. Schumacher may be dead, but his vision of the film seems to be completely fulfilled here. Arrow’s UHD boasts a beautifully realized video transfer with some of the best use of HDR I have seen yet, and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is of high quality. Arrow has created some excellent new supplements for this release with wonderful interviews with key contributors to the film. Fans of the film should not hesitate to purchase this release, which should stand as the definitive way to view the film moving forward.