Reaction to Oliver Stone’s ambitious examination of all aspects professional football was, like that to virtually all of the director’s films, wildly mixed. While were able to enjoy the energy and entertainment value of the piece, others found it too loud and frenetic, not to mention overlong. Warner Bros.’Any Given Sunday DVD offers support for both arguments–as soon as you pop it into your player. The hyperactive animated menus, set to a hard-driving rock score, perfectly reflect the frenzied feel of the film–which the sparkling visual and audio transfer perfectly captures; the sound give the many hard hits on the football field a memorable impact.
There isn’t a commentary track with Stone on the disc, but he does leave an added mark in another way–the only version of the film on the DVD (and on regular VHS, for that matter) is an expanded director’s cut that runs a few minutes longer and, hence, a few minutes closer to the three-hour mark. The film isn’t any better in its longer form, for the added footage is simply unnecessary (did we really need more screen time for Elizabeth Berkley’s call girl character?). To Warner Bros.’ credit, however, the chapter stops listing on the box and in the menus note which sections include the restored footage.
The other major supplements are a music video by co-star LL Cool J and a making-of featurette (read: glorified infomercial) that originally aired on HBO during the film’s theatrical run. While the extra features are mostly wanting, overall the disc is very well-produced and a handsome edition of a solid film.
Specifications: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen; English 5.1 Surround; English and French subtitles; English closed captioning.
