5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A prostitute and a drifter find themselves bound together as they make their way through the rural South, doing what they have to do to survive.
Starring: Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Keith, Miriam Colón, Michael V. GazzoRomance | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 1.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
When director Martin Ritt and actress Sally Field collaborated in 1979, the result was “Norma Rae,” a penetrating drama about one woman’s personal awakening. When Ritt and Field reteamed in 1981, the result was “Back Roads,” which effectively ruined all the goodwill “Rae” created, tarnishing the production’s post-Oscar-winning glow. While Ritt’s helmed his share of disappointments, nothing has been quite as misguided as “Back Roads,” which does everything wrong in terms of thespian charm and narrative momentum, striving to generate romantic comedy butterflies with a sobering story of failure. Perhaps enamored with the potential to mount a road movie featuring two busted-but-not-broken characters striving to share their hearts of gold with each other, Ritt loses touch with the essentials of personality, conflict, and storytelling, unable to guide the effort as stars Field and Tommy Lee Jones share what’s politely called “negative chemistry,” visibly looking like they’d rather be anywhere else but in this film. It’s difficult to blame them.
The AVC encoded image (1080i, 2.35:1 aspect ratio) presentation is a soupy mess emerging from an ancient scan. Detail is non-existent, providing a noisy look at frame particulars, with softness dominating the viewing experience. Texture has been wiped away, leaving even close-ups disappointing, while distances are difficult to survey. Colors aren't completely blown out, but they have no real presence, looking lethargic, even when dealing with exaggerated hues. Delineation is largely solid. Source is riddled with speckling and minor scratches.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix doesn't offer much in the way of force for this often intimate drama, leaving the bulk of the listening event to charged banter between Field and Jones. Dialogue exchanges aren't ideally clear, but they work, managing accents and tempers without surging into painful extremes. Scoring is supportive, but also a little blunted, never intruding on the performances. Atmospherics are generally helpful, filling out scenes that take place in rural America, handling crowd encounters well.
There is no supplementary material on this disc.
Once what little here passes for a story reaches Texas, "Back Roads" dramatically parks, enduring hackneyed encounters with a local pimp (Miriam Colon) and a redemptive arc for Elmore involving a boxing match that's never earned, with Ritt forcing the characters into strange positions of vulnerability and heroism as the picture stumbles around blindly, feeling for a conclusion, doing whatever it can to make sure the viewer walks away on a high note. While the rest of the feature is content to sample depressive extremes, the conclusion insists on hope, making "Back Roads" confusing, with Ritt surviving the effort instead of guiding it. It's amazing to watch how misguided the film is at times, rarely showing narrative drive, lingering on dull behaviors and contrivances, with the sharing of broken hearts meant to endear the pair to the audience. Outside of Fields and her post-Oscar confidence in an unadventurous role, there's little here that manages to capture the imagination or warm the heart. It's just going through the motions, hoping, praying that something in the mix might find mass appeal, helping to rescue the rest of this mess.
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