Catch
The Bullet
(2020/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/The
Damned (Visconti*)/I
Carry You With Me
(2020/Sony Blu-ray)/La
Piscine (The
Swimming Pool/*both
1969/Criterion Blu-ray)/Mare
Of Easttown
(2021/HBO/Warner DVD Set)/Mr.
Jealousy (1997/MVD
Blu-ray)/Naked Spur
(1953/MGM**)/Santa Fe
Trail (1940/**both Warner
Archive Blu-rays)
Picture:
B+/B/B/B/C/B+/B/B Sound: C+/B-/B/B-/C+/B+/B-/B- Extras:
D/B-/C-/C+/C/C+/C/C- Main Programs: A-/B-/C+/C+/B-/C+/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Naked Spur
and Santa
Fe Trail
Blu-rays now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for a wide variety of dramas, including where drama takes president
over genre...
Marshal
Britt MacMasters (Jay Picket) returns home to find his father shot
and his son kidnapped. Britt gathers a posse (including a Native
American) to hunt and track down those responsible, knowing what the
outlaw Jed really wants is him, and revenge for putting him away
years ago. However, both the Marshall and the outlaws venture into
Indian territory and the Indians are hunting them all in Michael
Feifer's Catch
The Bullet
(2020).
MacMasters
is also one of the fastest guns in West and over the years he's
killed more outlaws than he has locked away, but when one of the
outlaws escapes jail, he vows revenge on MacMasters at no matter the
cost. Seeking to lure him into a trap, Outlaw Jed not only uses
MacMasters' son as bait and hostage, both sides enter the Sioux
territory ...and the Sioux kills all white men regardless of who they
are. As the outlaws try to stay ahead and the Marshall's posse begins
to catch up, both sides have to fight/dodge the Sioux Indians. One
by one, each side loses men until it's only Jed and MacMasters is
left in a one-on-one showdown.
This
was your typical gritty Western movie, a lawman catching the outlaws
and plenty of gunfights, showdowns and a trail of dead bodies. The
cast, setting and costuming were all well done and it felt like the
old west. The main character seems like the unstoppable lawman with
a mission, but when his son's life is on the line, it's personal. As
usual, the good guys follow a code, while the bad guys try to take
advantage of others and gain the upper hand. Mason McNulty, Gattlin
Griffith, Peter Facinelli and Tom Skerritt also star.
Extras
includes trailer.
Luchino
Visconti's
The
Damned
(1969) is
a long and sometimes flawed, but still often remarkable indictment of
fascism and the German Nazis as its shows the slow collapse of a rich
and powerful steel industrialists' family as Hitler very slowly, but
surely and insidiously takes control of the entire country and
beyond. The head of the family and its business (Albrecht
Schoenhaus) believes he has secured the future of the company, his
family and friends, even as Hitler starts to take power, but several
unexpected turns and betrayals undermine that and they are not
pretty.
The
result is one of the most honest of all such films on the subject,
though some of the actors are clearly NOT German and you might think
this is about Italian Totalitarianists getting together with Nazis.
Otherwise, it pulls no punches and its amazing cast includes Dirk
Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Berger, Helmut Griem, Umberto Orsini,
Renaud Verley, Rene Koldehoff and Florinda Bolkan.
Along
with Bertolucci's The
Conformist,
Pasolini's Salo
and De Sica's The
Garden Of The Fizsi-Continis,
The Damned is one of the great indictments of Fascism, European
Fascism in particular, warnings of how this could happen again (very
timely) and why we should never forget the history and the truth in
the most graphic terms. Anything less is failure!
Extras
include a paper poster foldout on the film with tech info and an
essay by scholar D. A. Miller, while the disc adds an interview from
1970 with director Luchino Visconti about the film, Archival
interviews with actors Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin, and Charlotte
Rampling, Visconti:
Man of Two Worlds,
a 1969 behind-the-scenes documentary and a new interview with scholar
Stefano Albertini about the sexual politics of the film.
Heidi
Ewing's I
Carry You With Me
(2020) is a gay romance drama about a cook (Armando Espitia) and his
teacher (Christian Vasquez) falling in love with each other as the
former tires to realize his dream and both try to find happiness in a
suddenly more unfriendly U.S., but we get plenty of time in Mexico
and some character study. The film tries to handle their
relationship with honesty, sensuality and classiness, but we also get
too much predictability and a few cliches, though none are demeaning
or derogatory.
