Audio commentary by Tom Tykwer and Singer, extended scenes/deleted scenes, “Making ‘The International’”, “Shooting at the Guggenheim”, “The Architecture of ‘The International’”, “The Autostatdt”, BD-Live Content (in the future), trailers

INTERPOL agent Louis Salinger (Owen)team up with D.A. Ellie Whitman (Naomi Watts) to uncover the conspiracies that exist within the banking industry. No, they aren’t looking for illegal or overpayments of bonuses at the taxpayer’s expense. Instead, Salinger is trying to find out who was behind the assassination of his partner. What Salinger and Whitman discover is a broad global conspiracy doing everything from illegally dealing in arms, trying to shape the policy of nations via assassinations and help control these nations via economic blackmail. Salinger plans to take them down by whatever means possible. ***

Tom Tykwer’s “The International” reminds me a bit of a modern day Hitchcock thriller the type of thriller that Hitchcock did in his sleep in the mid 1960’s. The film even has its own MacGuffin that, unlike a Hitchcock film, matters because it’s a combination of the modern thriller that is quite serious about its themes—the bank as shaping international policy via intimidation, murder and other means. Like Tykwer’s thriller “Run Lola Run” “The International” tackles a number of difficult themes that might play better on the page than on the screen. The good news is that Tykwer handles the action scenes extremely well and, in fact, it’s clear that he studied his Hitchcock and Spielberg well. ***

Image & Sound:

“The International” appears to be sounder than most banks with a very nice presentation on Blu-ray. Images are sharp, crisp and have exceptional depth. ***

Audio sounds terrific with a nice 5.1 TrueHD mix that compliments whatever action is occurring on screen.

We get a thoughtful commentary track by director Tom Tykwer along with screenwriter Eric Singer but neither one of them has an answer as to why banking executives got bonuses they didn’t deserve for running the economy into the ground and costing taxpayers millions. One demerit for missing the boat on that one but otherwise it’s a fine commentary track. ***

We also get a number of deleted scenes and while none of them truly illuminate the thriller (nor do they make the plot less convoluted or more exciting), they are nice to have. ***

“The Making of ‘The International’” is a standard making of featurette freely using footage from the film and talking heads that tell us how important the film is. I’d rather see the movie demonstrate that fact thank you. The good news is that you can watch this picture-in-picture while watching the movie killing two…banks with one idiotic executive much like the banking industry did in some cases. ***

“The Autostadt” focuses on the Volkswagen factory which also happens to be a major tourist attraction. It also doubled as the bank’s headquarters in the film. Weird…didn’t the Nazi’s used to drive VW’s during World War II prior to it becoming a major automobile manufacturer worldwide? ***

“The Architecture of ‘The International’” dovetails nicely with “The Autostadt” featurette about the bank’s fictional location. ***

We also get BD-Live Content that isn’t ready for prime time yet. Perhaps they’ll have interviews with real live bank executives who got their bonuses for running the banking industry into the ground. Maybe they’ll give us tips on how to get paid for ruining their business. I’m all hears since in the world I live in I don’t get a bonus if I don’t perform and show a major profit for the company. ---

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