5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 1.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Dr. Anansa Linderby is kidnapped in a medical mission in Africa by a slave trader. From this moment, her husband will do anything to recover her and to punish the bad guys, but that will be not an easy task...
Starring: Michael Caine, Beverly Johnson, Omar Sharif, William Holden, Rex HarrisonThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Ashanti is a little remembered 1979 film which originally bore the subtitle Land of No Mercy, an epithet which some involved in the production might have felt was an appropriate description of Hollywood and its vagaries. Director Richard Fleischer had grown up amidst one of the most titanic conflicts (intentional or otherwise) in all of early Hollywood, that between Walt Disney and Fleischer’s own father, the legendary Max Fleischer. (Some have averred that Disney was attempting to bury whatever hatchet there may have been by hiring Richard Fleischer to direct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which turned into one of Disney’s all time biggest box office hits and put Fleischer’s name solidly on the map as one of the top directors of his generation.) Michael Caine had actually been in films since the late fifties, mostly in bit parts to begin with, but had really burst upon the scene with a trio of high profile roles in the mid-sixties, Zulu, The Ipcress File and most especially Alfie. But a little more than a decade later, Caine’s career was definitely in a fallow period, with lamentable efforts like The Swarm and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure filling the actor’s figurative dance card. William Holden was nearing the end of his long career in this film, and while he had still managed to appear in some A-list films (notably Network, his long bouts with alcoholism combined with his age had made him a much less bankable property than he had once been. But on paper at least, Ashanti probably looked like a sure bet, at least as there is anything like a sure bet in the risky world of films. With a largely big name cast (other stars included Peter Ustinov, Omar Sharif and Rex Harrison), as well as supermodel Beverly Johnson, whose manacled, bosom revealing image was featured prominently in the film’s advertising campaign, and the sensational subject of human slave trafficking at its core, Ashanti had the potential at least to be a bristling human interest drama set in an extremely exotic locale. Instead, whatever Gods or Demons who look over such efforts showed, well, no mercy and the result is a decidedly mixed affair that has a few redeeming characteristics but will probably strike a lot of viewers as hopelessly melodramatic and even unintentionally laughable at times. Critics at the time were not exactly kind to the film, and Caine has long considered it one of his career low points. No mercy indeed.
Slavery still exists today. Thousands of people disappeared in Africa last year. This story is based on fact.The issue of modern day slavery may well be a compelling subject for a film, but Ashanti doesn’t fully exploit the premise, focusing instead on some histrionics and an over the top (which is not to say unenjoyable) performance by Peter Ustinov as Suleiman, the slave trader. Johnson and Caine portray married United Nations doctors working for the World Health Organization in Africa to help inoculate various tribes. The film starts out well enough, with a very colorful sequence finding both doctors arriving at a tribe and witnessing a ritual whereby the tribe asks for its ancestors’ permission to go ahead with medical treatment. It becomes apparent that Johnson’s character Anansa has a tribal background herself (hence the title Ashanti), which helps bridge the communication gap. Anansa decides to go swimming in a nearby river while her husband David takes photos of the tribe dancing, a decision which proves fateful when she’s abducted by Suleiman and his gang of thugs.
Ashanti is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As I mentioned in my review of Severin's simultaneously released The Wild Geese, the label seems to be testing the high definition waters with some of these new releases that feature older video codecs and lossy audio. (Rather interestingly, the supplementary interview with Beverly Johnson is encoded via AVC.) For whatever reason, Ashanti doesn't look quite as sharp as The Wild Geese and is further hobbled by video noise in several sections mid-film that involve the sandy expanses of the desert in what are basically longer optical shots as part of montages. There are also some stability issues early in the film on such likely subjects as heavy foliage. Colors are decently saturated, though seem to have faded slightly to the brown side of things. Fine detail really only pops at satisfying levels in extreme close-ups. This isn't a downright horrible looking transfer, but videophiles will probably be less than pleased with the overall look of the film.
Like The Wild Geese, Ashanti features only a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 audio option. Things are about what you'd expect here, with a slightly compressed sounding mix that still delivers adequate fidelity for dialogue and for Michael Melvoin's kind of interesting score. For those who don't recognize Melvoin's name, he was a much in demand session pianist from the sixties on, and he is also the father of Wendy Melvoin of Prince fame. This film was made at the very tail end of the disco era, and Melvoin's opening theme has a certain disco ambience, but some of his underscore cues are quite well done. The closing theme, sung by Jimmy Chambers, isn't exactly Oscar material, however.
Ashanti has a few moments when it really connects with the audience, but Caine especially seems to be sleepwalking through this enterprise, and that fatally undercuts any reason for the viewer to become emotionally involved in the story. Think of it this way: if Dr. David doesn't seem to care all that much that Anansa has been kidnapped and forced into slavery, why should we?
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