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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Politics > Historic > Religion > War > Oil > Crime > Journalism > Health > News > Propaganda > Romance > R > Day Of The Falcon (2012/Image Blu-ray)/The Insider (1999/Touchstone/Disney Blu-ray)/Never Let Me Go (1953/Warner Archive DVD)/Nicholas & Alexandra (1971/Columbia/Sony/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu

Day Of The Falcon (2012/Image Blu-ray)/The Insider (1999/Touchstone/Disney Blu-ray)/Never Let Me Go (1953/Warner Archive DVD)/Nicholas & Alexandra (1971/Columbia/Sony/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/One Night With The King (2006/Fox Blu-ray)/A Royal Affair (2012/Magnolia Blu-ray)

 

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

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: The Never Let Me Go DVD is only available from Warner Bros. from their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below, while the Nicholas & Alexandra Blu-ray is limited to 3,000 copies from Twilight Time and is available exclusively at the Screen Archives website which can also be reached at the link at the end of this review.

 

 

 

Now for a new set of releases that deal with history in various ways…

 

 

Jean-Jacques Annaud has been a mixed filmmaker with favorites like Name Of The Rose and Enemy At The Gates, mixed works like The Lover (better in its uncut form) or Two Brothers and dated bits like The Bear and problematic films like Seven Years In Tibet.  With Day Of the Falcon (2012), he takes on a tale of conflict with two Middle Eastern/Islamic Kingdoms as a big U.S. oil company arrives in the early 1900s to establish a new set of sources for oil, but will have to wait to see the battle between rivals play itself out, some of which they have no idea about.

 

Antonio Banderas (in his best role in years) heads one of the families, keeping an uneasy peace until it starts to crumble and the rival clan (including two brothers) will start to find their way outside of the older agreement.  With aspirations to be Lawrence Of Arabia (down to James Horner’s too-similar-at-times score), Annaud co-wrote the screenplay with Spielberg veteran Menno Meyjes (The Color Purple, Empire Of The Sun, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade) making this an odd mix.  A film that should be thorough, serious and dramatic becomes like a never-say-Indiana-Jones romp in spirit with humor in the wrong places and too many false notes for its own good.

 

The locales and cast are not a problem here with fine turns by Tahar Rahim, Mark Strong, Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed with money in the production and on the screen including battle scenes that are not bad, if not great.  Sometimes bad visual effects and unwise editing choices kill suspense and the pace, but the biggest problem is simply too many clichés, predictability and an obsession with sticking to a Classical Holly wood Narrative that is very un-Arabian and is never convincing.  If anything, this will go down as a big curio, but also a disappointment,

 

Extras include a 40-minutes Making Of featurette, From Storyboard-To-Screen piece and featurette Transforming The Desert: The Visual Effects Of Day Of The Falcon.

 

 

Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999) was not the big commercial or critical success it should have been, telling the serious story of how one man with a conscience (Russell Crowe in one of his greatest performances) feels he needs to reveal the ugly truth behind what the so-called tobacco companies are really selling versus what they pretend to be selling.  Their cancer-causing products turn out to be less benign than they are letting on and as a scientist, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (who exists in real life) risks his family and future because he cannot live the big lie anymore.

 

In this, he lands up trying to get his word out (pre-Internet for that matter) and turns to a powerful TV producer named Lowell Bergman (an ace performance by Al Pacino) who is an uncompromised name at the highly rated CBS news magazine 60 Minutes.  Wigand tries to connect and eventually a dialogue is created, but the companies are watching Wigand, et al, and the stakes start to get higher as the tobacco industry becomes concerned about Wigand, starts threatening him and pulls other strings that might kill the story before it gets out.

 

The once-proud CBS is now more concerned with money, is in the middle of a possible merger with Group W Westinghouse Broadcasting (which did eventually happen) and start to put their legacy on the backburner at the worst possible time and it is legacy that host & star Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer playing the man as less principled than expected) is concerned with over telling the truth.

