Kevin Costner Movie:

		List Price: $28.99		Label: Warner Salesrank: 3853 Released: September 8, 2009
		Our Price: $12.99
		Used Price: $9.89
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
In 2013 there are no highways, no I-ways, no dreams of a better tomorrow, only scattered survivors across what was once the United States. Into this apocalyptic wasteland comes an enigmatic drifter with a mule, a knack for Shakespeare and something yet undiscovered: the power to inspire hope.

Two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Costner directs and plays a wayfarer in a world where might makes right – but destined to lead a heroic rebellion where right makes right. Sweeping battle scenes, breathtaking wilderness vistas and touching moments of personal triumphs combine to ensure The Postman delivers.

Description of The Postman [Blu-ray]:
Falling from the Oscar-winning glory of Dances with Wolves to the opposite end of the critical and box-office scale, Kevin Costner must have been deeply humbled when this three-hour postapocalyptic tale--his sophomore effort as a director--was greeted with a critical thrashing and tepid audience response. One of the most conspicuous flops of its decade, the 1997 release must have seemed like a sure thing on paper: a kind of futurist Western starring Costner as a charismatic drifter-turned-hero who leads the resistance against a military tyrant (Will Patton) by reviving the long-dormant postal system to reunite isolated communities in their fight for freedom. The movie bombed, but, like many audacious failures, it's got qualities that make it at least partially endearing, and its earnestness (although bordering on corny) keeps it from being entirely silly. Faint praise, perhaps, but Costner's ode to patriotism is occasionally stirring and visually impressive. The dual-layered, widescreen DVD includes a documentary segment about the creation of the film's special effects sequences, featuring a running commentary by the special effects creators. --Jeff Shannon

The Postman [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Postal Future
2009-10-24 - What a great story and epic adventure! This is one of the best post apocalypse movies ever made, maybe THE best. Not unrealistic, very well acted and directed.

Mixed bag
2009-10-12 - Are people giving this movie 5 stars simply because so many critics savaged it when it came out? As a fan of the book before the movie came out, I enjoyed aspects of it, especially near the beginning, but felt the acting and plotting just didn't hold up until the end.

I enjoyed the scenary and thought that was fairly well done, just when he starts interacting with other people, I often cringed. When the postman is traveling in a post-apocalyptic US, I think that was fairly well-done as well.

But some of this seems to come out of the limitations of Costner as a director, compared to Dances with Wolves, one of my favorite movies of all time. Simply, the epic feel of the movie went overboard. Instead of actually caring about the characters other than the Postman, I constantly felt like I was being manipulated, with sweeping scenes often telling me I had to care about this crucial moment. This is important! Civilization is important!

I agree with these ideas, I just didn't feel like the film communicated that particularly well. It didn't whisper or speak in a moderate tone. It shouted.



Where's the dts version?
2009-09-26 - This is a great film as most of you have said before me, but the sound was so compressed with Dolby.
When are studios going to use some of the time they take to make a blu-ray disc better, better? Please
take the time and do it right, either dts or uncompressed.

For Fans, Great Value
2009-09-20 - Chances are, if you're reading this, you're a fan of this movie.
The Postman has a small cult following, probably because as ham-handed as the western motifs that nearly overwhelm the simple patriotic message are, they don't drown it out, and on repeat viewings, this message is.. (in this reviewers opinion) welcome & and noticably missing from alot of film today. Costner's character is an unnamed drifter who wanders thru Oregon in 2013, years after a nuclear winter has devastated the country and left it to the terror tactics of an army of racially intolerant neo-fascists who base their lives on the self-help book of a long dead motivational speaker. Will Patton is a great villain in this film as the quiet, brooding General Bethlehem. After narrowly escaping being conscripted by them, he seeks shelter in an abandoned Mail delivery truck, and borrows the clothes and mailbag of the dead postman to pretend to be a representative of the 'restored Congress of the United States', presumably to gain favor with people and score some free food and board. This ruse, of course, only ends up generating hope in the poor villagers he comes across, and starts to become bigger than him... and that idea is the charm of the movie-

The idea that being free and making things better involves, at first, a dream, a fantasy, maybe even a lie. Whatever it takes.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a great movie, and feels more like an abbreviated tv miniseries in some ways.. but it has some charm. And some beautiful outdoor photography, and costumes.. all of which look really splendid in hi-def. This print is clean, the only odd thing I noticed was a jitter in the frame when Costner stands outside the gate at Pineview.. only time I noticed it, and some grain issues in the slow motion shots.. but in many other places, particularly in close-ups and long distance shots the detail and color was striking, and even pops in places you wouldn't expect. Very happy with the transfer.

The only thing I don't like? The music.. it's overblown opera-western stuff.. really was NOT necessary to sell the story, and contributes to making some scenes really cheesey.

But for fans.. the price is right, and it looks GREAT.



Amazon screws customer again
2009-09-16 - Is there any point in pre-ordering from Amazon? In instances such as with THE POSTMAN, they show the price at $ 17.99 and you make the mistake of ordering it. They then lower the price to $ 14.99 a week later, but still two weeks before the item ships. Do they give you the lower price.....ARE YOU CRAZY? Then one week after it comes out, it is now $ 12.99. Conclusion. For reserving a copy with Amazon, the customer pays more than anyone else. This is done over and over and over by Amazon, or atleast as much as their wallets will allow.