Face
Of Love (2013/MPI/IFC
DVD)/The Man From Laramie
(1955/Sony/Columbia)/Resurrected
(1989/Film 4/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-rays)
Picture:
C/B/B- Sound: C+/B-/B- Extras: C+/C/C+ Films: C+/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Man From Laramie
and Resurrected
are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, are limited
to only 3,000 copies each and can be ordered from the link below.
The
following are serious dramatic dramas with genre settings that have
their moments.
We
start with Arie Posin's Face Of
Love (2013), a drama
about a woman (Annette Bening) who was happily married to a husband
(Ed Harris) she was in love with, but we learn from flashbacks and
her state of mind that he is gone. Now a widow, she has a supportive
neighbor (Robin Williams) whose wife left him and a other family and
friends who try to support her. One day, she sees a man who looks so
much like her late husband that she goes into shock, then decides to
track him down. When they meet, she is moot on her loss and they
start dating, but he (also played by Harris) is also a great guy and
how long can she keep this up?
Posin
knows the territory he is getting into (note the movie posters early
on, her character dresses up empty houses for a living to sell them,
shades in itself of her role in American
Beauty) but also wants to
do a mature feel-good movie here. It has enough good moments at 92
minutes that it is worth a look, though a few cuts from the Deleted
Scenes should have stayed in to improve this one.
Anthony
Mann's The Man From
Laramie (1955) was the
last of several Revenge Westerns he made with James Stewart and it
has some good moments as well, as Stewart comes to a New Mexico town
that does not want him with an unknown goal, but he immediately gets
a bad, violent reception by some greedy cattlemen and there the
conflict begins. Arthur Kennedy leads the decent supporting cast in
a drama that has its moments, plus the mystery of who is selling
rifles to Indians.
Watching,
some of the film has not aged well, though you expect political
incorrectness (like 'Hollywood Indians') from such productions, while
it feels as if Mann and Stewart knew this would be the last such film
they would make together, so widescreen, color and stereophonic sound
would help make a different. Not a classic like Winchester
'73, but still worth a
look for what does work and how Columbia went all out as they moved
into being a major studio.
Paul
Greengrass is now known for his action films and intense dramas, but
he started with a War genre drama called Resurrected
(1989) that takes place in the early 1980s as Margaret Thatcher has
her Neo-Conservative, galvanizing Falklands War and one young man
(David Thewlis) is promoted as a hero. In reality, he has lost his
memory in the middle of battle, disappeared for a few days, is
haunted by a mysterious man and is suffering post traumatic stress
syndrome. This does not stop Thatcher's people from using him or his
fellow soldiers from hating him tot he point where he becomes the
target of the usual British-style institutionalized bullying.
However,
as tough as this gets, it is also a smart character study of the
people, the country, Thatcherism and was one of the first films to do
so. The actors in it (save a then-unknown Steve Coogan) did not
necessarily benefit immediately, but it is part of a cycle of films
like High Hopes that questioned the Thatcher/Reagan era and seems as
relevant as ever. Definitely worth a look, you can see Greengrass'
talents this early and Thewlis can really act. Tom Bell and Rita
Tushingham also star.
Though
the look of the film is not bad, the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1
image on Face is just softer throughout that I would have
liked, making me wish for a Blu-ray on and off, but the two Blu-rays
fair better despite their age. The
1080p 2.55 X 1 digital High Definition image on Man
has its share of soft moments and a few weak shots, but at its best,
the film was one of the last produced on the wider CinemaScope aspect
ratio and the whole film has the usual distortions of that older
system. It also was issued in dye-transfer, three-strip
Technicolor prints and when you see that here, the
film looks great.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Resurrection
can also show the age of the materials used, but it often looks good
for a low-budget UK production of the time and we get more than our
share of good shots. Nice this one survived as well as it did.
In
the sound department, the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Face
is newest recording here by decades, but it is quiet, dialogue-based
and limited in dynamics, so the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix on Man
and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes on
Resurrection
land up sounding warmer, richer and better overall. Man was a film
originally designed for 4-track magnetic sound with traveling
dialogue and sound effects, all of which is nicely retained in this
upgrade.
Extras
on Face
include an Original Theatrical Trailer, Cast featurette, Deleted
Scenes and a feature length audio commentary track by
the director, the Blu-rays have isolated music & sound effects
tracks and the usual well-illustrated booklets on their respective
films including informative text and an essay by Julie Kirgo. Man
adds a few
Original Theatrical Trailers and Resurrected
has two interview featurettes with Greengrass and Thewlis.
To
order The
Man From Laramie
and Resurrected
limited
edition Blu-rays, buy them while supplies last along with other great
exclusives at this link:
www.screenarchives.com
-
Nicholas Sheffo
