The
Exorcist 4K (1973/Warner
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Set)/Directed
by Sidney J. Furie (1970
- 1978 with The
Lawyer/Little
Falsy and Big Halsy/Hit!/Sheila
Levine Is Dead and Living In New York/Boys
In Company C/Via
Vision/imprint Blu-ray Box Set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: X/B (Levine: B-) Sound:
B/C+ (Halsy and Boys:
B-) Extras: C/B Films: B+/B- (Lawyer: C+)
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Sidney
J. Furie
Import Blu-ray set is now only available from our friends at Via
Vision Entertainment in Australia, can play on all Blu-ray players
and can be ordered from the link below.
Are
movies from the 1970s better than from most eras? Often yes, but
actually talking about those films and seeing them tell the whole
story, as these releases show us...
William
Freidkin's The
Exorcist 4K
(1973)
We
have covered both Blu-ray sets with both cuts of the movie at these
links:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10467/The+Exorcist+(1973+(including+Extended+Directo
Reissue
with Ultraviolet Copy:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12414/The+Exorcist+-+40th+Anniversary+Edition:+Exten
As
with those sets, this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray set has the two versions of
the films on separate discs, but that is not an issue for me. Now
seeing the film again for the first time in a good few years, it
remains as effective as ever, Freidkin knew this edition was coming
out and the film was further upgraded and preserved for theatrical
presentation. It holds up well, especially the longer version, but
it is even more impressive with all the imitators that have come out
in just the last five to ten years. The prequels and TV series based
on the book and this film hardly get discussed and for good reason.
This also remains one of the most successful films in Warner Bros.
history, still making money and gaining new fans and respect. Most
of the visual effects even still hold up.
All
that is why seeing this film in 4K is something to really check out.
Only
the vintage intro by Freidkin and two feature-length audio commentary
tracks from those Blu-ray sets are retained for this set.
A
new set finally gives a much-needed limelight to an underrated
filmmaker. Canadian-born Sidney J. Furie started making a name for
himself on horror movies and angry young man films, then in 1965, he
delivered a huge British classic with The
Ipcress File
with Michael Caine.
The
Naked Runner, Lady Sings The Blues, The Entity, Purple Hearts
and the Iron
Eagle
films followed, along with some smaller films and occasional TV
works. However, he made even more great and solid films that are
criminally ignored and the new Directed
by Sidney J. Furie
tries to correct.
I'm
sure the failure of Superman
IV
did not help the situation and being a journeyman filmmaker and not
an auteur has also stopped him and so many other great directors form
the period from being remembered. Sets like this are long overdue
and for the many filmmakers out there who are also being forgotten,
we cannot have enough of them. These are five very interesting films
you should see at least once and have the director in his mid-prime.
The
Lawyer
(1970) has Barry Newman in a rare lead role as unconventional lawyer
Tony Petrocelli, who is a devil may care type of guy and not the best
man to hire for any job, but that complacency gets challenged when he
is dragged into a high profile murder. Later a brief, respected TV
series, it has its moments.
Little
Falsy and Big Halsy
(1970) also has the great Michael J. Pollard in a rare lead role,
co-starring with Robert Redford as two dirt bikers trying to make a
living and have all kinds of fun in the process. Part of a
little-discussed cycle of more realistic (and naturalistic) sports
dramas (mostly dealing with cars racing, but exceptions include
Redford's own, underrated Downhill
Racer
and led to the car race chase comedies that wore thin quickly but the
early 1980s) that were slice-of-life films with some character study
as we get here, there is a bigger audience for this film than even at
the time with such bike racing (joined by BMX, et al) that there are
plenty of people who would really enjoy this one. Redford was not
always happy with this film, but many think it is one of his best and
I agree on some level, where he has to approach things differently
and he is at his most realistic here. Model Lauren Hutton shows that
she can act too!
Hit!
(1973) was promoted like it belonged to the red hot Blaxploitation
cycle of the day, but it is has Billy Dee Williams as a federal agent
who's daughter had died from a drug overdose, so he decides to take
the 'war on drugs' to a new level in this surprisingly effective
action thriller. Richard Pryor shows up in a comic turn that works
well enough, but is never overdone. Effective shot by Director of
Photography John A. Alonzo (De Palma's Scarface)
with a Lalo Schifrin music score, this is another gem way overdue for
rediscovery.
