Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 18, 2020

Douglas Hickox's "Brannigan" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by director/producer Steve Mitchell and critic Nathaniel Thompson. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "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 Kino Lorber.

In 2016 we reviewed this Region-B release from German label Concorde Video, but there was also a North American release from Twilight Time. This release from Kino Lorber appears to have been sourced from the same master that Concorde Video worked with, but much to my surprise the technical presentations are not identical. From what I could tell, the gamma levels on these releases are set differently, with the Kino Lorber release actually looking slightly brighter. This is something that has a negative effect on the dynamic range of the visuals, but a lot of players do automatic adjustments quite well and on the fly. The second discrepancy is in the area of sharpness which impacts the perception of depth. On this release the visuals often appear marginally softer, though the difference is so small that I don't believe that untrained eyes will be able to spot it. Also, keep in mind that the current master isn't brand new -- to be clear, it is not ancient either -- so it actually exhibits some natural softness that is present on both releases. Color balance is fine, but saturation levels can be improved. Also, highlights can be better managed in areas with an abundance of natural light. Image stability is good. There are no distracting age-related imperfections to report in our review. (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).

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The audio tack is very healthy. When the current master was prepared, the audio was probably cleaned up and then optimized as best as possible. I don't think that if in the future a superior master emerges the audio will be improved in any meaningful ways. There are no encoding anomalies to report. (As mentioned above, unlike the German release this release offers optional English SDH subtitles for those that need them).

Brannigan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a remastered trailer for Brannigan. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - in this new audio commentary, director/producer Steve Mitchell (King Cohen) and critic Nathaniel Thompson explain why Brannigan has aged well, how the film used footage from the city of Chicago (apparently done by a second unit), the look of London, John Wayne's performance, the use of music throughout the film, etc. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Kino Lorber.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following titles from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. Legend of the Lost
  2. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
  3. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
  4. The Laughing Policeman

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. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a healthy master and has a very nice exclusive audio commentary by director/producer Steve Mitchell and critic Nathaniel Thompson. RECOMMENDED but primarily to John Wayne fans.