Hellbenders (1967/Anchor Bay DVD) + Red
Hill (2010/Sony Blu-ray) + Triggerman
(2011/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture: C/B-/C Sound: C+/B-/B- Extras: C-/C-/D Films: C+/B-/C-
The
Western is as beat up a genre as the clothes you see in the more realistic
renderings of it. Every few years, it
comes back in a new form and several projects try to emulate the success of
that superior film. The fact that the
latest wave is off of a remake of True
Grit speaks volumes about how worn the genre is. When the last, original version of True Grit was made with John Wayne, the
Spaghetti Western was in full swing. We
now look at one of the original films from that wave and two recent entries.
Sergio
Corbucci had directed several of them and Hellbenders
(1967) followed the formula with a big Hollywood star (Joseph Cotton in this
case), a beautiful foreign actress (Norma Bengell of Planet Of The Vampires), a new younger actor they were hoping to
launch (Julian Mateos) and a formula story with a hook. This one is a coffin being transported, but
carrying a million dollars instead of a corpse, which in a film like this means
more corpses will pile up to fill it. It
is watchable, but not great despite some good locations and performances. Too bad it was not so predictable.
Patrick
Hughes in an impressive debut feature helms Red Hill (2009), which reflects two new trends, more interesting
films from Australia (see Animal Kingdom
elsewhere on this site) and modern mystery/action films with more than passing
visual references to Westerns (TV’s Justified,
also reviewed elsewhere on this site, all issued in the U.S. by Sony). To its advantage, this film has locations we
have not seen much, a fine cast too few have seen outside of Down Under and is
an intelligently, well made film.
A young
cop (Ryan Kwanten) transfers to a small town to give his wife a break from the
stress of the city, something they both blame for a recent miscarriage. He meets the tough local sheriff (Steve
Bisley) who he’ll be working for, but before they can get to business as usual,
a violent prisoner (Tom E. Lewis) has escaped from a local prison and is on his
way to avenge himself against the town and yes, it has an ugly secret to hide.
Despite
some of this being also predictable, not all of it was and the actors are not
only good, they have chemistry. It is
sad that Australia is now
producing more mature, intelligent films than franchise-obsessed Hollywood, but they are
just trying to make a good film. This is
definitely worth a look.
That
leaves Triggerman with Terence Hill
co-directing and starring in this awkward, weak, lite, nostalgic throwback to
older Westerns that are so readily available, the writers think that is enough
to go on, but this whole project just runs on fumes and Hill deserves better. Paul Sorvino shows up as a sheriff, but he
can’t save it either, making this for only the most diehard of fans of the
genre or those actors.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Hellbenders
is from a mixed print with color variations and other issues, plus it is a bit
softer that it should be. The 1080p 1.78
X 1 digital High Definition image on Hill
is stylized down a bit to be a little darker than it ought to be, but is the
best-looking disc here as expected and has some nice shots throughout. The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on
Triggerman is the weakest with a
soft, motion-blur filled HD shoot that looks like a bad TV movie.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono on Hellbenders is
better than the image, with good sound for an older monophonic recording with
much looping throughout. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Hill
has some moments where the sound is not as clear as it could be, but this is
nicely recorded and mixed for the most part otherwise. The Dolby Digital 5.1 on Triggerman is better and clearer than expected, helping the poor
picture issues out. Extras are few with
trailers on all the discs and nothing else.
- Nicholas Sheffo
