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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Politics > Hollywood Witch-hunt > Discrimination > Racism > Western > Sports > Running > Guilty By Suspicion (1990/Warner Archive DVD)/Hombre (1967/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/McFarland USA (2015/Disney Blu-ray)

Guilty By Suspicion (1990/Warner Archive DVD)/Hombre (1967/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/McFarland USA (2015/Disney Blu-ray)



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



PLEASE NOTE: The Guilty By Suspicion DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and the Hombre Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last. Both can be ordered from the links below.



The following dramas try to deal with prejudice, racism and more...



Irwin Winkler's Guilty By Suspicion (1990) is the ever underrated other film besides Martin Ritt's great The Front (1976, see our coverage of the limited edition Twilight Time Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) about the ugly, horrible effects of the Hollywood witchhunts by the US Government in the 1950s. It should have been a big hit then, rediscovered by now and yet, it is just now getting a DVD release and an on-line only one by Warner Archive. The film is excellent.


Robert De Niro plays a screenwriter working at Fox (for Darryl F. Zanuck no less) who has a wife (Annette Benning), a family and friends. He works hard and believes in the American Dream when suddenly, the witchhunt begins and people are asked to turn on others to look good, stay employed and/or not go to jail. The script is very well written and period brought to life with total authenticity as nothing is left unspoken or not portrayed about how bad things were at the time. It holds up really well, is as timely as ever and at the time, people were asking if it could happen again.


To some extent, it was. By the 2000s and post 9/11, it did. A shame how prophetic it was and that history has repeated itself, which is why it is such an important, special film. George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, Sam Wanamaker and Martin Scorsese are among the great, strong supporting cast. If you have never seen it, go out of you way for it. It shows how prejudice, hatemongering and political manipulation become a horrid combination.


There are sadly no extras.



Martin Ritt's Hombre (1967) asks us to believe Paul Newman is half-Native American and that was a stretch back then let alone now, but was also a bold thing in 1966 when this film was made and plays into how his character will have to deal with racism and a group of greedy men who kill to get a small fortune. This is as much a character study that asks questions about human nature and the West as much as a simple Revenge Western, but Ritt (based on the Elmore Leonard book, a man whose properties in the genre are suddenly curios again thanks to the great TV series Justified that recently ended its run) tries to do more with it.


Richard Boone is the main thief, coming around with murder and bloodletting for said wealth, which slowly drags in all kinds of persons who might not otherwise get hooked into the situation including a a tough salon gal (Diane Cliento), a strange man (Frederic March) and his wife (Barbara Rush) and more (Martin Balsam and Cameron Mitchell are also here) in a film that has its moments. However, I always found it a bit bogged down and a little uneven, with some moments not aging well. Still, it is rightly a favorite of Western fans and the cast is great. Sexism, arrogance and class division also show up here and it is worth a look for those interested. For every moment that is obvious and predictable, something opposite happens.


Extras include another illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and essay by Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray adds an exceptionally excellent feature length audio commentary track by Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo, Original Theatrical Trailer and Isolated Music Score track of David Rose's music for the film. Issued years ago as a double feature on a CD we reviewed here...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1695/Undefeated/Hombre+(Limited+CD


That CD is sadly out of print ($100+ a copy at the time of this review) and you can now have the score by getting this Blu-ray.



Niki Caro's McFarland USA (2015) has Kevin Costner back after Black Or White (where he broke the race barrier.... we guess....) as a high school coach who gets fired for an accidental incident, landing up at another school. He is married and has a family. This time, the school has many Latino students who are in trouble, but he gets to know them and is determined to make an excellent running team out of a solid group of young men. It works!


This is based on a true story and for a change, I bought that part, but the script is so 1980s mall-movie phony that its slight smugness every few scenes gets so redundant that it makes the whole long 129 minutes (!) run on and on and on for no good reason, even when it occasionally deals with palpable racism and prejudice. This puts it way below much better such Disney releases like Miracle and I blame Costner in part for not realizing this. Only watch when awake!


Extras include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds a Music Video, two Making Of featurettes and Deleted & Extended Scenes.



The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Guilty has a few moments where you can see what a superior 35mm film shoot this was, is and always will be, but unfortunately, this transfer (a possible recycle of the widescreen master used for the old 12-inch analog LaserDisc) is a little too soft with tiny noise throughout to really show off the stunning work of Director of Photography Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. in some of his most underrated work. He lensed this around the time of Scorsese's GoodFellas (reviewed elsewhere on this site).


The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Hombre is from a new HD master by Fox that does a fine job of showing off the DeLuxe color, real 35mm anamorphic Panavision scope frame and shot by the also-legendary James Wong Howe, who worked with Ritt on many occasions including Hud.


The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on USA is a digital shoot and when it tries to look dusty, it seems forced and weak, especially as compared to Hombre. Consistently generic, it is not a very memorable film visually and disappoints.


In the sound department, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Guilty is one generation down and a little weak, though it does have some Pro Logic surrounds. This was a well-recorded film and deserves a major upgrade. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 Mono lossless mix on Hombre is pretty good for its age, rendering the original theatrical mono sound as well as can be expected and sounds as good as it ever will.


That leaves the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on USA the sonic champ here, by default as much as anything. The soundfield is solid from well-recorded, consistent work, but it is oddly not very memorable on any sonic level.



To order the Guilty By Suspicion Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


https://www.warnerarchive.com/


...and to order the Hombre limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other great exclusives while supplies last at this link:


www.screenarchives.com



- Nicholas Sheffo


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