Captains
Courageous
(1937/MGM*)/The
Front 4K
(1976)/Moneyball
4K
(2011/both Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays)/King
Richard and The Crusaders
(1954*)/Sleepers
4K
(1996/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)/20,000
Years In Sing Sing
(1932*/all Warner Archive Blu-rays)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+*/B/B+ Picture: B-/X/X/B/X/B- Sound:
C+/B-/B/B/B/C+ Extras: C/B-/B-/C/C+/C+ Films: C+/B/B/C+/B/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Captains
Courageous,
King
Richard and The Crusaders
and 20,000
Years In Sing Sing
are now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now
for some dramas, many classics...
Victor
Fleming's Captains
Courageous
(1937) has Spencer Tracy as a fisherman who has to teach a very
pampered son of a rich man (Freddie Bartholomew at 12 years old when
filming, was considered one of the few child actors at the time who
could act!) the real ways of life after falling overboard on a ship
he was traveling on with his father (Melvyn Douglas) and barely
surviving. Based on the Rudyard Kipling novel, the adaption is not
bad, with some decent directing and great casting.
The
film gets more commercial and broader, losing some of its edge, when
he is forced to work with the son (Mickey Rooney) of the captain
(Lionel Barrymore) of the ship. Until Rooney showed up, I was really
enjoying this, but Rooney is a little off here and his acting looks
more dated and less serious than Bartholomew.
There
is this strange, even unfortunate side to this kind of story that
says 'forget about child welfare and civil rights' as an excuse to
abuse children if they are not 'acting right' or the like, but the
film never dwells on, wallow or gets stuck waddling in such issues.
In all that, it is worth a look, even when it does not stay
consistent.
Extras
include a Leo
On The Air
radio promo piece, MGM Robert Benchley live action short How
To Start The Day
and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Martin
Ritt's The
Front 4K
(1976) is the ever-relevant drama about how creative people in the
1950s (especially Jews and liberal persons in the entertainment
industry) were being blacklisted, thrown away, abused and disregarded
in all kinds of ways with hardly anyone coming to their defense. You
can read more about it at this link to our coverage of a now
out-of-print special edition of the film on Blu-ray at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12672/Boardwalk+(1979/MVD+Visual+Blu-ray+++DVD)/The
The
irony continues that Allen continues to be blacklisted and
'cancelled' despite not being charged legally for anything bad, and
''he did it'' or 'he probably did it'' is not acceptable, but also
laid the groundwork for the witch hunts and other highly questionable
activities against people who did nothing wrong and are begin very
abused or much, much worse. Its timing as a 4K release could not be
better.
Extras
include a Digital Movie, while the disc a great feature length audio
commentary track with Andrea Marcovicci, Julie Kirgo and the late,
great Nick Redman and an Original Theatrical Trailer. Too bad its
missing the isolated music track.
Bennett
Miller's Moneyball
4K
(2011) is the still-relevant story of how Major League Baseball (and
by association, all other major commercial sports) became all about
who had the biggest budgets and how that would usually lead to
stellar, safe, predictable and profitable results. Brad Pitt plays a
manager who intends to find a way to break though that system by
hiring a computer whiz (Jonah Hill) to calculate the best low-cost
players to make their team as highly competitive.
Of
course, this changed how all sports teams would soon spend their
money and how simple quantitative computer work makes a huge
difference in anything. There is a parallel to Hollywood itself that
Paramount (back in 1983) did the same thing for box office and
demographics in that case, helping at the time make them the #1
studio around and the others followed. There are ways this is
helpful and can be good, as it turns out in this film, but there is
the downside we are now seeing playing out (and not just concerning
uber-boring A.I. technology) giving this film a whole new relevance
even the makers could not have imagined when they were making it at
the time. Now is a fine time to see or see it again.
Extras
include a Digital Movie, while the disc adds three Deleted
Scenes, Brad
Loses It
blooper reel, an
Original Theatrical Trailer and four featurettes: Billy
Beane: Re-Inventing the Game,
Drafting
The Team,
Moneyball:
Playing The Game
and Adapting
Moneyball.
David
Butler's King
Richard and The Crusaders
(1954) is another attempt to deal with the the title legend (aka
Richard I or Richard The Lionheart) and though it is dated and off in
parts, here well played by George Sanders, has strong actors well
cast to make up for any dated costumes, stereotypes (to some extent,
even with Rex Harrison's role) or visual effects. No Robin Hood
here, but
Laurence Harvey, Virginia Mayo, Michael Pate, Robert Douglas, Paula
Raymond, Lester Matthews, Henry Corden, Mark Dana, Wilton Graff,
Leslie Bradley and Bruce Lester feature actors of the time who were
all over the place, yet we hardly see enough these days.
The
costumes might not seem naturalistic, but their color and color here
is a real plus, even, when the screenplay is off and the actors have
some chemistry. This remains one of the few older, wider CinemaScope
productions with its wider aspect ratio, which is always a plus to
see. Though no masterwork, its big old-fashioned Hollywood A-level
spectacle is great to watch and Butler was a solid journeyman
director who deserves a little more rediscovery these days.
Extras
include
an Original Theatrical Trailer, live action Joe McDoakes Warner short
So You
Want To Be A Banker
and two classic warner animated cartoon shorts: Satan's
Waitin'
and Baby
Buggy Bugs.
