Tears Of A Black Tiger (2000/Magnolia)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras: C Feature: C
It is not
easy spoofing Westerns. You can be
brilliant about it (Johnny Guitar),
hilarious about it (Blazing Saddles,
reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site) or passively sending it up taking
your chances that you might be funny.
Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears Of A
Black Tiger (2000) is the kind that just does not quite work. It mixes subverting the “white men” roles
with some funny/graphic violence and eventually gets lost in whatever it is
trying to do.
Faster
than you can say Whip It Good, the
long 110 minutes gets off track and the never finds a way to get back on the
horse. Poor peasant son Dum falls for
rich girl and challenges class system as a result without trying. They are torn apart, but the love is undying
and Dum eventually has is driven to revenge when the worst happens. I guess he did not get as angry about the
script, or this would have been better.
The result is a one-joke project that never pans out and only for the
strongly curious.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and looks like it was shot in
pre-HD video, but color are purposely phony, as are the cutout-like backgrounds
mocking Westerns. Too bad we have seen
better in Music Videos of the 1980s. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the best, but has limited fidelity and shows its age
to the point this does not have a 5.1 soundstage. The only extras is a making of piece.
- Nicholas Sheffo
