Blue Steel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Blue Steel Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 20, 2016

Kathryn Bigelow's "Blue Steel" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Metropolitan. The only extra on the disc is a gallery of trailers for other Metropolitan releases. In English or French, with optional French subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The cop

Rookie cop Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis, A Fish Called Wanda, Halloween) kills an armed robber (Tom Sizemore, Heat, Strange Days) in a supermarket and during the chaos somehow loses his gun. Later, Turner is questioned by her superiors and after providing a shaky description of the event that is not confirmed by the witnesses is suspended.

A few days later, Turner is approached by an elegant broker (Ron Silver, The Entity, Timecop) who takes her to a fancy restaurant and makes her feel like a princess. Initially, Turner is as overwhelmed and confused as a first-time lottery winner -- her date is that handsome, polite, and intelligent -- but after she regains her composure decides to enjoy her prize and begins dating him.

But the broker turns out to be a dangerous psychopath who feels an inexorable urge to kill. He is also convinced that he and Turner are not very different and it is only a matter of time before she realizes it. Eventually, Turner discovers that the broker is in fact crazy and responsible for a string of recent murders, but the only person willing to take her ramblings seriously is a lonely detective (Clancy Brown) whose personal life is in shambles as well.

Blue Steel is impossible to take seriously. It feels like the creation of a bold but inexperienced bartender who attempted to introduce a very special new cocktail by mixing all sorts of different liquors and failed miserably because they turned out to be utterly incompatible. Indeed, in this film large parts of the narrative are quite simply incompatible with other parts of it in such striking ways that they effectively destroy its integrity.

The two leads are oddly grotesque, too. The rookie cop is given a massive arsenal of terrible lines that make her look so ridiculous it is hard to imagine no one raised a red flag. "I like to slam people's heads up against the walls." What kind of a statement is this? She is this unhinged and not a single person around her can tell? The broker is an even bigger maniac but somehow is allowed to roam free and everyone finds him attractive. Is this a New York thing? The finale where the two keep shooting at each other in slow motion is a classic endurance test as well.

Brad Fidel’s ambient score is allowed to make its presence felt during a couple of short sequences and they are the only ones that work rather well. In the most effective one, the broker rents a helicopter for his date and they fly over the city.

Kathryn Bigelow co-wrote the script with Eric Red (The Hitcher, Near Dark) and completed Blue Steel in 1989. It was her third feature film. Oliver Stone was one of its six producers.

Blue Steel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Metropolitan.

The release has been sourced from an older and rather inconsistent master. Portions of the film can look quite decent but elsewhere depth is problematic. The most serious issue, however, is the obvious sharpening. There are various segments where edge-enhancement makes the visuals look quite harsh and detail suffers (see screencaptures #3, 12, and 17). My feeling is that some viewers with smaller screens may not be bothered too much by the sharpening, but the larger the screen is, the easier it becomes to see that the film does not have the fluid organic appearance that it should have on Blu-ray. The primary colors are stable but they should be much better balanced and there should be a healthier range of nuances. Image stability is very good. Finally, there are no distracting debris, damage marks, cuts, stains, or warped frames. Ultimately, while the current presentation does offer some upgrades, the age of the master that was used to source the release definitely shows and, more importantly, the film does not have a solid organic appearance. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Blue Steel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional French subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very solid. During the shootouts depth is very good and clarity is consistently pleasing. The very atmospheric music score is nicely balanced with the dialog. Overall dynamic intensity is also quite good. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report in our review.

Blue Steel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bandes-annonces - trailers for other Metropolitan releases.

Blue Steel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blue Steel is one very, very frustrating film. It tries to be so many different things at the same time that it becomes absolutely impossible to take seriously. If you are a fan of Kathryn Bigelow's work and for some reason want to have it in your collection, my advise to you is to wait until a local distributor reissues it. Metropolitan's Blu-ray release could look somewhat decent at times, especially if you compare it to the old DVD release, but the film does not look as it should in high-definition. RENT IT.