I missed something as I watched the screener disc of Under Milk Wood from our friends at The Sundance Channel. Adapted from the poem (play?, or maybe just epic work?) "Play for Voices" by Dylan Thomas, I didn't know what I was watching. And, when you don't know what you're watching, you are missing something - everything! Sitting in my room, I read over the DVD packaging and finally found this tiny blurb: "A celebration of life and death, the film follows the people and events in a small Welsh harbor village, on one spring day." Oh! That's what's going on! Now I get it. Seems simple enough, don't you think? But, the catch stems from what I called Thomas's work: a poem. For me, Under Milk Wood is what a poem looks like. With constant narration, the movie shows us the poem. Words are transformed into images, and images transform the words. Poetry is extremely difficult for me to interpret, as I have a far too literal mind for the abstract, free-flowing nature of verse. I wanted to find some linear structure to the narrative, and I couldn't find it. Only when I accepted the fact (about 30 minutes in) that this was the visualization of a poem about 58 different people in a Welsh village called Llareggub (hint: backwards) was I able to get the slightest idea of what was going on.

And it was just the slightest idea.

For those of you into poetry, this could be a treasured find; and the accolades on the web and on the disc would seem to support that idea. But for the likes of me, it's far from my cup of tea. Even with the superb talents of Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, and Elizabeth Taylor, I couldn't muster much interest in Under Milk Wood. Told mostly via narration (of the poem/play/whatever) with "minimal" dialogue, you've gotta get it to get it.

What did me great disservice was that this disc was but a bare bones screener: just the movie and the trailer stuck on the front. The full "special edition" disc is chock full of bonus items like a feature length documentary on Dylan Thomas, a director's introduction, a director's commentary, production notes, and more. For a poor schlub like me who doesn't know iambic pentameter from mozzarella, this bonus information could have really helped me appreciate and embrace this film. Without it, you see what I surmised.

As far as the quality of the video and audio, I don't know if this screener includes the final transfers, but the video is a bit hazy, full of dirt, and lacking rich colors; while the audio is a bit muffled, making it hard to understand at times. What Under Milk Wood does have going for it is some masterful cinematography. The town utilized to portray Llareggub beautifully captures every word of Thomas's work. Maybe the town was the true inspiration of the poem?

I wish I could lavish more praise for this film, for I feel that for the right audience, Under Milk Wood would be greatly appreciated. If that sounds like you, give this one a spin and help me figure out what I missed.