Running
111 minutes, it could have tried a few different hings, but is maybe
too laid back for its own good despite some good choices here and
there. Worth a look for those interested, Michele Rodriguez also
stars.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Jacques
Deray's La
Piscine
(The
Swimming Pool/1969)
wants to be a sexual thriller with a slower pace and a difference,
the great Romy Schneider and then huge star Alain Delon reunite as a
couple enjoying the good life as a married couple with much to be
happy about when she decides to invite her former boyfriend (Maurice
Ronet) to visit, but he brings his daughter (the iconic Jane Birkin,
a sex symbol of the time, ambiguously too) with him and slowly but
surely, this will turn out to be a very bad idea.
Running
122 minutes, there is slow and then there is really, really slow and
the latter might potentially mean more realism (unless you go Warhol
and film someone sleeping nonstop for 8 hours!) or a sense of warm or
honesty than the leisurely pace can produce. Unfortunately, the
approach here drags on and on more than anything and though the
actors are not bad, the script and pace wallow too much in their
world and 'beauty' resulting in a time capsule that just does not
work as a murder mystery, psychological thriller or erotic exercise
of any kind.
It
is still worth a look for the actors and locales (Maurice Jarre's
score is a plus, including an interesting attempt to have a hit vocal
record) but I was disappointed and this is simply not for everyone.
See it if you are REALLY interested.
Extras
include a
paper pullout with tech info, illustrations and essay by Jessica
Kiang, while the disc adds The
Swimming Pool: 'First Love Never Dies':
the English-language version of the film, Fifty
Years Later,
a 2019 documentary by Agnes Vincent-Deray featuring actors Alain
Delon and Jane Birkin, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, and
novelist Jean-Emmanuel Conil, New interview with scholar Nick
Rees-Roberts on the film's cinematic and aesthetic legacy, Archival
footage featuring Alain Delon, Jane Birkin, actors Romy Schneider and
Maurice Ronet, and director Jacques Deray, an Alternate Ending and
Trailers.
Mare
Of Easttown
(2021) is the mini-series with some serious buzz and just received
some key Emmy Awards as we cover this. Kate Winslet proves once
again to be one of the best actors (and actresses) around as the
title character, a police detective with her own private issues, a
longtime resident of the title locale and a year in trying to find a
missing young lady when a new set of crimes star up echoing the
missing gal.
This
only increases the pressure on her to solve the older mystery while
finding out about the new one when politics force an out-of-town
detective (the amazing Evan Peters) who just notched an impressive
case solve to help her. That annoys her, but might not be enough as
the situation gets worse as more crimes take place, more questions
turn up, more bad judgment happens and more toxic relationships are
revealed in the small Pennsylvania town.
Running
seven episodes, it holds itself together for the most part, but does
run into a few small problems at the end, but Winslet carries things
amazingly well and with a great supporting cast that includes Jean
Smart, Julianne Nicholson, Izzy King, Guy Pearce, Cameron Mann, John
Douglas Thompson and Ruby Cruz. Among the glut of so many shows,
this is one of the true standout series of the last few years and one
of the only ones anyone will likely remember decades from now. Put
it on your must-see list.
Extras
include four behind-the-scenes clips used to promote the mini-series.
Eric
Stoltz stars in Mr.
Jealousy
(1997), which is a film by Noah Baumbach (Frances
Ha,
Marriage
Story
(see our Criterion Blu-ray review elsewhere on this site)), and is
ultimately a study on trust in relationships. Stoltz plays Lester,
whose an aspiring writer who is still traumatized by a romantic
incident in his teens and takes his fear into his adult
relationships. When he meets Ramona (Annabella Sciorra), he ends up
falling in love with her, but finds out that her ex is a successful
novelist. He soon starts attending the same group therapy sessions as
her ex in an effort to understand her better, but it ends up doing
more harm than good.
The
film also stars Chris Eigeman, Carlos Jacott, Marianne Jean-Baptiste,
and Brian Kerwin.
Special
Features:
Revisiting
Mr. Jealousy
- Brand new feature including new interviews with cast members Brian
Kerwin, Peter Bogdanovich, producer Joel Castelberg along with
vintage interviews with writer and director Noah Baumbach.
and
an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Most
of Baumbach's films that I have seen are pretty depressing if you ask
me, but I see the artistic appeal to them and why people enjoy them.
The writing here is interesting, if not a little dated at times, but
Eric Stoltz delivers a fine performance and the film brings up some
interesting thoughts on human behavior.
Anthony
Mann's The
Naked Spur
(1953) is considered one of the great Westerns of its time, one of
five with James Stewart as a bounty hunter looking for revenge in
ways he might not have first expected, falling for a married Janet
Leigh while looking for an evasive Robert Ryan. It is a fan favorite
and there are bad Hollywood-style 'Indians' for them to fight too.