Sheila
Levine Is Dead and Living In New York
(1975) is a character study film with the title character (Jeannie
Berlin) trying to keep to herself and while trying to make it in the
Big Apple and not get involved with anyone, but lands up falling for
a man (Roy Scheider) who is not necessarily interested in commitment
or her. This is the kind of mature, smart relationships film no one
seems to know how to make anymore, which extends to the likes of
cable, satellite and streaming programming. The great Gail Parent
wrote the book and co-wrote the screenplay for this and though some
parts are hard to watch, it is worth a look.
Finally
we have The
Boys In Company C
(1978) which joined Cimino's The
Deer Hunter
as the first films to finally deal with the Vietnam fiasco, both
films made partly outside of the Hollywood studios. Andrew Stevens,
Michael Lembeck, Stan Shaw and Craig Wasson play the main recruits in
the title outfit in 1967, whose fate is to become a key part of how
early operations played out. R. Lee Ermey even shows up in a scene
(later of Kubrick's Full
Metal Jacket
and Altman's Streamers)
as these two films ended the 'he's coming home' cycle of Vietnam
dramas for good. Holds up as one of the better entries in such
feature-films in the cycle that played into the late 1980s.
That
adds up to a very, very solid collection of films out of general
circulation way too long and includes some great work by all the
talent involved. Let's hope this is the beginning of a director's
series of some sort because we could use that now!
Extras
are many and listed in detail at the order link, but expect a bunch
of new featurettes, new audio commentary tracks, original theatrical
trailers for all five films and a high grade booklet on the five
films and Furie himself. Very nice!
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Exorcist
4K may have some grain issues in parts and the debate about
proper color timing that plagued Freidkin's The French Connection
is surfacing again here, but this is even more effective a
presentation than the already-effective Blu-ray editions we
previously covered. Video Black and Video Red are richer, denser and
makes the already creepy film more so. No, this is not in Dolby
Vision unfortunately, but impresses throughout and even has some demo
shots above my letter grade.
I
went into detail about how the film started as a monophonic film in
my older review, then kept getting upgraded over the years. Now it
is in a new lossless Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for
older systems) upgrade that is even more effective than all previous
editions, even more so than the punchy DTS-ES 6.1 lossless mixes on
the older Blu-ray editions. They have gone back to the original
sound stems and any harshness issues that existed before are gone,
leaving the sound naturalistic, smooth and clear. That also leaves
some of the dialogue sounding clearly monophonic, but all the sound
effects, dialogue and music is better than ever. It also joins the
rare company of other 4K releases like Hitchcock's Psycho
(DTS: X) and Enter The Dragon (Dolby Atmos) as monophonic
sound films that have miraculously been upgraded to 12-track sound in
a way that works. Expect this to continue to be a rare thing.
That
includes Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, the hit that put this
film over, the original album of which has been issued in a limited
edition Blu-ray Audio disc with the second quad mix of the album
Oldfield actually liked (versus the first Quad mix, as featured on
the SA-CD he apparently was not as happy with) plus a 5.1 remix
making its lossless debut here and a Dolby Atmos mix of the original
album that is also very impressive. There is even an unfinished
Tubular Bells 4 sounding really good and was, of course, a
much more recent recording. Wonder if these remasters were used in
any way for this 4K disc.
All
five Furie
films are 2K scans, save 4K scans for Lawyer
and Sheila,
with the
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Lawyer
is looking really good. The rest of the films are here in 1080p 2.35
X 1 digital High Definition image transfers and they all also look
fine, yet Sheila
is the weakest of the five here for me and is slightly disappointing
and I do not think it is just the way the film was lensed. Maybe it
is because Movielab handled the developing and prints for the film,
versus Lawyer
and Hit!,
with labwork and 35mm
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints. Technicolor even did
the lab work on the rest, but no dye-transfer prints in the U.K., but
possibly overseas and in the U.K. in particular.
All
five films were issued in theatrical optical monophonic sound and are
here in PCM 2.0 Mono lossless mixes that allow the films to sound as
good as they likely ever will, though Halsy
and Boys
(made by Golden Harvest, whose recent Blu-ray upgrades to dozens of
their own movies have not been sounding as good as one would wish)
are the best sounding of the bunch. The restoration work overall is
impressive and fans will not be disappointed.
To
order
import Blu-ray set, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive
releases at:
https://viavision.com.au/shop/directed-by-sidney-j-furie-1970-1978-imprint-collection-231-235/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
