Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

After Dark, My Sweet Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 20, 2023

James Foley's "After Dark, My Sweet" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include audio commentary by James Foley; recent program with Bruce Dern; recent program with Jason Patric; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The man who came from nowhere

Dirty ragged clothes. Heavy legs. A long, tired face. The man (Jason Patric) must be a homeless drifter who hasn’t washed and slept in a bed for months. But why hasn’t the scorching desert sun damaged his skin already?

There is something else about the man's face that seems odd, too. It twitches and makes his eyes move in bizarre ways. The twitching abruptly comes and goes away, leaving the impression that the man’s body is engaged in an internal struggle to permanently discard it. The man seems aware of it, but has he made a conscious decision not to interfere and let his body win the fight, or has he given up on it?

Eventually, the man reaches a lousy roadhouse and orders a cold beer. There is nothing wrong with his voice. He tries to talk to the grumpy barman but is quickly told to shut up and concentrate on his beer. The beautiful woman (Rachel Ward) that has just walked in rejects him, too. He tries one more time to engage her, but the grumpy barman interferes and makes him realize that if he does not behave, he is about to get in some serious trouble. Serious and painful. The man finally gives up, pays for the beer, and hits the road again.

A few minutes later and further up the road, the beautiful woman from the bar pulls over and offers him a ride -- to her place, where he can wash, if he wants, and even do some work for her. She is a widow and can use a strong man to help her fix her yard, but this is all she has. She does not need a seasonal worker.

A couple of days after the man moves into the shack on the opposite end of the woman’s large garden, they go out to have drinks. It is not a date. It is more of a let’s-get-to-know-each-other-better type of experience. It is when the beautiful woman introduces him to an older man (Bruce Dern) who has a job for him, too. The older man already knows that he is a former big-time boxer who got hurt, left the business, and is penniless. The job the older man has in mind is risky, but if they pull it off, they won’t have to worry about money ever again. It involves a sick kid that will be temporarily separated from his very rich parents and then returned to them, completely unharmed, in exchange for a pretty big sum of untraceable dollar bills.

In a new program that is included on this release, Patric declares that the arrival of the part he plays in James Foley’s After Dark, My Sweet was of paramount importance to him. He was waiting for it to come along and had he missed it, his acting career either would have ended or evolved in a drastically different way. Apparently, he poured his soul into the part and still thinks of it as his best work.

Patric’s detailed assessment of his performance as well as Foley’s direction and the quality of the film they made together is quite emotional but extremely accurate. (I am intentionally not highlighting crucial details from it because I do not wish to spoil the drama, but Patric’s explanation of why the film works is a perfect summation of how I feel about it). The original material from Jim Thompson’s novel is quite tricky to visualize because the majority of it describes thoughts, sensations, impulses, and moods, which means that in the film the storytelling has to rely heavily on the ability of the stars to ‘speak’ via facial expressions. Patric’s facial expressions, in particular, have a vital relationship with the environment around him, so his performance is what the film feeds off of to build its atmosphere and ultimately acquire an identity.

While certainly easy to profile as neo-noir, After Dark, My Sweet has the allure of contemporary Americana as well. If there is one thing that Foley could have done differently to make it even more attractive, it would have been to further emphasize this quality by expanding the presence of the hot desert. There is something magical about the connection between this unique genre and the desert that instantly transforms any film that has a proper understanding and appreciation of it into a cinematic jewel.

A very simple but stunning score by Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia) greatly enhances the visuals.

After Dark, My Sweet Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, After Dark, My Sweet arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

In the summer of 2022, we reviewed this Australian release of After Dark, My Sweet from local label Imprint Films, which was included in After Dark: Neo Noir Cinema Collection One, a six-disc box set. The release is sourced from a very nice master that was supplied by Lionsgate.

