Colt
45: The Complete Series
(1957 - 1960/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/McCabe
& Mrs. Miller 4K
(1971/Criterion 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/The
Shootist
(1976/Paramount/MVD/Arrow Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B Sound: C+/C+ & C/B-
Extras: D/B/B- Main Programs: C+/A-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Colt
45: The Complete Series
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
The
Western as a genre finally saw its original end by the end of the
1970s. Here are three releases that show us how and why...
Colt
45: The Complete Series
(1957 - 1960) is
one of dozens of Western TV series that thrived for years as TV
reached a broader audience and lasted into the color TV era enough,
but so many were in black and white and this was one of them. Wayde
Preston is Christopher Colt, who sports and uses the gun of the
title, which is faster, slicker and does not need pre-preparation to
open fire with. No wadding or gunpowder needed, but many apparently
do not know this yet.
Loosely
based on the movie of the same name, Colt works for the U.S. Army
Intelligence Corps, going to different towns and encountering all
kinds of people, good, bad and very bad. They are not bad,
consistent and some future names turn up as guest stars including
Adam West, Troy Donahue, Leonard Nimoy, Dan Blocker, Robert Conrad,
Angie Dickinson, Alan Hale Jr. and even baseball legend Sandy Colfax.
Each run about a half-hour and the teleplays are efficient enough
and this was at a time before all dramas were an hour an episode.
By
Season
Three,
Preston left the show and Donald May stepped in to play his cousin
Sam Colt Jr., much the way Roger Moore landed up showing up a Beau
Maverick, the cousin of James Garner's wildly successful title
character on that show. The shows still looked good and played about
as well, but the show soon folded.
There
are sadly no extras.
Robert
Altman's McCabe
& Mrs. Miller 4K
(1971) is
one of the most brutal, honest, graphic, vivid westerns ever made,
produced in the face of the renaissance Sergio Leone's 'spaghetti
westerns' caused and the explosion of Professional Westerns had given
audiences, this was a film determined to be as period-accurate and
goes a step further than similar classics like Johnny
Guitar
and its spiritual cousin Once
Upon A Time In The West
to expose myths of the Old West.
Warren
Beatty is McCabe, a great gunslinger and gambler who things that the
church town he has arrived in also wants a gambling
casino/bar/brothel that can make him a fortune and set him for life
while enjoying it to the full. Julie Christie is high class 'lady of
the night' Mrs. Miller who meets McCabe and thinks they can form a
winning business relationship. She can bring in more women like her
to his new business and they can really cash in, even if the local
church objects.
However,
instead of strong resistance from any organized church people, but
form a big mining company who already has more money and wants even
more. At this point, the duo's new business is thriving, so much so
that when they make an offer, McCabe turns them down. As we've seen
in more recent history, the big company does not take no for an
answer and happier than he has been in a long time in his life and
maybe the happiest under the circumstances and the world he has lived
in for decades, he decides to go for broke and resist no matter what.
The result is an amazing all-around character study of the title
characters, country, The West and everyone around them.
This
makes him yet another one of the genius director Altman's great
anti-heroes, a far from perfect guy who lands up in a situation that
is greater than he can control but one that he will not allow to
change him under any circumstances. Incredible then and more
powerful than ever now, it remains one of the greatest films in the
history of the now-dead genre and like Altman's best films, which is
most of them, it is a true classic. Christie is more than his equal
and the supporting cast including William Devane, Rene Auberjonois,
John Schuck, Shelley Duvall, Bert Remsen, Michael Murphy, Keith
Carradine and an uncredited Terence Hill among so many who impress
here, watching McCabe & Mrs.
Miller is a real
experience like all the great classic films and you just do not watch
it, you live it, like you are going back in time, like you are
experiencing the dirt and mortality yourself, like seeing through a
time portal into the past, so palpable and realistic it is. Versus
the so-phony pseudo-Westerns we have been suffering through since the
1980s and especially the last few decades, it is a remedy to all of
them.
Altman
was on a roll at this point, logging in eight classics in a row
before returning to the West in his comedy Buffalo Bill and The
Indians (1976) to attack and expose myths of The West in a
different way, I guess he was finishing what he started here, even if
only so successfully. McCabe &
Mrs. Miller is a must-see
for all serious film fans and now in 4K totally restored, this is the
best way to see it since three-strip Technicolor print were struck
for its original release back in 1971. See it!!!
