Block Pass (2024/Distrib/Icarus DVD)/Dakota (1974*/**)/His Motorbike, Her Island (1986/*both Cult Epics Blu-ray/**)/Phoenician Scheme 4K (2025/Focus/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Through And Through (1973/Radiance Blu-ray/**all MVD)/They Died With Their Boots On (1941/Warner Archive Blu-ray)

4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: C/B-/B-/B/B/B Sound: C/C+/B-/B/B-/C+ Extras: C-/B/B/C+/B-/C+ Films: B-/B/B-/C+/B-/B-

PLEASE NOTE: The They Died With Their Boots On Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.

Antoine Chevrollier's Block Pass (2024) is a smart drama about motorbike racing with two team mates (Amaury Foucher, Sayyid El Alami) who are friends who are determined to win, but when one discovers the other is gay and having an affair with a grown adult, it throws things off a bit. When the older guy is with another woman who is pregnant, you know things are nto going to stay quiet for long. Did she purposely get pregnant? She does not know about the affair yet.

This could have been handled badly, turned bad or gave up and used formulas and cliches, but it does not for the most part, though we have seen some of this before. My only complaint is that by the ending, there is one bit unresolved and that might be a problem, but besides all that, this is well done and worth a look for those interested. Cheers to the supporting cast as well.

Extras include Original Theatrical Trailers for three other Distrib/Icarus releases.

Wim Verstappen's Dakota (1974) is a Dutch cinema gem that should be considered a classic, but somehow became a lost film despite a U.S. release and some general success. One I saw eons ago and was very pleasantly shocked and surprised to see again after all this time. Kees Brusse plays the pilot of a DC3/Dakota airplane that he has owned forever and has taken so much care of, he will not part with it, no matter its issues, but the authorities start accusing him of delivering contraband product in some of his delivery trips.

Seeing it as none of their business, they also remind him his plane might not pass inspection next time, which he does not react to. However, he will act on that soon enough and continue to do what he wants, especially where serious money is concerned and keep his plane going.

With many very interesting, even intense silent sequences, there are also some great subplot developments including a new love interest (Paul Verhoeven regular Monique van de Ven from The Fourth Man and Turkish Delight) making for an interesting aside, but other women also become interested. Running a very rich, thick and cinematic 107 minutes, this recovery and rerelease is something to celebrate and along with The Bat and The Bat Whispers is one of the biggest such event rereleases of the year. Any serious filmmaker or film lover needs to see this one and I very, very highly recommend it!

Extras include a Feature Length Audio Commentary by film historian Peter Verstraten

• Dakota Press flight

• Cannes Filmfestival 1978 (Vara Visie)

• Photo Gallery

• Scorpio Films Trailers

• New artwork design by Juan Esteban R.

• Reversible sleeve with original Dutch poster art

• and a Slipcase.

Nobuhkio Obayashi's His Motorbike, Her Island (1986) is about a biker on the rebound (Riki Takeuchi) who finds a new gal (Kiwako Harada) unburdened by much of anything, they quickly fall for each other. The film is split into beautiful black and white sequences, that then go into full color, with some interesting transitions and definition variances as color is more about 'reality' and this somehow always works throughout.

The leads have great chemistry and as the title suggests we also get some great locale shots and the Kawasaki (W3 650) in the film becomes as vital as the Honda in the classic book Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance. Also qualifying as a biker film as much as a romance and melodrama, it is an underrated gem and any serious film fan should go out of their way to see it. Nice it has been reissued in this remarkable restoration.

Extras include a Feature Length Audio Commentary by Samm Deighan

• Becoming the Wind: His Motorbike, Her Island and the Biker Movie - Visual essay by Esther Rosenfield

• Her Island: Onomichi Pt. 1 - Visual essay by Alex Pratt

• Director Nobuhiko Obayashi Archival Interview

• Theatrical Trailers

• New improved English subtitles

• New Slipcase design by Sam Smith

• Reversible sleeve with Japanese original poster art

• and this First Pressing includes repro 24-page Japanese booklet (pamphlet).

Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme 4K (2025) is the latest entry in the latest era of the filmmaker's career featuring teal-visions, surrealism, multiple aspect ratios and eccentric intellectualisms that has turned off some longtime fans and frustrated others. This time, Benicio del Toro plays the 'richest man in Europe' who happens to have the last name of Korda (the same name of the famous director of Technicolor adventures in the 1940s, et al) just surviving his six assassination attempt.

The film keeps introducing all kinds of characters with various connections and historical facts along with them and locales that can at least sometimes seem real. It may take some liberties with actual history, but he (and co-writer roman Coppola) somehow do all this seemingly all over the place, yet lands up adding up in some way when all is said and done. It is also how they attract top talent to his films and you would rarely find so many great and key actors (Tom Hanks, Michael Cera, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Benedict Cumberbatch) in any film these days.

So it does add up in some way and the makers are not doing references and intertextual references to show off, though they could if they wanted to. With that said, it is not fragmented and senseless like many critics have accused it and recent Anderson releases of being, yet even adding up, it still does not make it a good or great movie. But it is a complete, well-rounded one (closed narrative to some extent?) and that's fine for fans and the curious, but still was not enough for myself and many others, including a nice percentage of those older Anderson fans.

Still, its better he does what he wants to do and who knows, maybe the next film will have more impact for more people. See this one only if you are very, very curious.

Extras include a Digital Code for the film and multi-part featurette Behind The Phoenician Scheme.