This new release from Kino Lorber is sourced from a master that was supplied by Lionsgate as well, so I was expecting to see an almost identical presentation of After Dark, My Sweet. However, the film looks different on it, and I am not referring to the framing discrepancy. (The Australian release has the film framed in 2.31:1, while this release has it framed in 2.39:1. This is a meaningless discrepancy). So, what is different? In various areas, the different encodes produce very small fluctuations that affect the high-frequencies and delineation. Also, there are discrepancies in the color temperatures of the visuals. In various areas, this release looks a tad cooler, emphasizing green(s) a bit more. The Australian release emphasizes red(s) and brown(s). How meaningful is this discrepancy? It depends. In some areas, it could be irrelevant, but in various areas I could instantly tell that the visuals were different because there were discrepancies in their dynamic range. See examples here and here and here and here. I think that on both releases, in select areas, the primaries can be better saturated and healthy, and select supporting nuances expanded and rebalanced. This release has a marginally better encode, but the uneven high-frequencies can create the impression that the Australian release performs better. All in all, this release offers a very nice presentation of the film, but in some areas I prefer how the film looks on the Australian release. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).

After Dark, My Sweet Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The lossless track is very good. Previously, I speculated that After Dark, My Sweet might benefit from a 5.1 track because the transitions between the flashbacks and the events from the present create some interesting contrasts. Last night, while I was revising the film, I felt the same way about the 2.0 track, so I wanted to mention my speculation one more time. There are no encoding anomalies to report in our review.

After Dark, My Sweet Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - in this recent audio commentary, director James Foley has some quite interesting comments about the decision to shoot After Dark, My Sweet in the 2.39:1 ratio (as opposed to the more common 1.85:1 ratio); the setting of the film, which in Jim Thompson's novel is not Palm Springs but New York; the fact that the film was not conceived to be a film noir/neo-noir; the casting of Jason Patric and Rachel Ward; the manner in which non-explicit scenes actually function as X-rated scenes (with Ward's seduction of Patric in particular); the conception of Maurice Jarre's score and its unique qualities. At the end of the commentary, Mr. Foley also recalls a very interesting conversation he once had with Gene Hackman.

• "Primal Precipice" - in this recent program, Jason Patric discusses his background, the audition process for his part in After Dark, My Sweet, what the part meant for him and his career (apparently, Mr. Patric was convinced that if he did not get the part at all, or get it right, he could abandon acting), the complex personality of the ex-boxer, and his interactions with Rachel Ward and Bruce Dern. In English, not subtitled. (18 min).

• "Call Me Uncle Bud" - in this recent program, Bruce Dern explains why his family did not think that the show business was a particularly honest business and how he developed his passion for cinema, and discusses his how James Foley directed After Dark, My Sweet (which was apparently like a theater play), the unique tension Jason Patric channeled through his character (which had something to with his father), etc. Also, at the end of the program, there is a very interesting comment about the competition between After Dark, My Sweet and The Grifters, which is also based on a brilliant novel by Jim Thompson. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Theatrical Trailer - presented here is a vintage U.S. trailer for After Dark, My Sweet. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

After Dark, My Sweet Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Apparently, James Foley was not aware that his film After Dark, My Sweet was 'soleil noir' until shortly after its U.S. premiere he read a positive review of it in a major publication. Well, this does not surprise me at all because 'soleil noir' is just another fancy description invented by critics who could not accept that After Dark, My Sweet and its many relatives from the great Neo-Noir Renaissance of the 1990s -- like Kill Me Again, One False Move, and Romeo Is Bleeding -- are essentially very stylish pieces of Americana. Of course, they have certain noirish qualities, some of them very prominent too, but if you look closer you will realize that virtually all share the exact same Americana genes. In an outstanding exclusive recent program, Bruce Dern declares that "the math is better in After Dark, My Sweet" and suggests that it should have been more successful than the other big neo-noir film that sunk it at the box office, The Grifters. Even though I like The Grifters a lot, I am with Dern. After Dark, My Sweet is a much more complex film, with better characterizations and superior style. I just wish that Foley had spent more time in the beautiful desert to further enhance its ambience. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.