Extras
include a paper pullout that has some illustrations, tech info an an
essay by novelist and critic Nathaniel Rich, while the discs add...
• A
Making-Of documentary, featuring members of the cast and crew
• A
Feature-Length Audio Commentary Track from 2002 featuring director
Robert Altman and producer David Foster
• Conversation
about the film and Altman's career between film historians Cari
Beauchamp and Rick Jewell
• Featurette
from the film's 1970 production
• Art
Directors Guild Film Society Q&A from 1999 with production
designer Leon Ericksen
• Excerpts
from archival interviews with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond
• Gallery
of stills from the set by photographer Steve Schapiro
• Excerpts
from two 1971 episodes of The
Dick Cavett Show
featuring Altman and film critic Pauline Kael
• and
an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Don
Siegel's The
Shootist
(1976) was the last film in the long, usually western or war genre
(or both) career of John Wayne, mirroring his long career and the end
of it, using vintage footage of him as he plays a character with a
long history like himself and became ironic when James Stewart
(playing his doctor) tells him he has cancer. It even became a
public service announcement and Wayne would die of cancer only a few
years later. It was a big deal at the time.
Lauren
Bacall plays his woman from the past, Ron Howard (who is really good
here) plays the young guy learning the ropes and capacities of his
gun, with a great supporting cast that includes Hugh O'Brian, Richard
Boone, Harry Morgan, Gregg Palmer, John Carradine, Sheree North,
Scatman Crothers and a young Melanie Scott Thomas as the genre's
biggest star was at the end of his road. The genre itself was
finished by 1980.
Wayne
had already tried to do more contemporary action with Brannigan
and McQ,
but he is more in his element in this film as it takes on the tone of
a revenge western and this does have its moments, even if you are not
a fan of him or even his politics. A fitting final film, some of it
may be predictable and others will consider that comforting and not
necessarily formulaic, but a key film for all involved including
veteran director Siegel, who was always an underrated director. Even
if you are not a fan of most or anyone here involved, this is a film
all serious film fans should see once and see one of the last major
works with major figures from Classical Hollywood involved. Nice it
has been restored and taken care of so well.
Extras
include some limited edition content and (per the press release) it
all includes...
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Ultra High
Definition image on McCabe
& Mrs. Miller 4K
is of a film whose color 35mm camera negative was 'flashed' for
almost the entirety of the film, so it does not have or need any HDR,
including Dolby Vision. The last 20 minutes have regular color,
while the earlier parts are made so the studio could not change the
look, plus Altman and Director of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond,
A.S.C., came up with a look of the Western in the past realistically
which was more than just showing images that had browned. The result
is a semi-documentary look and Zsigmond would try this kind of thing
one more time with Michael Cimino on Heaven's
Gate
in 1980, but the results were mixed. The regular 1080p 2.35 X 1
digital High Definition image on the regular Blu-ray is not bad, but
you can still see qualities in the 4K intended from the filming that
Blu-ray cannot capture.
The
lossless PCM 1.0 Mono sound on the 4K is from the original 35mm
magnetic monophonic soundmaster and sounds fine, though I wish it
were 2.0 Mono. The lossless PCM 1.0 Mono sound on the regular
Blu-ray is somehow a little weaker for some reason, so it is less
impressive and harder to hear.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfers on all the Colt
45
episodes are from 4K scans and they all look shockingly good, making
it the second-best-looking black and white TV Western next to Have
Gun, Will Travel
and rarely shows the age of the materials used, so it becomes a real
pleasure to watch, even if it very episodic and a little formulaic.
Maybe some other monochromatic TV shows in the genre could look as
good if they get the same care and treatment, but it will be hard to
match this. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on each show show
their age, but sound as good as they pretty much ever will.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on The
Shootist
is from a solid 4K scan that rarely shows the age of the materials
used, making this as good as I have ever seen the film and I never
saw it in 35mm. Director of Photography Bruce Surtees, A.S.C.,
lensed many early films for Clint Eastwood as well as films like The
Outfit,
Conquest
Of The Planet Of The Apes,
Big
Wednesday,
Lenny
and the first Beverly
Hills Cop
knew how to handle making impactful images and that helps the film
hold up. The
lossless PCM 1.0 Mono is good for what it is and its age with
everything clear enough including the Elmer Bernstein score, but
again, two-channel mono would have been a little better. The
combination is fine and will surprise more than a few people.
To
order
the Colt
45
Warner Archive Blu-ray set, go to this link for it 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
