For movie fans everywhere, this week will no doubt be all about David Fincher’s adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, staring Daniel Craig as journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as everybody’s favourite computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. The buzz is strong on this film, as Fincher filmed in Sweden and had the Oscar-winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross come up with the moody soundtrack. Regardless of how good the film is, it will have a lot to live up to, as the original cinematic version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is brilliant stuff.
This version stars Michael Nyqvist as Mikael and the amazing Noomi Rapace as Salander – she’s the real reason to watch this film or the other two in the series, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. All three have been rereleased on DVD and Blu-Ray in their original mini series format as Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy Extended Editions, which means there’s much more to all of them than what we originally received in theatres.
In the case of Dragon Tattoo, that is a huge plus for an already stellar film, as the version that first played North American theatres and was released on DVD was missing lots of subplots and character development. In this version, along with the other two films, the content has been split into part 1 and part 2, as it was originally broadcast on Swedish tv. Each part is 90 minutes long, which gives North American viewers almost an hour of previously unseen footage. Mikael and Erica Berger’s relationship is expanded, as are some of the goings on at Millennium, which wind up playing into the later films.
Make no mistake about it, though – these films are not easy watches. The subject matter of rape, incest and misogyny flows throughout the entire series and make for some seriously uncomfortable and disturbing moments. However, the stories are compelling, and in Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth Salander, we have one of the most intriguing heroines of the last few years.
You can order Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy Extended Editions on DVD or Blu-Ray from Amazon.ca here.