Barry
Levinson's Sleepers
4K
(1996) is one of the director's very best films, the tale of a group
of four young boys from Hell's Kitchen who are abused by a sick guard
and his crew, which included tons of sexual assaults and when the
boys grow up, they seek revenge, all whiel a cover-up takes place.
Shocking in its time, it turned out to be a no where near as bad as
the many sexual abuse scandals, rampant pedophilia (including in the
Catholic Church, entertainment industry and among the rich and
powerful that we are just now finding out about decades later in
their entirety) and when people were upset that this was hitting more
than a few nerves.
The
film was also a hit, with an extraordinary cast that includes Robert
De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Billy
Crudup, Minnie Driver, Ron Eldard, Bruno Kirby, Vittorio Gassman,
Brad Renfro and so many others form a time when Hollywood could make
powerful, big budget dramas with extraordinary acting casts. They
lost this ability and movies have suffered greatly since.
On
its 35th Anniversary, the film holds up very, very well and the
makers are more than vindicated and will continue to be so in the
foreseeable future. Sleepers
is an incredible film everyone should see if they love movie about
adult matters by adults for adults. This new edition really delivers
performance-wise too.
Extras
include a Digital Movie
Code, while the disc adds The
Making of SLEEPERS:
A Conversation with Barry Levinson (NEW)
Uncover
the inner workings of creating the film, from the production design
to adopting the novel into a screenplay, with director Barry
Levinson.
Director
Barry Levinson delves into the intricacies of crafting the roles of
this star-studded cast.
Michael
Curtiz's 20,000
Years In Sing Sing
(1932) reminds us that Warner Bros. was not only known for their
Gangster films back in the day (the 1930s here) but their prison
films and films about social consciousness. Spencer Tracy is a
convicted thief sent to the title locale, an infamous prison, but
thinks his friends will help spring him legitimately or maybe
otherwise. When this does not happen, the warden
(Arthur Byron) starts to help him and he tries to change.
His
girlfriend Fay (Bette Davis, also early in her career) waits for him,
but she is attacked out of nowhere. Because of his work with the
Warden, he gets a day pass, but when he finds the person(s)
responsible, everything changes. What will happen next?
Yes,
this is a simple melodrama as much as anything, but Curtiz
and the cast handle it all well, so even when it is offering some
things we have seen before and certainly since this film was
released, it is worth a look for just how well it flows. You can
also see why David and Tracy were on their way, joined here by
supporting actors Louis Calhern, Lyle Talbot, Warren Hymer and more
than a few uncredited character actor faces. That makes it all
definitely worth a look, 94 years old and counting!
Extras
include an Original
Theatrical Trailer, two live action Warner shorts (20,000
Cheers For The Chain Gang,
That
Goes Double)
and two classic warner animated cartoon shorts (Crosby,
Columbo and Vallee,
The
Queen Was In The Parlor.)
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on The
Front 4K
looks even better than the already solid transfer used on the
previously reviewed Blu-ray, but color and scenes have an improved
richness that makes the film all the more palpable and though you may
not always get razor-sharp detail due to the style and age of the
film, this is as good as I have ever seen it. The DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is as good as the film will likely ever
sound and is as good as the original Blu-ray.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Ultra HD Premium Ultra High Definition
image on Moneyball
4K is
a repeat of the 4K master used on the old and briefly produced
''Mastered In 4K'' edition series of regular Blu-rays Sony issued
before 4K discs arrived. That looked good and this is even better.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is laid back and as
good as any release on this list.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image Sleepers
4K
also impresses throughout, looking as good as the fresh 35mm print I
saw when it first opened so many years ago with fine color, depth and
detail. The late, great Director of Photography Michael Ballhaus,
A.S.C., delivers some unforgettable work here on the level of his
best work, including Lili
Marleen
(among his Fassbinder works,) Sheer
Madness,
GoodFellas
(among his Scorsese work,) Primary
Colors
and even the most visually memorable music videos. The transfer
delivers. The original soundtrack is here in two different DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, one the original theatrical mix
and a newer Director Remix that I liked just slightly more, but they
both work very well and are as good as this film will ever sound.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfers on Captains
Courageous
and 20,000
Years In Sing Sing
can show
the age of the materials used, but part of it is also the style and
sometimes the age of the films and for that, these look really,
really good. The DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes show their age a little
more and may be the poorest showings on a solid list of releases, but
they both sound as good as they likely ever will. It takes more work
to save and restore these films than I think people realize.
The
1080p 2.55 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer King
Richard and The Crusaders
can also
sometimes show the age of the materials used, but this older
CinemaScope film from the first few years of production was not
issued in
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor, but WarnerColor (Kodak Eastman
35mm color) that was trying to be as vibrant, but did not quite match
the format. Still, you can expect the usual anamorphic distortion
form the older scope format, but color is consistent thanks to the
hard work that went into restoring this and its nice the surviving
elements allowed for this. The
DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix is surprisingly good
considering it is a reduction of the (apparently lost) 4-track
magnetic soundmaster with traveling dialogue and sound effects, but
you can still get a sense of that here. The result is better than
most mixdowns of such 4-track mag films we have encountered in the
past.
To
order the Captains
Courageous,
King
Richard and The Crusaders
and/or 20,000
Years In Sing Sing
Warner
Archive Blu-rays, 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
