180 Degrees South (2010/MagNet/Magnolia Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B-
Can you
retrace a classic journey in real life? Many
have tried, seeing a sort of glory and greatness in a given landmark journey,
but it is more than just the A-to-B points of the trip that make some travels
so great. In Chris Malloy’s 180 Degrees South (2010), Jeff Johnson
tries to recreate the 1968 expedition of Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins that
they took to Patagon. He gets a little
more than he bargained for.
From
wrecking on Easter Island to meeting his idols, now in Patagon to try and save
it, this is an interesting alternate entry in what is a record amount of
documentaries concerned rightly about the environment and the future of our
planet, make more poignant by the BP/Halliburton Gulf Oil spill disaster. Finished before that, it is not a preachy
piece and simply shows the beauty of the trip as well as the reasons someone
would take it. In that, this succeeds
well, but does not always totally distinguish itself from other such releases
in its own documentary cycle.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in High Definition video and
has some fine shots, but is not the best such HD footage of the outdoors we
have seen and definitely no match for the best filmed examples. Still, there are some good shots, but expect
more than a few instances of motion blur, some detail limits, some depth limits
and even color limits. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) lossless 5.1 is good for a documentary like this, but not great,
though there is little older footage, but some location audio issues as
expected. Extras include two making of
featurettes, a third on the music used, a trailer and Deleted Scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
