Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Band of the Hand Blu-ray Movie Review

Talk to the...Band.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 8, 2017

Band of the Hand's claim to fame is twofold. First, of interest to movie fans, is the picture's attachment to Michael Mann, who produced the film and was, at the time, smack-dab in the middle of Miami Vice. Mann would go on to direct several fan-favorite features as well, including Heat and Collateral. The film is also notable for its attachment to legendary musician Bob Dylan, who penned and performed the movie's theme song, also called "Band of the Hand." Beyond that, though, Director Paul Michael Glaser's (The Running Man) film is a well-done little Action flick, kind of like Lean on Me meets The Rescue: troubled teens are whipped into shape and undergo a combat operation at the end of the movie. It's a bit more gritty than Lean on Me, a bit more mean than The Rescue. It's an effective life-lesson, whoop-'em-into-shape flick with some gunplay and action in tow, too, making for something a bit more unique than the usual like fare on either side of the ledger.

Getting the band together.

A handful of troubled, law-breaking Miami-area youths -- Ruben Pacecho (Michael Carmine), Moss Roosevelt (Leon Robinson), Carlos Aragon (Danny Quinn), J.L. MacEwen (John Cameron Mitchell), and Dorcey Bridger (Al Shannon) -- are piled into a police van and dropped off in the middle of nowhere in the Florida Everglades. They're soon joined by a mysterious man, a Vietnam veteran named Joe Tegra (Stephen Lang) who trains them in the arts of survival, teamwork, and doing right in a broken world. As the group gels and gradually transitions back into the real world, the boys come to face a series of difficult challenges that will test their bond and put them into the most dangerous scenarios they could possibly imagine.

If one were to sum up Band of the Hand in two words, they would have to be "reform" and "revenge." The movie is quite simple, really, in its classic three-act structure and the way it goes about its business of first shaping its characters in nature, followed by a look into the more familiar urban world into which they return, and finishing up with a story of how they put everything they've learned to use for good. Superficially, it sounds kind of tired and drab, but it's well done and quite enjoyable, if not a little too methodical at times. There's a distinctive bite to the movie, a serious underpinning working in harmony with what begins as sort of a silly exterior before turning into something much darker and more sinister yet, at the same time, hopeful and uplifting. The film captures a contrast of optimism and grit, of hope and hopelessness, of friendly camaraderie and violence as the group goes through the motions of gelling together and facing the forces that threaten to pull them apart. There's a decent emotional weight to it as well. Even if the characters aren't painted quite as effectively as they might have been, losses hurt and the sense of pain and the understanding of where the characters go and what they must do leaves the audience right there with them. It's effective storytelling, it holds up very well some decades since its release (tonally and thematically, anyway; it's hopeless 80s-dated in look and texture), and its core still rings true today, maybe, even more than ever before.

The movie plays with a command of the medium that matches the movie's gritty façade with not so much a cinematic grace but certainly an appreciable sense of accomplishment and flow that accentuates the movie's fairly unique personality rather well. Performances carry it beyond its technical construction, though. The handful of teenage leads are well-versed in their characters and the greater world around them. Performances come across as natural across the board, each of them seemingly able to identify with their own, and in some way one another's, past, while showing a tangible progression both individually and collectively alike. It's a good group, assembled with care and camaraderie that translates onto the screen with an effortlessness becoming the story. The movie's two more mature lead actors -- Stephen Lang and Laurence Fishburne -- find their characters' centers with efficiency. Lang's is a bit more fleshed out as the boys' mentor, proving capable as both a drill instructor and a father figure. He strikes a very good balance between the two, showing his tough side as-needed but an underlying humanity when the moment demands, too. Lang is matched by Fishburne in several key scenes, who plays one of the film's antagonists with striking authority and power, showing the screen command even at a younger age that would make him into one of the finer actors of his time in the years to follow.

Band of the Hand Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Band of the Hand arrives on Blu-ray with, for whatever reason, the antiquated MPEG-2 encode. That said, Mill Creek's 1080p transfer is more than adequate, particularly given the release's age, price point, and relative obscurity. The image displays some serious wobble over the opening titles, a veritable roller coaster of shake of letters that's not a deal breaker, but certainly very annoying. For the most part thereafter, the image satisfies...not necessarily impresses and certainly not dazzles. Various little warts creep up from time to time, including basic print deterioration in the shape of speckles and even, around the 56-minute mark, a few random vertical lines that linger for a couple of minutes. Grain is retained, however, appearing a touch spiky and clumpy but certainly welcome and integral to preserving a basic film-quality texturing. Detailing is more than adequate. Whether grassy surfaces in the Everglades, rougher urban environments, clothing lines, or facial definition, the transfer squeezes out a fair bit of pleasing textural nuance. Colors are decent, with a fair bit of pop and punch to Miami 80s colors, whether clothing or, notably, splotches and swaths of paint. Contrast is sometimes a bit uneven, but the palette holds to a basic neutrality. Black levels are decent, for the most part, though pushing a little green during a nighttime campfire scene at the 21-minute mark. Skin tones appear fairly accurate. Some light compression issues are apparent as well, though overall the transfer satisfies much more often than it doesn't.

Band of the Hand Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Band of the Hand's Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is certainly no challenge even for modest sound systems. It handles the movie's core sonic needs well enough, but don't expect any kind of revelatory presentation. Music does at least enjoy a fair, basic spread along the front, not pushing exceedingly far but there's a nice sense of width about it. Clarity is acceptable in that broader stroke musical context comes across well enough. Even heavier Dance club tunes heard at one point in the movie are more a mass of crude sound than pinpoint beats. Some light ambient details out in the Everglades come through with decent environmental definition, but nothing more. Heavier effects, like driving rain, are identifiable as intended but much more on the clumpy, mushy side of the ledger and obviously lacking any kind of immersion. Gunshots and explosions offer a decent enough sense of pop and heft, but again the track offers only the crudest, simplest of details in its action scenes. Dialogue is clear enough with a decent sense of push towards the center.

Band of the Hand Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Band of the Hand contains no supplemental content. The top menu offers only a "Play" button. No pop-up menu is included. Subtitles must be accessed via the remote's "subtitle" button only. On the flip side (literally), the cover artwork is reversible with a different front image.

Band of the Hand Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Band of the Hand's combination of the "troubled teenagers reformed" and "action/revenge" stories yields a fairly good little out-of-the-way movie. It may not be completely original in its parts, but it's fairly unique in the aggregate. It blends grit and some grace, both thematically and technically alike, that along with some quality acting and strong group camaraderie, makes for a fairly good watch that could use a bit of trim but is otherwise good-to-go. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Band of the Hand is disappointingly, but unsurprisingly, devoid of extra content. Video is fair, albeit in the antiquated MPEG-2 encode. The 2.0 lossy soundtrack is no great shakes. It's worth a pickup for the movie, particularly at a rock-bottom price.