 

Add the many side stories here and this film is as relevant as ever, as corporations have become more extreme in covering up problems with their product, as more media mergers have happened and as network news has become more and more of a joke.  This is about history untold and not told enough, very effectively, honestly, darkly and even brutally, standing as one of the greatest films any of its participants ever made.  A gem in the Touchstone/Disney catalog, its Blu-ray release is long overdue and I was stunned at how effective and powerful the film remained.  It has not been rediscovered as I had hoped, but I expect this great Blu-ray edition will help that cause.  If you have never seen this film, it is a must-see for all serious film fans.  If you saw it and have not watched it lately, you should go out of your way to see it again because it really is that good.

 

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, Production Featurette and Inside A Scene clip.

 

 

Delmer Daves’ Never Let Me Go (1953) is part of a cycle of anti-Soviet Union films that started to get produced by Hollywood as WWII ended and the USSR became the new rival to the USA.  Made by MGM, this political extrapolation of Ninotchka (1939, also an MGM film, but a romantic comedy) has Clark Gable as the American and Gene Tierney as the Russian Ballerina who fall in love with each other, if only that cold evil empire would just get out of the “damn” way.

 

This film wears it politics on its sleeve as all these films did and like most of the films in this cycle, that is the idea.  It is unabashed propaganda down to Gable’s constant voice over narrative.  Add to the fact that this was a British MGM production (Kenneth More, Bernard Miles and Richard Haydn show up) and you have a unique entry in the cycle worth a look including its unintentional laughs.  Glad to see it on DVD finally.

 

The Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.

 

 

After Planet Of The Apes (1968) and Patton (1970), Director Franklin J. Schaffner took on an even richer film with Nicholas & Alexandra (1971) based on Robert K. Massie’s thoroughly researched work about the final months of the last Royal Czars of Russia before the Communist Revolution’s murderous, bloody takeover.  Michael Jayston is the Czar Nicholas and Janet Suzman is Alexandra as a couple who is happy, but has some issues and she is not helping matters by trusting the inane and insane Rasputin (A pre-Doctor Who Tom Baker in a very effective performance) while all ignore the signs that their empire is increasingly vulnerable to the new Marxist movement.

 

The duo is likable and we get to know them the long way (this runs 189 minutes) as we go behind closed doors and this is convincing for the most part, though some of this is overly long and other parts may not be as effective as hoped for, but it is a sprawling, ambitious, top rate production Columbia Pictures hoped would be another critical and commercial success in the (yep) Lawrence Of Arabia mode down to having its producer Sam Spiegel on board.

 

The film is also a big British production and for the most part, holds up very well as one of the last of the great pre-Barry Lyndon costume epics (that Kubrick film set a new high standard for these films) and James Goldman’s screenplay has plenty of subtle, effective moments that make this a exercise in pure cinema and great, grand filmmaking.  Despite its length, it is very much worth your time and I am very happy to see it come out on Blu-ray, even if it is in a Twilight Time Limited Edition.

 

The film also has a great supporting cast including Michael Redgrave, Ian Holm, Brian Cox, Jack Hawkins, Curt Jurgens, Eric Porter and Lawrence Olivier.  Another serious piece of filmmaking, it is a must0see for all persons serious about cinema.

 

Extras include another nicely illustrated booklet on the film from Twilight Time including informative text and another solid Julie Kirgo essay on the film, while the Blu-ray adds the Original Theatrical Trailer, three vintage featurettes on the film (Royal Daughters, Changing Faces, The Royal Touch) and the Richard Rodney Bennett isolated music score in stereo.

 

 

Our final film that aspires to Lawrence Of Arabia is Michael O. Sajbel’s One Night With The King (2006) is a Biblical epic of sorts involving how Hadassah (Tiffany DuPont) becomes Esther, Queen of Persia and the desired of King Xerxes (now action star Luke Goss) except that she is Jewish and even becoming Queen might not save her from begin killed.  The film also had a decent budget (if not extraordinary) and also has some great supporting turns by John Rhys-Davies, Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole, but it also has many of the same issues that Day Of the Falcon has.

