The
Black Book (aka Reign
Of Terror/1949/Film Chest
DVD)/Getting Go
(2014/Wolfe DVD)/The
Normal Heart (2014/HBO
Blu-ray)/Summer In
February (2013/Tribeca
Film/Cinedigm DVD)
Picture:
C/C+/B/C+ Sound: C/C+/B/C Extras: D/C/C/C- Films:
B-/B-/B/B-
The
following dramas ask questions about liberty, freedom, happiness and
more...
Anthony
Mann's The
Black Book
(aka Reign
Of Terror/1949)
at first seems like it might be a dated, corny, Hollywoodized,
everyone-talks-at-each-other account of the French Revolution, but
instead, the film slowly builds to tell its story of Robespierre
(Richard Basehart) trying to take more power, but the title item is
missing and could cost him his power and even his life if he does not
get it, so he will kill for it. In his way are Madelon (Arlene
Dahl), Charles D'Aubingy (Robert Cummings) and Fouché (Arnold Moss)
who are out to find it and expose him.
Once
this gets started, the twists, turns and suspense work, Mann proving
once again (with the legendary Director of Photography John Alton
with him) he knows how to make a major feature film work. You soon
forget no one speaks French and keep watching to the end. The sets
are not bad for their age, nor are the clothes. Norman Lloyd,
Charles McGraw and Richard Hart also star, while Russ Tamblin and
Royal Dano show up in uncredited turns.
There
are no extras.
Cory
Krueckberg's Getting
Go
(2014) is designed to look almost like a documentary and is dubbed
the Go Doc Project, but it is really a drama about a young man
(Tanner Cohen) who watches too much XXX and nude gay material on the
Internet and becomes a bit obsessed with one particular go-go boy
(gay male go-go dancer, though some straight men (known as gay for
pay) also dance of then) also do it) who lives near him (Matthew
Camp) who he then meets. They talk and the dancer is immediately
interested in taking part in a proposed video project.
They
becomes friends, then they start getting close and become involved.
The script could have stopped there and the conclusions would either
be they stay together or split, maybe angrily. Instead, they start
to debate what it is to be gay, how much the Net has re-labled and
even re-stereotyped gays, but also everyone else, then it talks about
what freedom and personal happiness and satisfaction really is. In
the process, it is addressing these issues for everyone and turns out
to be more surprising and smart than anyone could have expected. As
far as gay issues are concerned, it is one of the few gay films as
bold as A
Very Natural Thing
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) that has an absolute grasp of the
situation and even in the AIDS era, so much remains the same. That
makes it one of the most important Gay Male films in years.
Extras
include a slideshow on co-star Camp, Director Q&A session and
original theatrical trailer.
Even
more important and making more than a perfect companion is Ryan
Murphy's film of Larry Kramer's landmark stage play The
Normal Heart
(2014), now a feature film that debuted on HBO, now issued on
Blu-ray. Starting in the late 1970s, Gay Pride and Civil Rights are
flying high along with Disco hits on the music charts, but suddenly,
something is wrong. Men are dying for no good apparent reason, they
are developing rashes on their bodies and getting progressively sick.
This also happens to be happening to gay men. Mark Ruffalo plays a
man (a surrogate for Kramer) who is especially noticing and gets
radical very early on to the shock of his friends and acquaintances
in the gay community.
He
knows things are very wrong, but most of the gay men are brushing it
off, enjoying their newly found freedom. He becomes more emboldened
when a female doctor in town with polio no less (a great turn by
Julia Roberts) who is noticing even more and has evidence his worst
fears are not horrible enough. No one is listening to her and the
Right Wing Reagan Administration has zero interest in helping. At
this time, he falls for a newspaper reporter (Matt Bomer) and starts
to create a crisis center with his friends to reach out when no one
else is.
The
film is a damning indictment of government of the time, homophobia,
ignorance and hate when a so-called 'bright new day in America' meant
instant death for those who got AIDS. The backlash, ugliness, how
deadly the virus was for everyone who got it (and still is; there is
STILL no cure and treatments only slow it down) was an awful
situation like nothing we had never seen before, one we now know was
used to divide and conquer the nation for political purposes this
film does manage to touch on without losing its way.
There
will be a little overlap for those familiar with the subject and with
the best films and documentaries on the subject to date, but it is a
proud work about proud moments for everyone who cared and I commend
the makers as the cast that also includes Jim Parsons (Big
Bang Theory)
in top form, the underrated Taylor Kitsch, the great Alfred Molina,
BD Wong, Joe Mantello and more making this an amazing film like
Hollywood used to make all the time. Gay, straight or otherwise,
this is a must-see film to remind us of an ugly crisis as ugly as
9/11 or The Holocaust and one too many allowed to happen.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds a Making Of featurette How
To Start A War.
Finally
we have a film based on a true story that was only recently
discovered. Christopher Menaul's Summer
In February
(2013) tells of an unusual love triangle that happened without many
knowing it. Alfred Munnings (Dominic Cooper) is a painter and
show-off with a future as a great painter (he becomes one and a Sir
as well), likes painting women, including Florence (Emily Browning.
A man named Gilbert (Dan Stevens) is in love with her and friends of
both, who finally decides he wants to marry her. He gets the ring
and is about to propose when he is interrupted and too soon, Alfred
proposes instead and she accepts having no idea Gilbert intended to
do the same. It would be a fateful decision.
From
there, we see how selfish and lacking in character Alfred is, what a
great guy Gilbert is and how Florence feels she has no choice but to
go along with things. Well made, acted, nice period set design and
costumes, the script and pacing works, yet this lacks some ironic
distance and does not say enough. I still liked it, but it does not
go far enough and that stops it from being one of the best films of
its kind in the last few years, though it is still worth a look and
gives us an untold tale that is sadly still all too familiar.
The
only extra is an interview with co-star/co-producer Dan Stevens.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Heart
was shot on film, is the only entry here on Blu-ray and looks really
good, with only its style choices holding back the fidelity or depth
and detail. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Go
and anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Summer
tie for second place with flaws and softness more than I would have
liked in both cases, but they are consistent enough. The black and
white 1.33 X 1 image on Book
is from a rough old print and has detail and depth issues, plus
shadow detail limits and needs more work.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
5.1 lossless mix on Heart
is well mixed and presented, offering a solid presentation throughout
down to the classic music and is better than many theatrical films we
have seen on Blu-ray of late. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Go
ranks second place, even though it is inconsistent, more of it is
well recorded than not, but the same sound mix type on Summer
is too much in the center channel for its own good, making it as weak
as the old,
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Book which is already a bit scratchy
and a bit brittle at times.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