It has moments that work and was likely more impressive when it was
released, but now is not quite as impressive as it once likely was.
Still,
the acting is better than many films in the genre then and especially
now, Ralph Meeker leads the supporting cast and is in rare form here,
making it worth a good look just to see him in a different way. The
locales look good and MGM did put some money into it, so it is a
welcome restoration with actors and stars I happen to particularly
like. Now you can judge for yourself.
Extras
include vintage live-action Pete
Smith Specialty
comedy short Things
We Can Do Without
(done in a semi-documentary style), the classic Tex Avery MGM
Technicolor animated short Little
Johnny Jet
and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Finally,
we have Michael Curtiz's The
Santa Fe Trail
(1940), a Civil War drama made during WWII meant to pump up morale,
but at 109 minutes, goes on and on and on and on feeling much longer
than the nearly 160 minutes of Visconti's The
Damned
(above) including maybe the most numerous title cards and
descriptions in a sound era film.
Errol
Flynn is Jeb Stuart and Ronald Reagan is George Armstrong Custer,
going to Kansas to fight abolitionists (lead by Raymond Massey) and
falling for the same woman, played well by a scene-stealing Olivia de
Havilland. The Civil War is not far behind, but this is not always
about that war and gets melodramatic more than expected (the case
calls it a 'horse opera' and if the horses started singing, that
would have been a much more interesting film!) while Alan Hale and
Van Heflin lead a solid supporting cast. Not my kind of film and I
do not think it always works, but it is restored well here and if you
like it or have never seen it, this is now the way to see it outside
of a mint film print.
Extras
include an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Now
for playback performance. The
Damned
is presented in 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image that
looks good for the most part, but it turns out the 35mm negative was
in bad shape for some reason (like Ridley Scott's Legend,
which we'll review the Blu-ray of next) and the result is the best
the film has looked on home video save a green leaning. I usually do
not have much trouble with a transfer that has such a side to it, but
the color here is affecting the Video White and Film White, so that
holds it back a bit. This is a new 2K scan and is fine otherwise.
The
film was originally shot in Eastman Color 35mm negative film stocks,
but despite the credits only noting 'Eastmancolor' in the beginning,
the write-up on the back of the case is literally correct about
Technicolor because those are the kind of prints, 35mm dye-transfer
copies, Warner originally issued the film in theatrically. Who knows
if they had any such copies left, but they are very valuable now.
The
PCM 2.0 Mono lossless sound in Italian and an odd English dub that
includes British accents, though I wish it had a German alternative.
The Italian is dubbed as expected, but it sounds best and the most
authentic of the two here.
Bullet
is also presented in a 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image
and looks as good as it can in the format, making this another 4K
candidate for Lionsgate, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is simpler and to
pedestrian for its own good.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Carry
has some softness, but there is some style here too, with the camera
not shaking much. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is a bit better than
expected with a better soundfield than expected, well recorded and
balanced nicely.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image on Piscine
has some fine color and a few signs of the film's age, but this new
restoration with its 4K scan is very clear, color rich and the
lossless PCM 2.0 Mono soundtrack has been nicely restored from the
original magnetic mono soundmaster.
Mr.
Jealousy
is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer on Blu-ray disc, an
MPEG-4 AVC codec with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossless
English LPCM 2.0 Stereo mix. The film has been restored nicely to
Blu-ray disc and there aren't any visible flaws in the presentation.
It has aged well and looks and sounds fine here. Seeing that the
film isn't anything fantastical, this standard stereo mix is
appropriate.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Spur
can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a
transfer to all previous releases of the film and was made in
dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor, which can look pretty good, if not
spectacular throughout. It is not a musical, so the color cannot be
too wide-ranging. I would expect this comes pretty close to a 35mm
print just the same.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Trail
can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a
transfer to al the previous video editions of this film I have seen,
though it has more optical work involved. I cannot imagine it
looking much better.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on both Spur
and Trail
sound better than expected from their original optical mono
soundmasters and will likely never sound better than they do here.
And
finally, the anamorphically enhanced 2.00 X 1 image on Mare
looks fair for the format though it is softer more often than I would
have liked or the HD footage I have sen of it, so a Blu-ray (issued
by Warner Archive only) version and if this set is any indication,
that would look even better. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is just
fine for a dialogue-based film with some good music and sound design,
but it likely sounds better lossless.
To
order either
of the Warner Archive Blu-rays, The
Naked Spur
and Santa
Fe Trail,go
to this link for them and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo, Ricky Chiang (Bullet)
and James Lockhart (Jealousy)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/