Recomended DVD/BluRay/ Streaming: The Millennium Trilogy

Films that you might have missed (or intentionally missed). I am going to try once in awhile throwing some films out to you that I recommend that follow under this category.

My first one!!! Settle down I know you are excited.

Dragon Tattoo/Millennium Trilogy Extended Editions.
Which includes:
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played With Fire
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest
Based on the books by Stieg Larsson
Screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel: Rasmus Heisterburg; Jonas Frykberg; and Ulf Ryberg
Starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist



This is the Swedish Trilogy that you can stream on Netflix as the trilogy extended version.
Three movies. Covering nine hours. That is right, nine hours. The streaming knocks it down into 6 parts, two parts per film. That helps because it gives you a place to step away.

The movie trilogy starts with a 40 year old mystery asking to be solved. A journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who needs to disappear for awhile. And a brilliant computer hacker, Lisbeth Salender, who is socially awkward with a photogenic memory. Together they attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vanger.
I will go as far as saying Lisbeth Salender may be one of the most interesting female characters in movie history. We have not seen many female leads like her. A rebel. Brilliant. A little sensitive. Sexual. Socially awkward but at the same time socially aware. The great Roger Ebert said of Lisbeth after watching the Swedish version of Dragon: "Lisbeth is as compelling as any movie character in recent memory".
As the films move on from Tattoo to Fire to Hornets we find out more about Lisbeth and why she is the way she is.
Rapace is fantastic. That is all that can be said. She tears up the screen in all three film. If you look at her pictures from other movies she has done you will be shocked by how she really looks.
Now for the big warning about the first film. A sexually violent scene like you may have not seen before on the screen. This was shown in the American version (I will touch on the American version in a bit) with MPAA screening. Here it is made in Sweden, so...no MPAA. It is a turn your eyes away moment. In fact if streaming you may just want to fast forward through that part, you will see it coming. I hate telling you to fast forward through parts of a film but I understand why. Now ten minutes after that, there is revenge, which is also violent in another way. I do think these scenes are important because it shows a lot about Lisbeth. Why she is the way she is. How strong she is. Also how street smart she is.
Nine hours. Three hours each. The American version of Dragon Tattoo which I liked also, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars (and it looks sadly they will not make the other two films), clocks in at 2 1/2 hours. What the Swedish versions does well is look into the Millennium Magazine and show there are other mysteries going on and it sets up a little bit of the next two films. Also the Swedish version has a different ending, than the American version.
Again nine hours with subtitles. In an age when we sit down to watch a film at home we have our phones and laptops. We look away from the screens and just listen while we look at other things. With subtitles it is hard to do that. And for nine hours over time it is a lot.
Still I recommend it. And it is up to you if you want to tackle it.
Any negatives? You can get lost a bit with all the suspects in Dragon. Just stay with it...it will come. Fire and Hornets are not as good compared to Dragon, not putting down those films, but while watching you feel it. It is just Dragon is so damn good.
The good news is, after the sad death of Larsson, there are rumors that someone is writing an official fourth book. So may be Lisbeth will live on.
Well I am going long here....4 1/2 out of 5 for the Millennium/Dragon Trilogy.



Again thanks for your time.