It's probably essential to watch Bottle Rocket if you're going to get into serious Wes Anderson study. Of course, if you're that passionate about the man behind The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Rushmore then you've probably already seen Bottle Rocket. Point you. But have you seen it on Blu-ray? Exactly.

The movie itself is a collection of the awkward and surreal -- combined with a hip soundtrack and crisp dialogue. The brothers Wilson, Luke and Owen, play Anthony (recently discharged from a mental institution) and Dignan (who has plans to form a crime gang). As you're here to learn about the Blu-ray I'm not really going to get into the plot, and in a sense describing it would be akin to getting into the internal logic of a Chuck Palahniuk novel. It would take a long time and it wouldn't get us anywhere. So let's just talk about the disc itself.

The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of Bottle Rocket (official site) has been supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson and director of photography Robert Yeoman. It comes with a bevy of features. Anderson starts out the making-of feature by saying, "It's odd that it's a movie where some people really do like it, quite a lot. And so many others hate it. But I do find I've managed to keep a consistent run of that kind of response." Someone then mentions, "But people keep talking about it. That must mean something." To which he replies "Yeah ... but what?" That's the overriding theme of Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson's oeuvre, and this Blu-ray version too. "But what?"

The disc has these really elegantly handled dynamic menus. You don't have to stop and go back to the main menu to find something, you can switch midstream. These types of little touches have always set Criterion apart, and they do so again here. I will mention, for trivia's sake, that the commands on the PS3 (which is how I imbibe Blu-ray) are different than I've ever seen. On many discs the X button stops playback, and the right arrow fast-forwards. Not so here. Bottle Rocket has its own different set of commands which take a little getting used to, but if you're a PS3 person the triangle button should help you in most cases, as it brings up the options menu.

Ten deleted scenes are presented here, though the transfer isn't high definition. A classic interaction between the boys, as they stare at Bob's car and consider whether it would make an adequate getaway car after a robbery:

ANTHONY: This has a V-8, Dignan, so...
DIGNAN: And what do the cops have?
BOB: 7's?
DIGNAN: C'mon, think. Think.

The only problem with the deleted scenes presented here is that with most movies you can make a judgment on whether or not it was a good edit. With Bottle Rocket, who knows? It's not like the film prides itself on cohesiveness. It's always been a loose affiliation of like-minded scenes. However, the deleted scenes do expose an entire subplot that was only hinted at in the theatrical release -- the pot-plant sublplot that involves Bob's brother getting arrested.

The original Bottle Rocket short is included, the one that was submitted to Sundance which was leveraged into actual financing. The boys made 8 minutes of film with $4,000 of borrowed money. It's all in black and white, but it captures the same chemistry and vibe.

Fun fact: Right now at Amazon.com, the Criterion's Blu-ray edition of Bottle Rocket is cheaper than Criterion's new DVD edition (released at the same time, also Wes Anderson-approved). Explain that one to me. It's impossible. Good luck. But it's definitely a worthy buy if you're a fan of this movie and don't own a copy.

The Blu-ray is broken up into the theatrical release, a chapter setting, a commentary from Owen and Wes, and finally, the supplements section. The supplements section contains the deleted scenes, an anamorphic test Wes Anderson and Robert Yeoman did to test out widescreen Panavision, a "making of," the short, photos, storyboards, and a Shafrazi lecture on the film.

The transfer was scanned on a Spirit 2k Datacine from the 35mm interpositive. I learned this from a little booklet that comes with the disc. It's an expansion of the "75-Year Plan" briefly shown on the bus ride home from the rehab facility in the desert. It looks fantastic: the red sweater Luke wears really pops, as do the yellow jumpsuits near the end. Evidently, they also used the MTI Digital Restoration System in conjunction with Pixel Farm's PFClean. I have no idea what any of that means, but I'll offer up that I don't see how this could look any better. This version feels as though it were shot about six months ago.

I'm told that the sound is also up to snuff, though I'm even less of an audophile. It's a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack with 24-bit mastering from the original magnetic tracks, if that helps anyone out there in internet land.

The unfortunate thing with all of my DVD reviews is that they're almost universally positive. This is a marked difference from my theatrical reviews, which adopt a more common 50/50 acceptance rate. The reason is simple. Generally, if I choose to spend eight hours of my life with a disc, it's one that I know I'll enjoy. You won't catch me reviewing the Spider-Man 3 special edition for instance. So my recommendation for this Criterion disc is similar to my other reviews.

You should take the following steps:

1. Buy a Blu-ray player (they are so cheap now!)
2. Make sure you have a HD TV
3. Get movies like Bottle Rocket to show off the system.

It's like seeing the film for the first time. On the other hand, if you are one of the people that don't like Wes Anderson, have never liked Wes Anderson, well, then you should pass. Big-time. I don't even know how you made it this far. But for the rest of us believers I say fire away. You won't regret it.

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