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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > FIlmmaking > War > Politics > Bl;ack America > French Foreign Legion > BIography > Algeir > American Dream (2012/Image DVD)/Deserter (2003/Inception Blu-ray)/Fightville (2011/MPI Blu-ray)

American Dream (2012/Image DVD)/Deserter (2003/Inception Blu-ray)/Fightville (2011/MPI Blu-ray)

 

Picture: C+/B-/B-     Sound: C+/B-/B     Extras: D/C-/C+     Main Programs: C/C/B

 

 

We are in a new era where mixed martial arts and working in the military is taken for granted.  The result is that it affects how media portrays anything surrounds those situations.  That is what brings the following releases together.

 

 

I wanted to like J. Smith’s The American Dream (2012), but it cannot seem to decide what it is or what it wants to do.  Featuring the pretentious “a film by us” in its logo, it is a scripted drama that goes out of its way to pretend to be some kind of actual documentary, but it is not and that is a shame because it undermines anything this has to say.

 

This begin with Luis (Jamil Walker Smith) talking to a camera and telling us about his life, how he wants to be a filmmaker and how he wants to have some fun before going off to fight in the Middle East.  We also meet his family, best friend and how he sees life.  Too bad this did not have the guts to just be a smart drama minus all this pretense because I liked Smith’s performance and though the filmmaking side was weak, it was workable if he was a failed filmmaker for the time of taping.

 

We hear some politically charged ideas we do not hear enough, whether you agree or not, we do not hear enough of them like this versus filtered through bad cable TV.  There is also a sort of look here, though some editing is sloppy.  It sure beats all those Tyler Perry-type formula releases, but does not know how to go all the way.  There are no extras, possibly to support the illusion of being real.

 

 

Martin Huberty’s Deserter (2003) is being issued on Blu-ray in an updated 2011 director’s cut and in time for people who are curious to see an early Tom Hardy performance to catch it.  He is not the star, but he steals the film in all his scenes as a wild soldier Dupont in the French Foreign Legion with Paul Fox as Simon Murray, whose biographical book Legionnaire is the basis of this film.

 

Murray (whose also represented here in voice over) has joined the Legion as they are about to enter Algiers to stop an independent uprising.  This is not as visual as Claire Denis’ somewhat overrated Beau Travail (1999) though this is still a good looking film and is not directly concerned with the battle as The Battle Of Algiers (1966) classically is or the recent Outside The Law (2011, all three reviewed elsewhere on this site) tried to be and was far less successful.

 

Part of the problem is shooting in color allows the filmmakers to hide form the grim=ness of the subject matter and though some scenes here are about that conflict, it is way in the background for what is almost a character study and it never wo0rks out here.  Murray comes across as two-dimensional and I was never as involved as I wanted to be.  This is an ambitious film and I admit I never saw the older cut to compare, but it is worth a look, though not learning enough about Murray in depth is the ultimate failure of the film followed by the actual war and its resulting implications.

 

Yorick von Wageningen (Fincher’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mallick’s The New World) also starts and a trailer is the only extras.

 

 

Finally we have a real documentary, Fightville (2011) co-directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker.  Most directing teams tend to botch their work, but this story of men trying to become mixed martial arts fighters with an independent producer who was once a fighter himself is as good as any of the UFC docs we have enjoyed and we really get to know the men, their friends and family, as well as their dreams and struggle, making this a surprisingly effective 85 minutes.

 

If you liked Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, this is that real and powerful, though not quite the same sport, it is certainly the same level of physical abuse.  I will not ruin anything by saying anything about the subjects here, but this is the mature step after endless formula Rocky films and very recommended.

 

Extras include a trailer, behind the scenes featurette and deleted/extended scenes worth seeing after watching the documentary.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image in Dream is the weakest here not only because it is the only DVD, but because of the choppy nature of the shoot.  Some footage is supposed to be Super 8mm film, but the aspect ratio is more like 1.33 X !, so it is hard to tell for sure if this is faked too.  The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on both Blu-rays are better, but Deserter has flaws simply because of its print’s age and minor flaws versus Fightville being an HD shoot with sometimes rough footage, plus its share of vintage analog NTSC video clips.

 

The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Dream and Deserter should be evenly matched, but the newer Dream has budget and location audio issues, so the nine years old Deserter has some healthy surrounds and though I wish it were lossless, is not a bad mix with a usually decent soundfield.  The PCM 2.0 Stereo on Fightville also has some location audio issues and vintage audio that is barely stereo, but it is surprisingly warm and clean, so it is the audio champ here as well.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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