The Missing

As a good ol' damsels-in-distress Western with picturesque frontier vistas, a handful of Winchester rifle shootouts, and enough character conflict to keep the long horse rides interesting, Ron Howard's sagebrush saga is reliable, if over-earnest, matinee fodder. Unfortunately, however, the director has his eye on the Oscar and strains the perfectly serviceable kidnap-and-rescue action plot in a pretentious attempt to ratchet up the prestige. Always riveting Cate Blanchett embodies frontier-woman stamina and tenacity as a widowed mom who enlists her estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones)--seeking redemption for abandoning his family 20 years before to live as an Apache--to help save her beautiful teenage daughter (Evan Rachel Wood, Thirteen) from a band of prostitute-enslaving Indian thugs led by a skin-crawlingly ominous medicine man mystic (Eric Schweig). The emotional texture of this father-daughter conflict is where Howard gets the idea that there's Academy Award material here; but while Jones' craggy visage and Blanchett's steely eyes speak volumes of their lifelong pain, The Missing remains at its core a genre flick--a mass-appeal thriller not unlike the director's 1996 Mel Gibson vehicle Ransom, retooled for the Old West. A strong optional purchase. [Note: Available in both widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras on this two-disc set include 11 deleted scenes, a “New Frontiers” “making of” (29 min.), featurettes on “The Last Ride: The Story of The Missing” (6 min.), The Modern Western Score” (5 min.), “Casting The Missing” (16 min.), and “Apache Language School” (6 min.), six “Ron Howard On…” segments (on topics such as “His Love for Westerns,” “John Wayne,” and “The Filmmaking Process”), three home movies by Howard, three minutes of outtakes, three alternate endings, photo galleries (cast, location, and production), a soundtrack spot, and trailers. Bottom line: although a commentary track is noticeably “missing” here, this is an otherwise solid extras package for a so-so Western psychological adventure.] (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review--November 30, 2004--Columbia TriStar, 137 min., R, $26.95--Making its second appearance on DVD, 2003's The Missing: Superbit boasts a slightly improved visual image and sharper audio (thanks to the Superbit process's higher bit rate for recording), but with the exception of the added DTS soundtrack most viewers won't notice much difference (especially since most of the extras in the original release were relegated to a second disc, leaving optimum space on the first disc for the film itself). Bottom line: if you already own the original two-disc edition, you won't need this unless you are specifically collecting Superbit titles for high-end cinemaphiles.][DVD Review—May 30, 2006—Sony, 154 min., not rated, $19.95—Making its third appearance on DVD, 2003's The Missing (Extended Cut) boasts an excellent transfer with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. New DVD bonus features for this release include 17 minutes of extended footage incorporated into the film, and an audio commentary by filmmaker Ron Howard. Bottom line: the one big addition here is the commentary track, but it's still a so-so film.]