Grzegorz Krolikiewicz's Through And Through (1973) is a seriously remarkable Polish film with a couple (Anna Nieborowska as Maria, Franciszek Trzeciak as Jan) hoping for a better future and he is an architect (sound familiar?) who cannot seem to find a job to survive and grow with his talents. Disgusted and stuck, they decide to pull off a robbery to solve their money problems, but it does not work out as expected and all kinds of unexpected results follow.

Told in an often surreal style with impactful editing and vivd images that usually work throughout, it is a character study, but also puts the viewer often in another work and state of mind, even when you get plenty of sequences that are comparatively naturalistic. With echoes of French New Wave and some of Eisenstein's work, it is an underrated film work that has also been under-discussed and unseen too much, restored and back in a way that could not be more timely.

Krolikiewicz is a very skilled director with distinct filmmaking that makes me wonder why we do not see or hear more about him or his work. Is he still too cutting edge? Too clever? Too honest? Too mature? Too adult? Whatever the case, Through And Through is yet another must-see film out of circulation for far too long and any filmmaker of fan serious about such filmmaking needs to go out of their way for this one too. Glad its back!

Extras include a NEW 2K restoration supervised by cinematographer Bogdan Dziworski

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio

• New interview with critic Michal Oleszczyk (2025)

• Three short films by Grzegorz Krolikiewicz: Everyone Gets What They Don't Need (1966, 12 minutes), Brothers (1971, 6 minutes), and Don't Cry (1972, 9 minutes) [Expect some graphic Holocaust footage.]

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Ela Bittencourt

• and Limited Edition of 3,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings.

Raoul Walsh's They Died With Their Boots On (1941) is a still-discussed Civil War film with Errol Flynn as General Custer, from West Point to the battle field, remarkably well done in its time and still holding up better than you might expect, even taking the many liberties the screenplay does. The ever-gutsy Walsh goes for impact and that's what we get, with the irony the film is a hit as we enter WWII, backed with a solid budget and great cast that includes Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Regis Toomey, Gene Lockhart, Sydney Greenstreet, Frank Wilcox, Hattie McDaniel and Anthony Quinn.

In the face of the recent revival in the last few decades of that war, it is a long one at 140 minutes, so you can expect some unevenness, but it works more often than not and with a good pace that does not make it seem as old as it does. It can even feel period. The ambition here usually pays off and now you can see for yourself. It was also the last time Flynn and de Havilland worked together, so they went out on a high note.

Also, there is extra footage in this cut that was not in the original theatrical release!

Extras include an Original Theatrical Trailer and a Warner Night At The Movies program hosted by Leonard Maltin including 1942 Newsreel, live action military short Soldier In White, Making Of featurette They Died With Their Boots On: To Hell Or Glory, Original Theatrical Trailer for All Through The Night and the classic animated Warner Bros. Technicolor short A Tale Of Two Kitties where Tweety takes on an amusing variant of Abbott & Costello!

Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image with various aspect ratios on The Phoenician Scheme 4K continues Anderson's new 'teal-vision' era where colors are often as changing as they are artificial, on purpose, but do retain much detail and depth. The 1080p Blu-ray included is not bad, but no match for the 4K disc and shows that Anderson's use of color is a little more complex than he is being given credit for. The lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) mix on both discs are fine, with some interesting sonic moments, but you also get your share of silent moments or audio that is not always loud, punchy or active. This is in keeping with his recent output as well.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Dakota was shot in Techniscope and prints in 35mm, dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor, including in its U.S. theatrical release. He surviving materials have some damage and can be uneven, but have been restored as much as possible for now and the film still looks great. It also has two great Director of Photography in Jan de Bont (Robocop, Kathy Tipple, Die Hard, Basic Instinct) and Theo van de Sande (Crossing Delancey, The Debut, Blade with Wesley Snipes) with great work that somehow melds together without an issue. Ironically, that happened to another big 1974 feature film release, the now James Bond cult classic The Man With The Golden Gun where the series' long time DPP was having vision issues and another ace DP was called in to finish the film and their work matches perfectly too. The Dutch DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono and PCM 2.0 Mono lossless mixes are well-restored and sound very good, even if you get many stretches of silence, there is still sound throughout and the audio is smart in how it is mixed and presented. Even with its technical limits, the combination is engaging enough, as is the film itself.

The 1080p 1.66 X 1 image (with some 1.33 X 1) digital High Definition image transfer on His Motorbike, Her Island starts in black & white, then goes to color, switching smoothly back and forth for the whole film. Usually looking really good in the depth and detail departments, there are moments where it is purposely a little faded or soft or blurred, but that is on purpose. Though the case says this is a monophonic film, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono and PCM 2.0 Mono lossless mixes are actually simple stereo and the film was issued in old Dolby System A-type analog sound. Play with Pro Logic mode (or the like) for home theater systems.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Through And Through rarely shows the age of the materials used, rich and thick, with some fine depth and detail. Video Black can get inky, as intended and editing has great impact. The Polish PCM 2.0 Mono lossless mix is very rich and full as well, so watching this is very involving and the restoration work is more impressive than usual.

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on They Died With Their Boots On (can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film with fine detail, depth and solid Video Black and Video White. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix has been restored as well as possible, but shows its age, yet this is the best the film will probably ever sound.

Finally, the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Block Pass is well shot and a good use of the scope frame, so it is a little disappointing it is softer than I would have liked, but the lossy French Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo fares a little better. The combination is passable, but I wished this were at least a Blu-ray a few times throughout.

To order the Warner Archive They Died With Their Boots On Blu-ray, 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