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A
Bullet For The General (1968/aka Quien Sabe?/Blue Underground
Blu-ray)/Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959/Fox/Twilight
Time Limited Edition/First Edition Blu-ray)/Red Tails
(2012/LucasFilm/Fox DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B+/C+/C Films: B-/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE: Included here is the first of two limited editions
of the Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959) Blu-ray
limited to 3,000 copies (the first one covered here sold out) and the
replacement edition is available exclusively at the Screen Archives
website while supplies last. The order site can be reached at the
link at the end of this review. You can read about the upgraded
version at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13443/The+Alphabet+Murders+(1966/MGM/Warner+Archi
The
idea of a widescreen film opened up narrative possibilities and
created a new sense of pure cinema ranging from additional artistic
to more commercial possibilities. The following three films show
both sides of this.
One
of the few really memorable Spaghetti Westerns outside of those made
by Sergio Leone, Damiano Damiani's A Bullet For The General
(1968) takes place during the Mexican Revolution with a gang led by
El Chucho (Gian Maria Volonté, who also appeared in A Fistful Of
Dollars on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) with an odd wildman (a
scene-stealing Klaus Kinski) and sexy, able-bodied lady (Martine
Beswick of the Bond films) in tow, stealing guns for the rebel
opposition and joined by an enterprising American gentleman (Lou
Castel) who has is own interests that are initially unknown.
Though
there are clichéd moments and some moments that feel familiar,
acting, energy and some audacity helps keep this from becoming as
silly as the hundreds of other Leone imitators. As well, it has a
score by no less than Ennio Morricone (who scored all of Leone's
films) and screenplay by Franco Solanas, who wrote the political
classic The Battle Of Algiers (reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray
elsewhere on this site) so this is a rare, formidable other film from
the subgenre like Django (also out on Blu-ray from Blue
Underground, also reviewed on this site) that all fans should see
once.
We
get the longer International Version, which runs 3 minutes more than
the U.S. version and is better, because those few minutes add to the
exposition and do not disrupt the pace and feel of the film as the
U.S. version does, but you can compare for yourself. It has been a
while since I have seen this and it held up better than I expected.
Extras
include a bonus DVD with a nearly two-hour documentary on Volonté
called Gian Maria Volonté: Un Attore Contra, meaning he was opposed
to everything. This rich, detailed, impressive biography covers his
life, his very leftist politics, how it landed up making him a better
actor and making more challenging films. Only watch it after seeing
this movie and know that optional English captioning is available,
though in a few spots, it is not captioned where it should be. The
Blu-ray adds theatrical trailers, a Poster & Still Gallery and
featurette A Bullet For The Director in which Director Damiani is
interviewed.
That
film was shot cheaply in Techniscope, but has tendencies good and bad
to relish and bask in its widescreen images. Henry Levin's Journey
To The Center Of The Earth (1959) was shot about a decade earlier
in the more expensive CinemaScope process and tends to do the same
thing (Techniscope had not been invented yet) and knows it is one of
the first films to do so in the way it does this to show its
importance. Shots are held longer, especially on set, but it was
showing off for a reason. Films of Jules Verne's books had just been
big hits, with Disney and Richard Fleischer hitting it big on 20,000
Leagues Under The Sea (1954, also in CinemaScope) with James
Mason that is still a definitive version of that book and Around
The World In 80 Days (1956) with David Niven in the even more
spectacular Todd AO 70mm format.
Fox
had a reason to believe their Journey would be a big hit and
though it is not as good as those films, it has Mason, was a hit and
also made money for them in constant re-release in later years until
home video made such reissues useless and it was also on TV often.
Twilight Time has issued the film in a Limited Edition Blu-ray and it
is very comparable to the 35mm print I have seen, plus Fox fixed the
film up the best they could from their archive as Rupert Murdoch has
been putting out the money to enhance the studio's catalog, something
he has done that is inarguably great. [Fox has since spent more
money for a new upgrade for the new limited edition.]
Mason
is an archeologist who takes on an assistant (Pat Boone in one of his
rare, odd acting roles, that somehow matches the artifice of some of
the sets) and with a female companion (Arlene Dahl) and third male
hand (Peter Ronson) to the title locale. This can be fun,
unintentionally funny and interesting, but it has also dated a good
bit since I last saw it, yet there is something pleasant about seeing
it no matter how bad it gets since there are no digital effects and
you know the studio was backing this project seriously for it was not
cheap to mount at the time.
Thanks
to the score by Bernard Herrmann, which is here as an isolated music
track, the film is a minor classic of the fantasy and adventure
literature genre. If you don't have high expectations, you'll enjoy
taking a look at this one but it still has aged more than even I
thought it would. Diane Baker (The Silence Of The Lambs, who
has since participated in the new audio commentary track for the new
Blu-ray version), Thayer David and Alan Napier (Alfred on the 1960s
Fox hit TV version of Batman) also star. The Original
Theatrical Trailer and an illustrated booklet on the film including
another informative essay by Julie Kirgo join the Isolated Music
Score as the extras.
