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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Thriller > Murder > Terrorism > Film Noir > Act Of Vengeance (2010/Millennium Blu-ray)/The Strange Loves Of Martha Ivers (1946/Film Chest Blu-ray w/DVD)

Act Of Vengeance (2010/Millennium Blu-ray)/The Strange Loves Of Martha Ivers (1946/Film Chest Blu-ray w/DVD)

 

Picture: B/B- & C     Sound: B/C+     Extras: C-/B-     Films: C+/B

 

 

I was recently watching my usual set of feature films when something struck me.  For all the films on terrorism since 9/11, hardly any have had the honesty or realism of classic Film Noirs.  As a result, I thought I would contrast an ambitious new film on the subject of terrorism with a classic Noir on Blu-ray for the first time.

 

 

Mahsun Kirmizigul’s Act Of Vengeance (2010) is initially one of the more ambitious narrative tales of such activity and not as heavy-handed as the same on a show like say, 24.  A seeming peaceful man is arrested on suspicion of terrorist activities and is going to be sent back to Turkey, from which he will never return, but some people are intent on stopping that (including characters played by Gina Gershon and an ever-criticized Danny Glover, fearlessly playing a blatantly Islamic leader who is also an insider on events) and until they free this man in a sloppy action sequence, this had serious potential.

 

However, it cannot stay on message, then it becomes a revenge film, if weakly so with plenty of clichés and starts imploding all over the place.  Robert Patrick is the semi-racist government agent involved in the matter on that side and this becomes another disappointment on the subject, but at least it started well.  Why did it fail?  Did it not have enough guts to pursue any politics (the terror group is called “Deijal” which means anti-Christ, so why run away from that?) and we’ve seen all this before.  Too bad.

 

Extras include previews for other Millennium releases, so this is a basic release, but I felt the makers and actors might have something to say.  Too bad they don’t get to do it here.

 

 

Lewis Milestone’s The Strange Loves Of Martha Ivers (1946) is back as a Blu-ray with a DVD edition, but this Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas classic was released years ago by its original studio Paramount on DVD, which you can read all about (Including reading about the film itself) at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3383/The+Strange+Love+Of+Martha+Ivers

 

 

Remarkably, the film is in the public domain, so Film Chest has beat Paramount to Blu-ray with this release, though they have the better print, but more on that in a minute.  It is just that the best Noirs start with harsh reality and stick with it, no matter what and that is what happens here.  I don’t know why more recent films cannot do this, especially when terrorism is the subject, but that is what we get.

 

I give Chest credit for some extras including a mixed feature length audio commentary by Noir scholar William Hare (I wish he talked more and introduced himself), demo restoration clip and postcard with poster art.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Act may be stylized, but this somehow does not hurt detail and depth as much as expected.  The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Ivers is centered in the 1.78 X 1 frame on the Blu-ray as well as the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the DVD.  The result is that the Blu-ray looks a little better than the older Paramount DVD and has some more picture area, but lacks the detail, depth and Video Black Paramount’s print has and the company has once again overly cleaned the film materials they were trying to restored.  The DVD is worse than the Paramount DVD and too soft for its own good.  They claim they used an archival Library Of Congress print, but you would not know that seeing this.

 

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix on Act has a nice, consistent soundfield throughout, so when added with the picture, is a top rate playback Blu-ray, if not offering anything outstanding.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 lossless Mono sound on the Ivers Blu-ray is barely better than the lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono on the DVD version and both seem a little noisier than the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the older Paramount DVD.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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