7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
After spending years on the road building a name for himself, Juan Gallardo returns to his hometown to claim the hand of his childhood love and continue his rise toward becoming the country's greatest matador. But when he catches the eye of a beautiful seductress intent on making him her own, Juan will learn that the battles that matter most are fought outside the ring.
Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, Alla Nazimova, Anthony QuinnDrama | Insignificant |
Sport | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
French: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, Japanese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Opulent is the right word for Blood and Sand, the 1941 bullfighting melodrama directed by Rouben Mamoulian, following his success the previous year with The Mark of Zorro. Shot in gorgeous Technicolor with palettes and compositions drawn from great Spanish masters like Velásquez, Goya, and El Greco, the film is as lavish as the elaborately sequined and gold-threaded "suits of lights"—or trajes de luces—worn by Madrid's proudest toreros. Blood and Sand gleams from every angle. Its design and detail are immaculate. It stands tall among the best-looking Technicolor productions of the '30s, '40s and '50s. Unfortunately, though, unlike The Red Shoes or Black Narcissus or The Searchers, it just doesn't have the powerful story to match its lush 3-strip visuals. An adaptation of a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez—and a remake of a simmering 1922 silent version staring Rudolph Valentino—Blood and Sand is a staid Old Hollywood production that takes no real artistic risks in its narrative or characterizations. It's big and beautiful—and it won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Cinematography—but it's as drama-less as a fight against a tranquilized bull.
I always look forward to seeing catalog titles from 20th Century Fox's vault—with few exceptions, the studio has treated their vintage films wonderfully— and that excitement is doubled when it comes to Technicolor movies. There's just nothing like a beautifully restored Technicolor print in high definition, and Fox has given us another one with Blood and Sand. I was a bit worried when I saw that the opening title sequence is windowboxed, but as soon as the first scene opens up into the intended aspect ratio with Juan in his bed at night, staring up the taxidermied bull on the wall, I knew this was going to be a fantastic 1080p transfer. To start, the colors. Oh, the colors. You can instantly tell that there was a careful coordination—between the director and the cinematographers, the set dressers and art designers—to make sure that every hue on screen was perfect. Technicolor was tricky business, and could easily look garish, but here it's creamy and rich and vibrantly saturated. Look no further than Juan's torero suit, with its bright blues and reds and gilded threading. Clarity is stunning as well, with an exceptional degree of fine detail in the actors' faces and elaborate costumes. To top it off, aside from a few blink-and-you'll-miss-em specks on the print, there are no distractions here whatsoever—no obvious compression issues, no digital noise reduction or edge enhancement, nothing. This is definitely one of the best-looking catalog titles I've seen thus far this year on Blu-ray.
Instead of trying to engineer a multi-channel mix out of mono elements, 20th Century Fox has stayed true to source, with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 track that's satisfyingly clear and free from distractions. With no blatant hisses, loud pops, or crackles, the film has a great sense of fidelity, and dialogue is always unmuffled and easy to understand. As with most movies from the 1940s, the dynamic range here is quite thin, but Alfred Newman's Latin-tinged orchestral score sounds wonderful, as do the film's few musical numbers. No issues. The disc also includes Spanish and French Dolby Digital 1.0 dubs, along with English SDH and Spanish subtitle tracks.
Story-wise, Blood and Sand isn't a great film, or even a particularly good one, limping through a series of melodramatic-but-weirdly-undramatic cliches and limiting itself to a purely superficial retelling of Vicente Blasco Ibáñez' source novel. Visually, though? Spectacular. Blood and Sand's cinematography is among the best of the oh-so-brief Technicolor era, with painterly colors that stampede right out of the screen, and 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release more than does it justice. Normally, I'd call this one a wash and recommend a rental, but Richard Crudo's illuminating audio commentary —which focuses exclusively on the camerawork—tips this one into the "buy" column for me.
1956
Fox Studio Classics
1954
The Director's Cut
1998
1948
1957
1922
Limited Edition to 3000
1979
Warner Archive Collection
1944
Warner Archive Collection
1928
Warner Archive Collection
1941
1942
2015
2010
1947
2019
1932
1937
2004
2006
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1943