 

Again, the battle scenes do not work so well down to the editing and the script is a mixed bag and in both cases, the religious angles are treated as secondary (which is not the same as trivialized) and that does not help, but this film (unlike Falcon) has the added burden of trying to overcome the legacy of the dead Biblical Epic genre, so it becomes muddled very early on.  Unless you get wild with the genre one way (Scorsese’s Last Temptation Of Christ) or the other (Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of the Christ), you simply cannot make a dent in this kind of storytelling anymore and despite their best efforts, King succumbs to this.  For Biblical fans only.

 

The only extra is a feature length audio commentary track by Co-Producer Matthew Crouch, Co-Producer Richard Cook and Co-Editor Stephan Blinn.

 

 

Finally we have Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair (2012) which tells the true story of the at least slightly mad King Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) takes up with and marries the beautiful Caroline Mathilde (Alicia Vikander) but it is not the marriage that it could be because she is not as conformist as the higher-ups would like her to be and in a censorship, oppression-based Denmark, said insiders are increasingly interested in making the King into a puppet.

 

Soon, those around the King decides he needs a doctor and convince Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen of Casino Royale and the new Hannibal Lecter TV series) to take the job.  However, he is more liberal and science-minded than the new Queen, knows literature more thoroughly and eventually becomes a threat to those trying to stage a coup all along.

 

Though this costume drama also has some flat moments, it is tighter and more to the point at 137 minutes and the performances are terrific all around, as well as the costumes, production design, locations and all around look and fell of the piece.  It comes across as more authentic than any of the other costumers on this list except maybe Nicholas & Alexandra, but this one is a bit more naturalistic.  I just felt we could have used some more details on the politics and people (not seen enough for our own good) to really flush out the era, times and stakes here.  Otherwise, this is pretty good filmmaking and with Mikkelsen’s star about to rise again, will become a curio that will not disappoint.

 

Extras include a nice interactive Royal Family Tree section, Original Theatrical Trailer, text Portraits & Biographies and on-camera Interviews with Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Arcel and Alicia Vikander on the filming of the real life story.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on all five Blu-rays are about as good as they are going to get for their respective films, save King which is only presented here in an older HD master and at a mere AVC @ 19.5 MBPS.  Shot on 35mm film in the Super 35mm format.  Visual effects have also dated a bit.  Alexandra just passes Falcon, Insider and Royal (also an all 35mm film shoot) as the best playback performer here, including many shots that show how great the dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints of the film must have looked, though some shots still show their age.  Director of Photography Freddie Young, B.S.C. (Lawrence Of Arabia, You Only Live Twice) uses the very widescreen frame to its fullest extent and shot this is real anamorphic 35mm Panavision.  Falcon and King want badly to look like Lawrence, but cannot match it, especially with Falcon using Super 35mm format and some HD shooting in a mix that has limited color.  Insider is the second-best transfer here since the HD master is in good shape and this captures the intended darkness of the film’s look, even if this cuts into fidelity.

 

Director of Photography Dante Spinotti, A.S.C., A.I.C., makes this a rich visual experience throughout that is constantly enhancing the narrative as it engulfs us into its world.  Spinotti has been Mann’s DP since Manhunter (1986, reviewed elsewhere on this site) and though they worked on later projects, this is their last great collaboration to date and has as much impact as it ever had.

 

The 1.33 X 1 black and white image on Never is a little softer than I would have liked and though the film has a good look, this could look better, even for DVD.

 

 

All the Blu-rays here have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, save Alexandra with a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono mix (a good copy of the six-channel magnetic sound master for 70mm British Blow-ups of the film was not available at this time (Universal’s Silent Running shares the same issue), the mono track here is surprisingly strong) with Affair (with its Danish/English dialogue mix) being the surprise sonic champ.  It may be dialogue-based, but it has a very consistent soundfield, is warm, very well recorded and all elements are integrated well throughout.  Falcon, Insider and King can be a bit more towards the front speakers than I would have liked, though in the case of Insider, it at least makes narrative sense.  The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Never is not bad for its age.

 

 

To order Never Let Me Go, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

 

http://www.warnerarchive.com/

 

As well, Nicholas & Alexandra can be ordered while supplies last along with many other Twilight Time titles at:

 

www.screenarchives.com

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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