It’s absolutely no secret that I loved Cloud Atlas during its theatrical release. The proof is in my lengthy review. I loved the audacity that directors Tom Tykwer and Andy & Lana Wachowski had to even try to bring this story to the screen. Based on David Mitchell’s novel, Cloud Atlas tells six stories in six eras from the distant past to the far-flung future. In the book, Mitchell wrote the stories separately and then chopped them in half at a cliffhanger point so that the reader read the first half of each story before getting to the second half.

The film is much more tricky than that — and it’s fun to see Lana Wachowski feign anger at Mitchell in one of the bonus features on the Blu-ray when he mentions how easy it was to cut the stories in half — only giving you bits and pieces of each story over the course of the film’s nearly three hour running time. It all sounds to be a bit confusing, and as the film opens and basically throws a piece of each story at you, you may feel hopelessly lost. But stick with it! You will see how things come into focus and how each story is linked by various objects, most notably a comet-shaped birthmark, a diary, a book, and some love letters. There are actually more things that tie the stories together that may not be seen on first viewing, but Cloud Atlas is a film that demands repeat viewings and it can be fun to pick out things like an article of clothing that appears on different characters throughout the film (it reminds me a bit of the jade ashtray that made an appearance in each segment of the classic horror film Creepshow, but on a much grander scale).

The new Blu-ray from Warner Home Video presents Cloud Atlas in a very sharp, colorful 1080p high definition transfer. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix also represents the film nicely, giving nice directionality to voices and sound effects while allowing the subwoofer to rumble appropriately. While the film presentation is a huge selling point, I was very eager — even after seeing the movie for the first time — to get some real depth from the filmmakers in the disk’s bonus features. While there is some nice input from the directors, crew and actors, the bonus material left me wanting more … like perhaps an audio commentary with the film. As it is, the Blu-ray contains seven Focus Points (about 55 minutes) that you can watch individually or all together. They include:

• A Film Like No Other (7:15) — The actors, directors and crew talk about the logistics of mapping out a schedule to shoot the film, and the challenges of filming six different stories with actors playing six different characters in six different time periods. (Blu-ray and DVD)
• Everything Is Connected (8:00) — The directors, author and stars talk about the various ways each story is connected, and how the actors’ characters are also connected from one era to another. (Blu-ray only)
• The Impossible Adaptation (9:07) — The directors and author David Mitchell (who also appears in the movie) talk about the book’s structure and how that was applied to the film, and how the comet birthmark is meant to signify a character’s reincarnation. (Blu-ray only)
• The Essence of Acting (7:20) — The actors discuss the process, the fun and the privilege of playing different characters. (Blu-ray only)
• Spaceships, Slaves & Sextets (8:08) — A look at how one story builds to the next, creating a single story instead of six separate ones. We also see that not only did actors play multiple roles, but sets, costumes and music also carried through each story. David Mitchell sees the book as being made of Legos which the directors took apart and re-assembled. (Blu-ray only)
• The Bold Science Fiction of Cloud Atlas (7:14) — A look at creating the film’s sci-fi elements and how they mesh with the present and past eras of the story. (Blu-ray only)
• Eternal Recurrence: Love, Life and Longing in Cloud Atlas (7:39) — A look at the complicated love stories that inform characters from one era to the next and even back again. (Blu-ray only)

There is some insight into the film and the process, but I wanted to know more about the film. Perhaps the directors want us to figure it all out for ourselves. Either way, I still love the movie, I love going back and seeing new things and marveling at what actor was playing which character in each story (and they are very often so unrecognizable that even the cast had no clue who they may have been saying hi to as they exited the make-up room). It all may end up being too obtuse for its own good and the real meaning of the story can never be totally unraveled, but having the video version of the film now gives us all a chance to see what else we can discover in the Cloud Atlas. (And you can see even more at the film’s official YouTube page.)

Cloud Atlas is now available as a two-disk Blu-ray/DVD Combo and a single disk DVD (both include Ultraviolet digital copy), and is also available as a digital download for various devices. This review is based on a retail copy of the Combo package provided to CliqueClack by Warner Home Video.

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Once in a great while, there comes a movie that defies description. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes it’s a bad thing. In the case of Cloud Atlas, it’s not only a good thing but an extraordinarily good thing. That’s not to say that the movie will be something everyone will enjoy, but anyone who really appreciates audacious film-making should appreciate every single moment in the film.

The problem with the movie, though, is that it really is unreviewable. But again, that’s a really good thing in this case because there is so much going on during the film’s nearly three hour running time that it would be impossible to boil it all down to a few paragraphs. Cloud Atlas is a movie that must be talked about after seeing it. Too many movies (pretty much anything that comes out of the Hollywood studio machine) are enjoyed in the moment and mostly forgotten almost by the time you’ve walked back to your car. Cloud Atlas definitely is not one of those films.

In the simplest of descriptions, Cloud Atlas — based on the novel by David Mitchell — spans a historical period of time of about 500 years from 1849 to 2321. In 1849, we meet a young man involved in a slave trade deal with his father-in-law. In 1936, a young composer leaves his lover to work for a famous composer in the hopes of honing his own musical skills. In 1973, a reporter is about to blow the lid off of a cover-up involving safety violations at a nuclear power plant in San Francisco. In 2012, a publisher finally hits it big when his client writes a terrible book, but throws an offending critic off of a penthouse balcony and then has to hide out when the author’s “friends” come to collect the money he’s due. In 2144, a young woman learns the shocking truth about herself and the life she was “born” in to. And in 2321, civilization has fallen and become tribal and quite dangerous for some.

But how do these stories tie together? Do these stories tie together? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. What I found so amazing while watching the film was that each segment in each era seemed to be tied together at the edit point by some connecting piece of material — a door, a sound, someone speaking — so that it never feels disjointed. The whole concept of jumping from era to era never feels pretentious either. With some films, you can tell that the director is just trying way too hard to get some Oscar recognition with his style, and I never felt that the Wachowskis or Tom Tykwer (the film’s co-directors) were ever sacrificing the story for their concept. Why they chose to take the stories from the book, which are unbroken and in chronological order, and present them as intertwining is another question, but the result was a success.

Thinking back on the film a few days after seeing it, and after talking with others who have seen it, you start to put the pieces together … at least as much as you can with a single viewing. You start to ask yourself what the film was about, and to me, it’s about taking a stand against something and doing the right thing. In the 1849 segment, slavery is the issue. In 2144, it’s also about a kind of slavery, and you can see in the other segments that slavery or some sort of bondage is a theme. It’s also interesting to note that the printed word also ties each era to the other — a journal, love letters, a novel. Look closely and you’ll see these things occur from one era to the next. Of course, the comet-shaped birthmark is also a linking device, but whether it signifies some relationship between characters in each era (and none of them seem to have any kind of blood relationship), the idea of reincarnation, or just a divine occurrence is something that may become clearer with repeat viewings. The power of love is also a very prominent theme in each era, and some love stories end happily; others tragically. Even though I’m still not 100% sure as to what the whole meaning of the film is, I still felt a wave of emotion come over me by the end of the movie.

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