Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 22, 2017

Douglas Hickox's "Brannigan" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of German label Concorde Video. The only bonus feature on the disc is a gallery with trailers. In English or German, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The American

Veteran Chicago cop Jim Brannigan (John Wayne) is abruptly dispatched to London to bring back a notorious gangster named Larkin (John Vernon) who is facing a long list of serious charges. At Heathrow Jim is greeted by the charming Jennifer (Judy Geeson) and shortly after she introduces him to Commander Swann (Richard Attenborough), also a veteran, who assures the American visitor that picking up Larkin and then sending him on his way to Cook County with him would be as easy as a walk in the park. Before the two men can even finish their ‘friendly drinks’ at one of the city’s best clubs, however, Larkin is kidnapped from a fancy health club in a different part of the city and someone demands to be paid a large ransom if the gangster is to be transferred alive to Scotland Yard. Swann and his superiors agree to pay the money and proceed to arrange the exchange, but are constantly forced to make adjustments to their plan because Brannigan also initiates a parallel investigation and some very mean people decide to take him out.

Douglas Hickox’s Brannigan has a very impressive cast but its best asset might be its terrific soundtrack. Indeed, Dominic Frontiere delivers a couple of truly first-class music themes that do a lot more to make the film look stylish and spirited than the many carefully scripted exchanges between the stars and mass action sequences from busy London. (How ironic is it that one of the most memorable segments is actually the great intro with the panoramic footage from Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive).

The script demands that Wayne acts a lot like Clint Eastwood does in Dirty Harry, but aside from a few timely one-liners that hit their targets as intended the two cops couldn’t be any more different. Most of the time Wayne simply looks awfully worn-out and a lot like he has been forced to do things that he does not really care much about. So instead of being tough and uncompromising, the cop from Chicago routinely appears seriously annoyed and almost grotesquely slow.

Attenborough’s performance is equally underwhelming. Commander Swann is supposedly an old-timer who understands perfectly how the underworld functions, but his methods very quickly create the impression that he is one of those good old jokers that are easy to discover in classic films about cops and robbers from Victorian England. A lot of his actions look awfully suspicious and it literally feels like he is on the verge of announcing that he is not the real Commander Swann but a double that has been sent in to fool the bad guys.

The panoramic footage from London is mostly good, but its real value comes from the fact that it preserves some of the city’s authentic period ambience. Otherwise the action footage is actually quite poorly edited, and occasionally even looks awfully suspicious. There is a prolonged bar fight, for instance, that is so comical that it easily could have been used in a Benny Hill film. Elsewhere a hitman attempts to crush Brannigan with his car but in some strikingly complicated ways and unsurprisingly keeps missing until eventually a bullet gets stuck in his forehead.

Hickox collaborated with cinematographer Gerry Fisher whose credits include such vastly superior films as The Go-Between, Wise Blood, The Ninth Configuration, and Highlander.

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Brannigan arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Concorde Video.

The film must have been remastered in recent years because the master that was used to source the release is very healthy. My guess is that it was struck from an interpositive and then used for licensing in different territories. (The North American release is sourced from the same master). There are two minor issues that I would like to address. First, some of the highlights could have been managed better so that more of the fine background detail can be preserved. This is also something that would have improved the film's overall dynamic range. Second, ideally density should be better, though currently I like how the film looks projected quite a lot -- density and depth are still very good, color balance is quite convincing, and there are no traces of the problematic digital corrections that make a lot these older films look awfully disappointing when they transition to Blu-ray. It is worth mentioning that there are no distracting age-related imperfection either. All in all, this is a very nice organic presentation of the film. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Naster Audio 1.0 and German DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

The lossless original English track is very good. I did not detect any age-related issues to report here. In fact, I am fairly certain that it was cleaned up at some point because there is absolutely no background hiss and/or distortions, while depth, clarity and balance are as good as one can expect from a film from the early 1970s.

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only bonus feature on this release is a small galley of trailers for other local releases from Concorde Video.

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Given the talent that was involved with Brannigan, I think that the end result is quite underwhelming. It is the type of average crime thriller that seems most appropriate for late-night TV, not the serious project that you would want to see on the big screen. This recent German release from Concorde Video is sourced from a nice and very healthy master, but does not have any meaningful bonus features. You should consider adding it to your collection only if you have already seen Brannigan, like it, and wish to own a copy of the film. Everyone else should RENT IT first.