At Close Range Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

At Close Range Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 22, 2015

Madonna has made something of a regular habit of “reinventing” herself, offering a new image with great regularity and exploring different approaches to her music with perhaps somewhat less clockwork invariability. It’s at least arguable that the first of these rebrandings, Madonna 2.0 as it were, came about when the chanteuse released her third studio album, True Blue, in June of 1986. Several months prior to the dropping of the album, MTV started playing the first single off the album, “Live to Tell”, in heavy rotation, and I recall quite clearly VJ Mark Goodman back announcing one of these playings by mentioning the “newly mature” Madonna that was on display. The video shied away from both the “tart” image that made Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” such an indelible smash, as well as the somewhat more family friendly if still slightly edgy looks she adopted for such music videos as “Crazy for You”. But the eloquence of Patrick Leonard’s music and the surprisingly complex ideas Madonna explored in her lyric for “Live to Tell” augured Madonna’s arrival as an “Artist”, at least when compared to some of the more lightweight efforts of her early recording career. For many folks, and not necessarily just Madonna fans, “Live to Tell” is pretty much all they know about At Close Range, the 1986 film in which the song is featured and which starred Madonna’s then husband Sean Penn. In some ways, At Close Range is something of a companion piece to another Twilight Time Blu- ray release also featuring Penn, 1990’s State of Grace . In both films, dysfunctional family dynamics within a criminally inclined clan provide the bulk of the drama. In State of Grace, Penn played an ostensible relative outsider who was invited (back) into the fold of an underworld organization run by a family. Penn’s character actually had other, more righteous, things on his mind than being a bad guy, but in At Close Range, Penn plays Brad Whitewood, Jr., a kid who decides chasing the American Dream is for chumps, and that stealing is a surer path to success. While he’s more or less following in the footsteps of his father, Brad Sr. (Christopher Walken), the elder criminal has plans of his own, plans which are soon threatened by a series of events which may spell the end of the entire family one way or the other.

While the crime milieu gives At Close Range its often moody context, at its core the film is really more about the roiling dysfunctions between the similarly named father and son. Nicholas Kazan’s screenplay quickly sets up a coterie of characters surrounding Brad, Jr., including his mother Julie (Millie Perkins, The Diary of Anne Frank), grandma (Eileen Ryan, Penn’s real life mother), and half brother Tommy (Chris Penn, Sean’s real life brother and also Ryan’s son), before introducing the central dynamic between junior and senior Whitewoods.

A long history of estrangement seems to come to a happy ending once father and son reunite, and strangely that happily ever after only seems more concrete when the elder Whitewood starts schooling his son in the criminal arts. But rather subtly at first, and then increasingly more floridly (in an approach which may turn off some viewers), At Close Range begins to reveal what a twisted sociopath Brad, Sr. is, while also detailing the disastrous results of Brad, Jr.’s initial hero worship.

Kazan evidently based his screenplay on “real life events”, but speaking as no fan of Kazan’s supposedly similar ripped from the headlines approach on Frances (which contains a ton of inaccurate depictions and information), it might be best to take some of the more hyperbolic behaviors here on display with a grain or two of salt. That said, this is certainly one of the more viscerally instense performances from this phase of Walken’s career, and he seethes with a smarmy menace that is really hard to forget. While the Penn brothers may tend just slightly toward “mumblecore” at times, their interaction is appropriately organic feeling and helps to establish a familial tone, albeit one with a “warts and all” sensibility.

Some of the film’s most disturbing content ends up being connected to Terry (Mary Stuart Masterson), a young woman Junior hooks up with but who soon becomes an unwitting pawn in a very dangerous and ultimately devastating game Senior is playing. There are also equally discomfiting moments given over to Senior’s relationship with Junior and Tommy, and Walken delivers a couple of gasp worthy moments at key junctures. There is so much physical and psychological scarring at the root of these characters, not to mention a frightening trail of victims who are killed throughout the film, that "Live to Tell" almost seems like a taunt after a while.

At Close Range Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

At Close Range is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is a generally very solid accounting of an MGM catalog title, though there are some minor anomalies along the way, beginning with some image instability during the credits which later settles down. The film's unrelenting darkness (as in scenes shot in low light or virtually no light) means several sequences struggle to offer more than baseline shadow detail, and at times display significant crush (several scenes shot inside cars at nighttime are among the best examples of this phenonemon). In more brightly lit environments, the palette pops very well, with an accurate accounting of colors across the spectrum. Grain is organic looking a resolves naturally. Elements are in overall very good condition, though there are a couple of minor issues including scratches that crop up.

At Close Range Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

At Close Range features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which provides more than ample support for the film's long dialogue sequences as well as sudden (and terrifying) bursts of sonic activity courtesy of elements like gunfire. Patrick Leonard's score, which utilizes thematic elements culled from "Live to Tell" virtually nonstop, and is typically comprised of piano and strings, sounds clear and well defined throughout the presentation.

At Close Range Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.


• Audio Commentary features James Foley hosted by Twilight Time's Nick Redman.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:57)


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06)

At Close Range Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

At Close Range is a pretty unrelentingly bleak story, and its slow, tragic unfolding tale of a son learning that his father is a monster provides acting showcases for Penn and Walken, though there's really not much of a catharsis for audiences. For those willing to slog through the dysfunction and increasingly shocking developments as Brad, Sr. goes increasingly off the deep end and takes more and more drastic measures to protect himself, there's a depressive gut punch of activity set among some surprisingly sylvan Tennessee locations. Worth seeing for the general level of the performances if not for any great storytelling acumen, At Close Range boasts very good to excellent technical merits, features an interesting commentary, and comes Recommended.