Black Jack Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Black Jack Blu-ray Movie Review

Jacques Noir might have been more accurate.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 1, 2014

Ken Loach isn’t particularly shy in mentioning that Black Jack, his 1979 British film based on a children’s book by Leon Garfield, was hampered both by a miniscule budget as well as a too brief shooting schedule. The film has attained a perhaps outsized reputation due to some decent reviews (which were frankly tempered by some not so decent ones as well) but probably more due to the film’s sharing of the Critics’ Award in Cannes that year. There’s a certain charm to Black Jack that’s undeniable, and the film certainly feels authentic in its depiction of a mid-18th century Yorkshire environment filled with various grimy and gritty types. But the film is also quite haphazard feeling at times, not especially well shot or edited, and featuring several “not ready for prime time” performances. The film’s renown seems to be quite a bit higher in its native Britain than on this side of the pond, and in fact the British Film Institute gave Loach the time and money to revisit his film in 2010 to craft a new Director’s Cut, which is now presented in high definition on this Blu-ray from Cohen Media Group. In the commentary included on this Blu-ray as a supplemental feature, Loach details how the less than illustrious box office returns on a previous production of his had caused his film career to go largely dormant, consigning him to the ostensibly less glamorous world of made for television movies. Somewhere along the line he was told about a new funding source that would provide funds for a big screen production if there was content for children and if there was some connection to France. Bending Garfield’s original source book turned out to be a not very difficult task, for it was already geared toward younger readers, and making its titular anti-hero French was an easy change. Loach’s political leanings have often informed his films (he won the Palme d’Or for The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a film seeking to detail Ireland’s long fight for independence, and Loach was more recently a public defender of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange), but there’s not much real political content in Black Jack, unless one considers the film’s subplot of a young girl institutionalized against her will to be something of an indictment of the ruling class. Instead, Black Jack is more or less a straight up adventure yarn, with a young boy being conscripted by a supposedly vicious criminal and encountering all sorts of mayhem along the way. It is in fact rather like Treasure Island in that regard, albeit almost completely land locked and lacking any buried booty. (Wes Anderson is also on record stating that the film provided some inspiration for Moonrise Kingdom.)

The pre-credits sequence quickly sets up the fact that Black Jack (Jean Franval) is about to be hung for a variety of crimes against humanity, a hanging which is going to be something of a public spectacle. When Mrs. Mitchell (Patti Nicholls) insists that the body be brought back to her home for a “viewing” she will arrange for some of Black Jack’s comrades in arms, she enlists young Bartholomew, nicknamed Tolly (Stephen Hirst), to stay with the supposed corpse while she trundles off to find Jack’s collaborators. In a spooky, candlelit room, Tolly is amazed to find that Jack has actually survived the hanging (as Loach makes clear in the commentary, the film never adequately depicts the fact that Jack had stuffed a bent spoon down his gullet to keep his neck from breaking).

Jack has survived, but he’s having a hard time speaking, and so he more or less kidnaps Tolly, despite the boy’s protestations, taking him out into the woods to perhaps rustle up a little criminal activity. Meanwhile, we’re shown the much more luxe environs of the Carter home. Mr. and Mrs. Carter are obvious social climbers who are thrilled that their eldest daughter has become betrothed to a nobleman, though they are simultaneously worried about that family visiting their home, since their youngest daughter Belle (Louise Cooper) has exhibited signs of mental illness since becoming sick with fever several years earlier. Belle doesn’t speak and is prone to lash out in physical violence, seemingly unprovoked. The Carters have arranged with Parson Hall (Brian Hawksley) and Dr. Jones (Russel Waters) to have Belle shipped off to a distant Bedlam, where she’ll be forgotten and of no potential threat to the Carters’ plan for social prominence.

Of course the stories of Belle, Tolly and Black Jack intertwine once Black Jack sets up a trap for passing coaches, a trap which allows Belle to scurry out of her captivity, though she really doesn’t seem to have any overly thought out plans for what to do afterwards. Tolly ends up being her ally and the girl turns out to be quite a bit more communicative than originally thought, though she also does have a hair trigger temper which tends to manfest in fits of physical violence.