Showing
that a mix of both sensibilities are still very much with us, Red
Tails (2012) is a George Lucas/LucasFilm Ltd. Production about
the Tuskegee Airmen that Lucas has been trying to get made for many,
many years. Directed by Anthony Hemingway, a longtime TV director of
note, the film is a more elaborate version of the same story told in
the HBO telefilm (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) named
after the famous air squadron battling Nazis and the Axis powers in
1944. The question is... what could this film do that that hit did
not?
For
one thing, outside of the obvious technology Lucas has at his
dispose, this is a story that deserves a big screen presentation and
for more than just the aerial fighting. Despite being obviously
digital, the editing style not only harkens back to the oldest Scope
War films from the 1950s, but WWII and even WWI War genre films with
airplanes before them and of the first Star Wars films,
especially the 1977 classic, particularly in its original edit. In
that way, it is long overdue and though this is hard history, the
film treats the subject like an action film, whether it be Star
Wars or the Indiana Jones films.
In
one way, it is nice to see this in a commercial film, something we
should be seeing all the time by now, but are not. Lucas rightly
complained that all the studios passed on the film, and none wanted
to support it, including implying that racism had something to do
with it. I agree and Fox finally did because of their relationship
with Lucas and being it is a scope film sometimes in the tradition of
the first ones for which they were responsible for making and
debuting the format that itself was seen as a gimmick at first before
becoming an international industry standard.
However,
the screenplay is a mix of contradictory sensibilities that do not
always gel and that is where it gets into trouble. It is about
serious history including racism and genocide, but it is also a
feel-good, sometimes carefree action film that may somewhat
trivialize unintentionally the seriousness of its subject. It also
has its share of formula, clichéd moments, wooden acting and
situations that do not always ring true. Still, it is worth taking a
look at for what does work and because at its best, it also shows us
the other side of George Lucas.
This
side is the serious filmmaker who is about progress and innovation
that has to do with much more than digital technology and visual
effects, but people and a better future where technology does not
override people, democracy and better things. We have not seen this
from Lucas as director since American Graffiti and parts of
the first two Star Wars films, or from him as producer since
he backed Francis Coppola's Tucker: The Man & His Dream in
1988. It is also a socially conscious Lucas who has been far too
absent since the 1980s and from the opening text of this film (so
bold, you will be shocked, but sadder still since few people could
get a film made with such a beginning when that should not be the
case) to the best parts of this uneven work, that was enough for this
to hold up against the HBO version and make for a fine flipside to
it, even if it was not as good overall.
The
cast of mostly unknown actors work and are supported by performances
by Terence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Gerald McRaney and Bryan
Cranston but no, it is not everything I had hoped for. However, Red
Tails is intended to be a big screen experience and in the face
of so many bad blockbusters, it is a better work and worth a good
look. A Making Of featurette is the only extra, but see it after
watching the film.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Bullet
and Earth are about even, both showing their age, some grain,
some print flaws and some color limits, but both are also
restorations that have gone far enough to have the films look as good
as they could without another million spent on each to save them.
Both come from the best materials available and look as film like as
possible, though Bullet was originally issued in dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor film prints (actual prints go for big money
now) and the color here does not always look as wide-ranging. The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Tails has its own
color range limits since it is a DVD and it is a all-digital video
shoot, but it is also on Blu-ray, so if you enjoy that format, get it
that way instead.
Sound
is also even on the three releases with the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
1.0 Mono lossless Italian and English tracks on Bullet
sounding as good as the film is likely ever going to, including the
fact that it was all dubbed in post-production. Each has different
music and sound effects placement at times. Earth was
originally a 4-track magnetic sound theatrical film release with
traveling dialogue and sound effects, but even though it is here in a
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 4.0 Mono lossless mix, the dialogue and
sound effects are in the center speaker more than I would have liked
because the source is actually a restored Dolby SR (Spectral
Recording) analog restoration master from a few years ago saving as
much of the soundtrack as survived in the archive. It is still good,
but has a weak soundfield despite some interesting surround activity
that is somewhat monophonic in nature. The isolated Herrmann score
sounds really good and is in stereo.
That
leaves the Tails DVD with lossy-but-solid Dolby Digital 5.1
surround that has limits here, but would certainly sound better on
the Blu-ray with lossless DTS-MA or Dolby sound of its own, so get
that Blu-ray over this DVD if you can for that reason too. This was
the first-ever 11.1 theatrical sound film release in the Auro format,
now joined in theaters by Dolby Atmos, which has since been offered
on select Blu-ray titles. Disney has since bought LucasFilm, so
we'll see if Fox or Disney comes up with an 11.1 sound Blu-ray or
upcoming Ultra HD Blu-ray.
As
noted above, Journey To The Center Of The Earth can be ordered
while supplies last at:
www.screenarchives.com
-
Nicholas Sheffo