Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Bandit Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 18, 2022

Allan Ungar's "Bandit" (2022) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Redbox Entertainment/Quiver Distribution. There are no supplemental features on the release. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

No one is born bad. Like anything, it takes practice.

So much of Gilbert Galvan Jr.’s story sounds so utterly ridiculous that it almost makes perfect sense that the Canadian authorities could not figure out how to nab him for a very, very long time. Was this notorious thief the ultimate chameleon? No. He was a pretty ordinary guy and a compulsive liar, which is hardly the description you would use to profile the ultimate chameleon. And yet, over a period of three years, Galvan Jr. broke the Canadian record for consecutive bank robberies and had time to hit a few jewelry stores as well. In Canada, Galvan Jr. apparently visited over fifty banks, but the real number could be a lot higher. In fact, I am convinced that it is a lot higher. This guy lied even when he lied, so I do not believe he told everything there was to tell after he was nabbed. I do not believe that the Canadian authorities told the truth about his work either. Why would they? He embarrassed them so badly that it is practically guaranteed that they shortened his record a bit.

Allan Ungar’s film Bandit is based on Robert Knuckle’s novel The Flying Bandit: Bringing Down Canada’s Most Daring Armed Robber, which I have not read. I assume that the novel is very well-researched and Ungar’s film accurately reconstructs the main events that are described in it, but I am unconvinced that it tells Galvan Jr.’s true story. Knuckle’s novel was published in 1996, but as recently as 2001, after he had served his long jail sentence, Galvan Jr. was still active. According to this article, in 2001 he was charged with a bank robbery in McHenry, Illinois, and it was not a one-off job. So, connect the dots here. Knuckle operates with public information about Galvan Jr. that was gathered before and during his sentencing plus, I assume, some additional information the thief revealed while he was in jail and after he was released. But the former came almost exclusively from police records, which were based on Galvan Jr.’s confessions, while the latter more than likely came directly from Galvan Jr. after he became a national star as the Flying Bandit. What is the problem? Galvan Jr. was a compulsive liar who hid his true identity from his Canadian wife, Janice, even after he finally revealed to her that he was robbing banks. After he was released from jail, despite constantly being on the radar of different agencies in Canada and the United States, Galvan Jr. then switched back to his old ways. In other words, Galvan Jr. never stopped lying -- he lied when he was robbing the banks, he lied when he met and married his wife, and he lied while evolving into a new man in jail. Therefore, it seems natural to conclude that Knuckle fell for many of Galvan Jr.’s lies, too.

Does this mean that Bandit should not be taken seriously? I enjoyed the film, but my answer would be yes. According to this article, before Ungar began shooting Bandit, Galvan Jr. met with the cast and spoke with Josh Duhamel, who was hired to play him. If I were a betting man, I would bet big that Galvan Jr. was telling lies again because thieves that are proud of their work always do.

For a while, Duhamel makes Galvan Jr. look like a man of principle -- he only robs banks, and only because the economy is lousy. He hides his real name and background from his wife (Elisha Cuthbert) up until the moment he is arrested because he wants to protect her. He refuses to betray a notorious loan shark (Mel Gibson) because he is his only true friend, too. On top of this, most of the time Duhamel looks like a member of Magic Mike’s crew. Does he really have to rob banks to make ends meet? As an exotic dancer, he could have easily been making the same money without risking his freedom.

Despite being a little over two hours long, Bandit is a nice little film to see on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But it is very easy to conclude that it does not tell the true story of the Flying Bandit.

Bandit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Bandit arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Redbox Entertainment/Quiver Distribution.

Even though Bandit was not shot with a humongous budget, it is a very, very good looking film. Some of the panoramic footage from Canada's big cities and mountains is actually breathtaking. So, the master that was prepared for Bandit is truly outstanding. However, the film's transition to Blu-ray isn't easy to praise. Why? Well, the Blu-ray could have been encoded quite a bit better. Plenty of the darker footage reveals light macroblocking that easily could have been avoided. On my system, I was easily able to make a few small adjustments to avoid its effect(s), but the fact remains that just a few specific optimizations would have instantly eliminated it. Color reproduction is outstanding. The primaries are very rich while the supporting nuances look perfectly balanced. Image stability is outstanding. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Bandit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

I viewed the entire film with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. There are no technical anomalies to report and I think that the lossless audio perfectly replicates the native qualities of the original soundtrack. (I assume that the film has a fully digital soundtrack, so this isn't at all surprising). However, I would say that the soundtrack reveals that the film was not made with a humongous budget. Had it been a major studio project, this film would have had a soundtrack enriched with all sorts of different bells and whistles. Why do I mention this? Because in certain areas of the film the current soundtrack does just minimal work to produce certain dynamic contrasts.

Bandit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no special features to be found on this release.

Bandit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Not even for a second did I think that Josh Duhamel's character was a proper replica of the Flying Bandit, but I still enjoyed Allan Ungar's film. Duhamel is charismatic, at times surprisingly funny too, and sells his character and his story quite well. I have not read Robert Knuckle's novel that inspired Ungar to shoot his film, but I gather that Gilbert Galvan Jr., the real Flying Bandit, was the worst kind of a compulsive liar -- he lied even when he lied. What do I mean? Because his lies constantly overlapped, Galvan Jr.'s true story will almost certainly remain incomplete. Of course, at his peak, he was a rather remarkable thief too -- or were the Canadian authorities utterly clueless, which is what allowed him to break the Canadian record for consecutive bank robberies? Redbox Entertainment/Quiver Distribution's Blu-ray release has a very attractive price tag, so I am going to recommend it, but the technical presentation of Bandit should have been a lot more convincing. RECOMMENDED.