The film then gets into a rather protracted middle section where Tolly and Belle become hangers on in a traveling carnival which features a charlatan named Dr. Carmody (Packy Byrne) who attempts to sell youth serums and the like to the local populaces. There’s also a nefarious little kid named Hatch (Andrew Bennett) who quickly figures out Belle’s story and engages in a rather ruthless display of blackmailing both Belle’s irate father and the asylum keepers who lost track of the little girl.

Black Jack will no doubt appeal to the younger set, who will be delighted to see two kids foraging on their own (despite some occasional adult help) and managing to overcome a series of obstacles. The film never quite gels as a cohesive whole, though, undercut by unsure performances and a story which is in title at least supposed to be about one character, when really the focus lies elsewhere. The historical recreation here is one of the film’s strongest assets, along with a completely charming score by Bob Pegg. Black Jack may remind some older viewers of those old After School Specials that used to dot broadcast television back in the Dark Ages. It’s no forgotten classic, but it’s good, solid entertainment that is colorful and engaging.

Black Jack Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Jack is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. There's no denying that most of Black Jack will look incredibly soft to a lot of people, but it's important to realize that the film was shot on a shoestring budget, often in natural lighting conditions, and just as often with an intentional painterly approach that emphasized back lighting and diffused lighting, all of which create a kind of dreamlike fuzziness quite a bit of the time. The elements here are in very good, though not immaculate, shape. While there's nothing very serious to worry about, there are occasional blemishes, including one insanely large reel change marker that looks like a mold spore in the upper right of the frame. Colors are generally accurate looking, with greens being especially vibrant and well saturated. The film really does not have much in the way of shadow detail, at least some of which can be traced directly to the shooting conditions and source elements. Contrast is slightly variable, with a few outdoor scenes looking slightly blanched at times. There has obviously been no denoising done here, for this is a fairly grainy looking enterprise, and there similarly does not appear to have been any over aggressive digital sharpening, either. If one takes the original shooting conditions into account, this is a very natural, organic looking presentation. It may not win any awards for "sharpness" in contemporary parlance, but it's a largely accurate recreation of the original film appearance.

Black Jack Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Jack features a perfectly serviceable LPCM 2.0 track that supports the film's dialogue and wonderful score by Bob Pegg generally quite well. There's just a hint of shrillness in the upper registers, something that's especially noticeable when Pegg's music utilizes recorders in their highest ranges. Some of the accents here are extremely thick and will be hard for American ears to completely decipher, so the optional English subtitles are a definite plus.

Black Jack Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:42) were actually shorn by director Loach himself when he recut the film in 2010 for his preferred version.


• Original Trailer (1080p; 2:26)


• 2013 Re-release Trailer (1080p; 1:49)


• Feature Length Audio Commentary by Director Ken Loach. Loach frankly isn't the most articulate commentator around, repeatedly stumbling on his words and/or correcting himself mid-sentence, but he does offer an amazingly forthright assessment of this film, which even he admits doesn't rise to the levels he had hoped. There are some interesting tidbits offered along the way, including Loach's approach toward naturalism, but this can be a bit of a hard listen at times due to Loach's halting manner.

Black Jack Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A lot of films catering to the younger crowd tend to be churned out in cookie cutter form, and so it's laudable that Black Jack resists easy categorization and at least offers kids the chance to "time travel" back to the hardscrabble mid-18th century. There are definite dramatic shortcomings here which will probably be more evident to adults than children, but Black Jack is never less than engaging and it presents a worthy lesson that even kids in desperate straits can triumph against long odds if they put their minds to it. The video here may strike some as overly soft, though it's no doubt an accurate rendering of lo-fi shooting conditions. The audio is similarly very good, and while Loach's commentary is bit hit or miss, it may provide some of the interest to grown ups that the film itself won't. Recommended.