Bobby Deerfield (1977/Sony DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C

 

 

For years, a cycle of racing car movies surfaced as pushes for major movie stars of the day.  Most were not so good and few are remembered unless one is trying to guess who was in what film.  When Al Pacino signed on to do Sydney Pollack’s Bobby Deerfield (1977) for what seemed like the same kind of film, both decided to shake up expectations by making it a romance.  It is an odd film and has some odd moments, but it is watchable for being different and laid back.

 

Despite one of his best friends dying in a race car crash and a new romance beginning with a new woman in his life (Marthe Keller) that could go in several possible directions, I was surprised the film did not become as melodramatic as it might have at any other time.  Not a big hit at the time, I have to give Pollack and the great writer Alvin Sargent (who recently has been writing for the Spider-Man franchise and wrote Ordinary People) credit for trying to do a few kinds of film a certain way they are not usually done.

 

Though Pollack even cut the film down later for a lame TV version that made less sense, the entire 124 minutes is here and is worth a look, even if the final results are not strong.  It does come from a time when films would try something different to give the audience something different and that is reason enough to revisit it today.  Especially after so much schlock, Bobby Deerfield seems ambitious in a mature way, even if it does not always add up.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a little soft throughout, but the color and fine cinematography by Henry Decae (Bob le flambeur, The Boys From Brazil) is very nice as shot in real anamorphic Panavision and the color (processed in MetroColor) is very consistent, making up for the lack of detail.  I will be curious how this looks on Blu-ray.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix tries to upgrade a monophonic film is not bad, livelier than expected.  Dolby 2.0 Mono is also available, though the back of the box does not indicate this.  Unless this was also a 4-track magnetic stereo release (we could not find out at posting time) as was the case with some releases into the early 1980s, the upgrade is not bad.  Extras include trailers for other Sony DVD releases and preview for Pacino’s new film 88 Minutes.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo