An Innocent Man Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

An Innocent Man Blu-ray Movie Review

A fine movie earns a serviceable Blu-ray release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 26, 2011

This isn't a question of innocence or guilt.

Sometimes, the appearance of truth means more than the truth. Sometimes, the system breaks down. Sometimes, an innocent man is wrongly placed behind bars. An Innocent Man is a superb little Tom Selleck film about a man who finds himself imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, forced into a life he doesn't want, and transformed into a man he cannot recognize. It's a film about the fallacies of mishandled justice but more so the fragility of the human condition, an examination of an otherwise normal, everyday man thrust into a radically different environment and the slow but necessary rise of another man who must emerge from within if he is to survive his sentence and see true justice done. The story dominates the themes, and they're not explored beyond a merely superficial level so as to emphasize action and drama, but astute viewers will enjoy the picture's duality as both a commentary on the human condition as well as a straightforward yet well-made and highly entertaining movie.

An innocent man no more.

Jimmie Rainwood (Tom Selleck, Runaway) is a veteran airline mechanic, and a damn good one at that. He leads a normal life, working hard and loving his wife Kate (Laila Robins). His peaceful world comes crashing down around him when narcotics officers Mike Parnell (David Rasche) and Danny Scalise (Richard Young) burst into his home, mistake a hair dryer for a weapon, and shoot Jimmie. When the officers -- who are established crooked cops on the take and with a history of questionable busts and actions -- realize they've accidentally raided the wrong home and shot an innocent man, they plant drugs and a gun, framing Jimmie for a crime he didn't commit to save their own hides. The courts buy it. Despite his pleas, Jimmie is sentenced to six years hard time at a no-nonsense California prison. He's grossly unprepared for the realities of prison life, but longtime inmate Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham) takes Jimmie under his wing and prepares him for the day when he must sell out his own conscience to save what semblance of a life and dignity he has left while on the inside.

Where An Innocent Man shines from a thematic perspective is through the juxtaposition that is the two worlds that lie on either side of the prison walls and the the effect of environment on a man's soul. Is man a product of his environment or his he a product of his own genetic makeup? Is a man's moral goodness or corruption a product of a system or is it something innate, always there but unneeded and certainly, for most, unwanted, until circumstances dictate said corruptions arise? An Innocent Man dabbles in some heavy themes, even if they aren't necessarily the primary reason to watch. Still, it's that juicy little quandary that the film explores -- how is it that a perfectly normal man must only resort to violence and abandon his morality only after he's been wrongly accused and found guilty of doing just that -- that is its strongest asset. There's a very fundamental question here; An Innocent Man is content to leave it to audiences to ask that question rather than outright explore it beyond however it impacts the action, but that's fine. The film is meant to be an entertaining diversion first and foremost, and it admirably succeeds in that regard.

An Innocent Man, at its most basic level, is a straightforward film about a man dealt a severe blow to his way of life. Despite the prison setting and the ugly world on both sides of the prison wall the film depicts, it's an incredibly relatable picture thanks to the exceptionally strong performance of Tom Selleck who sells his character's inner decay and outer stresses remarkably well. Selleck masterfully captures the underlying theme of lost innocence not of his own accord but through a system that strips it from him by the sheer act of his incarceration following a guilty verdict for a crime he didn't commit, and would never even dream of committing under normal circumstances where his life hasn't been, at best, forever altered, or at worst, shattered. The film is tonally gritty and sometimes difficult to watch, but at the same time it's enthralling to no end, a simple film yes but engaging on several levels. Director Peter Yates (Bullitt) pulls no punches; the picture is violent and depressing but oddly uplifting at the same time. Yates's demarcation between good and evil as it exists both in an absolute state and out of the necessity of circumstances is handled remarkably well and with great efficiency.

An Innocent Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

An Innocent Man arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080i transfer that often looks good at-a-glance but is plagued by a few problems that keep it from achieving a higher score. For the negative first, this appears to be an old and worn but certainly serviceable master simply slapped onto a 25GB Blu-ray disc and given no real concern as to the end result. The image is littered with spots and speckles and plenty of static splotches that remain for extended lengths of time. Occasional combing artifacts and wobbly opening credits are also evident. Fortunately, banding, blocking, and edge enhancement are more or less non-issues. The image can be a touch soft in places, but it is generally crisp and strongly detailed, as is evident primarily in skin textures. Colors are neither excessively bright nor disturbingly dull, and black levels and flesh tones hover around a neutral level. When the image is going good -- particularly in brighter, well-lit scenes -- it can really shine, but it is hampered by some regular inconsistencies that drag the score down by a point or so. Still, this is generally a nice-looking catalogue transfer and about as-expected given the aggressive bargain pricing.

An Innocent Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

An Innocent Man features a very plain and decidedly unexciting DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The track primarily consists of dialogue, which is handled efficiently through the center channel; it's never garbled or forced to compete with music or sound effects. The track delivers suitably crisp music that's adequately spaced across the front, but it is lacking in absolute clarity and the greater, seamless spacing that might have come from a 5.1 presentation. The track also offers up a few directional effects; passing cars maneuver through the front channels in one early scene, but there's an unmistakable mushiness about them. Ambient effects -- a bustling office, the chatter on the prison yard, the din of the prison cafeteria -- are present but never serve to immerse the listener into the world of An Innocent Man, instead only recreating the basic sonic essentials. Mill Creek's lossless soundtrack doesn't do much to enhance the film, but it doesn't negatively distract from one's enjoyment of the movie, either.

An Innocent Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

An Innocent Man's Blu-ray contains no special features.

An Innocent Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An Innocent Man is a picture about the follies of coincidence -- how one wrong word, a few misplaced letters, a slip of the mind or tongue -- can have long-lasting effects, sometimes positive, sometimes negative, but capable of forever altering a personal landscape for better or for worse. It's a straightforward picture but with deeper themes that the film leaves to the imagination of its audiences, even though they play a central role in the film's broader action and dramatic contexts. Strong performances and steady direction round the film into form as a must-see and highly entertaining and engaging Thriller. Arriving on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment, An Innocent Man features a decent but flawed technical presentation and no extras. Still, given the bargain price and the strength of the movie, this release earns a recommendation.