Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

A Face in the Crowd Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 15, 2019

Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd" (1957) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; vintage documentary program featuring clips from archival interviews with actors Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Anthony Franciosa, screenwriter Budd Schulberg, and film scholars Leo Brady and Jeff Young; exclusive new video program with Andy Griffith expert Evan Dalton Smith; and more. The release also arrives with a 30-page illustrated booklet featuring an essay by critic April Wolfe, a New York Times Magazine profile of Andy Griffith from 1957, and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtilrtes for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The puppet masters and their star

In the beginning, Elia Kazan was one of them. He was an idealistic social justice warrior who truly believed that the Communist Party had the right ideas and vision for the country and that under its leadership the future would be as bright as he had imagined it. But then Kazan gradually began understanding how rotten the red ideology is, and when Stalin’s henchmen went to work to exterminate the ‘enemies of the people’, he distanced himself from the pack. Kazan realized that the ultimate goal of communism was to destroy America, not make it a better place. When he identified various communist sympathizers that he had interacted before the HUAC committee, the pack did not just expunge him, they made him one of their greatest enemies.

Now, decades later, it isn’t difficult to argue that Kazan’s best work came after the final phase of his awakening, and that A Face in the Crowd remains his most prophetic film. The manner in which Kazan diagnoses the corruption that is corroding the unions from the inside in On the Waterfront for instance is still impressive, but his understanding of the media and the elites that control it in A Face in the Crowd is quite simply extraordinary. There is a clinical precision in their deconstruction which can just as easily be utilized to accurately explain the contemporary media machine and its chief operators. How did Kazan do it? The model that he describes in the film is based on a simple and unalterable truth -- the media machine cannot be independent if it promotes the views and defends the interests of the people that is supposed to hold accountable.

The exact structure of the model is described while Kazan chronicles the rise and fall of a charismatic Southern simpleton named Lonesome Rhodes (a truly brilliant Andy Griffith). In a lousy drunk tank in Arkansas, Rhodes is offered a sweet deal: if he agrees to play his guitar and sing for local radio producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), the sheriff will let him go early. Rhodes’ raw and loose performance, however, becomes such a huge hit among the radio station’s listeners that Marcia begs him to reconsider going home to Florida and instead do a brand new show with her. Rhodes agrees but only because the pay is good, not because he wishes to permanently redirect his life.

But when Rhodes becomes a local star and is then offered a much more lucrative contract in Memphis, his life changes in such dramatic fashion that eventually he also changes his mind. He meets important businessmen and politicians who realize that he has the ability to connect with ordinary people and together they develop a plan to manipulate them while advancing their personal business and political goals. For a while, Rhodes becomes their mouthpiece and earns hundreds of thousands of dollars enjoying some of the best ratings in the business. But a casual affair with a younger girl (Lee Remick) grows into a serious relationship that breaks Marcia’s heart, and when she successfully separates Rhodes' TV personality from the cynical manipulator that he has become while rising to the top, overnight his ‘talent’ becomes worthless.

There are plenty of old writings on A Face in the Crowd that explain in great detail the nature of the monster that Rhodes is supposedly transformed into after he becomes a star and then draw all sorts of silly comparisons with different prominent political figures from America's past, but the overwhelming majority of them actually can’t see the forest for the trees. Rhodes is not a monster. He is just a disposable puppet that is allowed to grow only because it serves the needs of the real monster, which is the media machine whose giant tentacles have successfully penetrated millions of homes across the country. This is precisely the reason why Kazan repeatedly shoots him in compromising situations where it becomes painfully obvious that he does not have the killer instincts to survive on his own.

Kazan also effectively uses a lot of the secondary characters to expose the cutthroat culture that protects the real monster. Anthony Franciosa plays an ambitious manager who has been secretly working to advance himself up the corporate ladder and at the right time pulls off a classic dirty move that initiates Rhodes’ demise. Walter Matthau is a TV writer who understands the ins and outs of the business, but for a long period of time struggles to make others see what he does because the truth is deemed incompatible with the goals that his bosses are pursuing. Percy Waram is an aging puppet master who has a long history of delivering 'winners' that ought to represent the people in the nation’s capital.

A Face in the Crowd Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the booklet that is provided with this release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, and small dirt. The original monaural soundtrack was provided by Warner Bros.

Film scanning: Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging, Burbank, CA.
Colorist: Russell Smith/Criterion Post, New York."

The Blu-ray release represents a massive upgrade in quality over the old DVD release of the film that Warner Bros. produced more than a decade ago. I actually pulled out my DVD release and upscaled it on a 55-inch TV set and even there it was quite easy to see that a lot of background details and nuances are either partially or completely lost. Also, a lot of the darker footage did not have the nicely balanced nuances that exist on the new 4K remaster (see screencapture #4). If you are projecting your films, your satisfaction with the new 4K remaster should be even greater because you will quickly notice that fluidity and even overall image stability are far better as well. The entire film also has that very attractive tightness that proper remastering ensures, which in return provides it with a solid organic appearance. There are no traces of sharpening, degraining, or other similar compromising digital adjustments. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Face in the Crowd Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only standard audio track on this Blu-ray release; English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

There are no transfer issues or inherited anomalies to report in our review. The audio is clean and stable. Clarity and depth are also excellent. The excellent dynamic activity could surprise some viewers because there is plenty of organic footage, rather than larger panoramic footage with the type of activity that would usually provide a period production with the right opportunities to impress.

A Face in the Crowd Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a remastered vintage trailer for A Face in the Crowd. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Facing the Past - this archival documentary focuses on Elia Kazan's political activities and specifically his association with the Communist Party, his troubles after his testimony before HUAC, and the evolution of his career. Also, there are plenty of observations about A Face in the Crowd and nature of the dilemmas that its main protagonist faces. The documentary uses clips from archival interviews with actors Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Anthony Franciosa, screenwriter Budd Schulberg, and film scholars Leo Brady and Jeff Young. It was produced and initially appeared on the old A Face in the Crowd of DVD release from Warner Bros. In English, not subtitled. (30 min, 1080i).

• Ron Briley - in this new video program, Ron Briley, author of The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan: The Politics of the Post-HUAC Films, discusses Elia Kazan's social and political background, the dramatic impact that his testimony before HUAC had on his career, and some of the key themes and political overtones in A Face in the Crowd. The program was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2018. In English, not subtitled. (21 min, 1080p).

• Evan Dalton Smith - in this new video program, Andy Griffith expert Evan Dalton Smith discusses the early stages of the iconic actor's career and his difficult transformation into the character of Lonesome Rhodes.The program was produced for Criterion in 2018. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - a 30-page illustrated booklet featuring critic April Wolfe's essay "American Character", "About Screenwriters" by Elia Kazan, and a New York Times Magazine profile of Andy Griffith from 1957. Technical credits are provided as well.

A Face in the Crowd Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What exactly has changed since the theatrical premiere of Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd? Well, the merger between the political class and the media machine is practically complete, which means that the elitists have a firmer grip on the type of information that is dispatched to the masses. With the expansion of the internet and the centralization of its traffic management, now the same people can even determine precisely how and when the information is consumed by the masses. In other words, the players and the refs are on the same team. It is too bad that the model Kazan describes in the film while chronicling the rise and fall of the charismatic drifter Lonesome Rhodes wasn't seen as a big warning sign when it mattered because its precision is nothing short of astonishing. Criterion's upcoming release is sourced from a top-notch new 4K restoration, and unless a 4K Blu-ray release emerges further down the road, it will remain the definitive presentation of this classic film on the home video market. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.