Surprisingly, while he does cover the casting of the leads (including the difficult process of find the appropriate actor for the role of Ray, which did go to Ray Liotta because he “scared the hell out of” Demme) he spends most of his time talking about the casting of the minor roles in the film, the film really presenting one of the more interesting assortment of extras I’ve ever seen. Max Frye confirms in his interview that Orion Pictures did make some “suggestions” about the ending.) He addresses the tone shifts in the film that proved to be a little much for audiences during its initial release, and then talks in detail about the casting. This film proved to be more fun for him since he had total control over it (though E. He talks about coming across the script and figuring it would make for an interesting production after the disappointment of his last film, Swing Shift, which was taken from him by the studio and reworked. The first feature, an interview with director Jonathan Demme, runs 33-minutes and has Demme recall the production of the film.

While I find the film a fun one it’s still a bizarre title to include in the collection, and it comes off more bizarre when you take into account the minuscule selection of supplements that have been included here, all of which barely total 45-minutes together and come off a little fluffy in the end. Though the film is still a product of its time and looks “80’s” the transfer gives the impression it could have been filmed yesterday.

The source materials are in excellent shape with only a few minor blemishes. The digital transfer didn’t present any artifacts of note, and the film’s grain structure looks natural and perfect.

Colour balance is excellent and despite a couple of minor moments where blacks can come off a tad crushed blacks still appear fairly deep. The film presents some wild and vibrant colours and they’re rendered perfectly here, displaying some magnificent reds and greens. Other than some long shots looking a little fuzzy in a couple of places the picture remains consistently sharp with excellent detail and definition, fine details coming through clearly. Presented in director Jonathan Demme’s preferred aspect ratio of 1.78:1, Criterion’s 1080p/24hz transfer delivers an absolutely stunning image. Even if this release is lacking in every other area there’s very little I can complain about with the high-def transfer that Criterion gives us.

Wild at heart blu ray review