By Steven Oby

Magnolia was released in 1999 and was Paul Thomas Anderson’s third effort in the major motion picture industry, following 1996’s Sydney and 1997’s Boogie Nights. Two criticisms plagued Magnolia’s reputation from the moment it was released: its length (a whopping 188 minutes) and its ending (which was, according to many, unrealistic). Magnolia was completely and utterly screwed over at the Academy Awards, being overlooked in the best picture category for the embarrassingly glorified American Beauty and the highly overrated Green Mile. I hate to approach this with a “my opinion is better than yours” attitude but Magnolia was, well, better.

THE MOVIE: Magnolia isn’t about what most modern movies are about. It isn’t about complicated plots or swerve endings or cheap laughs or excessive violence. Magnolia’s beauty comes in its message and its style. It’s bold and unafraid to simply lay itself out there and be what it is. There’s no stinging irony, no misconceptions. Characters are not judged, they’re observed. Magnolia is a story of raw emotion, of love lost, love gained, divine intervention, and paying for the sins of fathers. It’s a story of life.

The theme of the film is coincidence. In the opening, the audience is told three stories, all allegedly true, about strange coincidences. The beauty of this opening sequence is that it shows people completely engrossed in the unlikely irony of what’s happened to them, as if the universe revolves around them. This fits in perfectly with the characters to which we’re soon introduced, a bunch of self-obsessed nobodies who, 9 times out of 10, won’t be missed when they’re gone. Each character struggles with his or her own existence without a thought about the people around them; even when a character is trying to do good for another, it always becomes about them. When the fantastic finale arrives, it hits the characters like a ton of bricks; they’re shocked to learn that the world around them actually isn’t around them at all, but instead, they’re around it.

Magnolia is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the most talented filmmakers in the world today. While Anderson has an extremely bold style that cannot be ignored, some consider it (specifically Magnolia) pretentious. Maybe, but I think that’s kind of the point. The director doesn’t waste anybody’s time with the subtlety, because that’s not his way of doing things. He’s not afraid of judgment; Anderson exposes himself through his work in such a way that you either like it or you don’t, and if you don’t, that’s fine. This is as opposed to a film like American Beauty, which is so ridiculously ambiguous in its approach, you’ll spend half the movie trying to figure out whether you like it or not.

For the record, I absolutely, positively loathe American Beauty.

But back to the subject at hand: Anderson delivers a film of absolute beauty. Other art forms have the benefit of being beautiful in nature, but not film. It’s not very often that a film comes along that is truly beautiful, but Magnolia is beautiful in its appearance, in its message, and in its execution.

However, like most movies I enjoy, Magnolia isn’t for everybody. It’s not even for most people. Its length turns many off, but if you can make it from beginning to end and Magnolia reaches you on a personal level as it did for me, this will be one of your favorite movies of all time. Magnolia is a montage of human emotion, an amazing reflection of the world around us. One may say that Paul Thomas Anderson bites off a bit more than he can chew here; can’t say I completely disagree. The movie’s about life, a topic impossible to cover in its entirety in any one movie. However, PTA’s effort is valiant and if you take Magnolia for what it is instead of what it isn’t, you’ll see how truly great it is.

Rating: I’d love nothing more than to go ***** here but I can’t in good conscience due to the film’s lack of universal appeal. ****1/4.

THE VIDEO: The picture format anamorphic widescreen, as are about half of the DVD’s out there right now. The aspect ratio is 2.40 to 1, one of the highest I’ve ever seen, and can only be found on a very few DVD’s, making the picture quality absolutely beautiful. It helps that PTA shot the movie with such a quality picture in the first place. PTA’s vision comes through as nicely here as it did on the big screen, if not better.

Rating: *****, no doubt.

THE AUDIO: The sound is pretty standard for a DVD, not so say that's a bad thing. It’s rendered pretty pointless when Magnolia doesn’t even come close to making full use of the 5.2 Dolby Digital format until the final scene, and even then it’s not important. On the other hand, I wouldn’t expect anybody to dumb down the quality just because the film isn’t very sound-oriented.

Rating: Call it ***.

THE EXTRAS: Magnolia is a two-disc set where the entire second disc is dedicated solely to supplemental material. There’s the standard stuff (teasers, trailers, TV spots, et cetera) as well as a Frank T.J. Mackey seminar, a Mackey infomercial, the music video for Aimee Mann’s “Save Me” (the movie’s theme), as well as “Magnolia Diary,” a documentary about the making of Magnolia.

The Mackey seminar is an absolute work of art. The seminar is an entire sequence deleted from Magnolia that features Tom Cruise as Frank Mackey, the teacher of classes for middle-aged men who are unable to pick up women without a little guidance. The sequence runs roughly ten minutes and focuses on one particular lesson about making up sympathetic stories to be used to get into a lady’s pants. Had the sequence been used in Magnolia, there’s absolutely no question in my mind that Tom Cruise would’ve taken the Oscar for best supporting actor.

Rating: ***1/2. Still very good, but I’ve seen much better. (Fight Club, anyone?)

BOTTOM LINE: The average rating comes in at about ***3/4. Of course, if you don’t like the movie, it really doesn’t matter how good the rest of the DVD is, now does it? Recommended only if you’ve seen the movie and enjoyed it. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, rent it first.