Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 19, 2019

It's maybe a little hard to discern exactly what the creative crew behind Brother Can You Spare a Dime had in mind, since the film seems to want to tell some kind of a story, albeit one that's cobbled together from film clips, newsreels and other archival footage. As such, Brother Can You Spare a Paradigm may serve as an unintentional primer in supposed "montage theory", though whatever "meaning" some viewers may glean from the juxtaposition of various images will most likely be highly variable.

The front cover of this release contains what I imagine was the film's advertising "hook" during whatever theatrical run it managed to have, touting the film as offering "the greatest star studded cast ever!" That may be a bit of PR hyberbole, but among the stars you'll be able to spot, if only fleetingly at times, are James Cagney, Jack Benny, Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin and The Andrews Sisters. Some curmudgeons may be of the opinion that it would probably be more fun to actually watch the original films in which these "cameos" initially appeared rather than this patently bizarre amalgamation.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Brother Can You Spare a Paradigm is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI and MVD Visual, albeit under what to me is a new imprint called The Sprocket Vault. While this is an AVC encoded 1080p presentation in 1.30:1, there are clear signs of upscaling in at least some of the clips, giving this a kind of patchwork quilt appearance at times (look at screenshot 4 in full resolution and you'll be able to see stair stepping "jaggies" throughout the frame). Some of the clips look at least decent, with acceptable detail levels and good contrast, but sharpness, clarity and grain structure ebb and flow throughout this presentation.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Brother Can You Spare a Paradigm features an LPCM 2.0 mono track which can't completely overcome some of the limitations of the original archival audio, especially in some of the newsreels. The film clips tend to fare at least a little better, generally speaking, with decent if not overwhelming fidelity. There are occasional signs of age related wear and tear, including intermittent pops and a bit of distortion in some of the musical elements.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Pathe Newsreels (1080p; 51:32) is a rather interesting assortment of vintage newsreels and may well be more entertaining in its own way than the main feature. There is some fun if kind of weird material here, including a great piece with Will Hays talking about the moral compass that the motion picture industry offers the world.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You get the feeling that writer and director Philippe Mora is aiming for some kind of ironic presentation of images here, but nothing ever really resonates very well, and whatever "story" is supposedly being offered is a hodgepodge at best, and incomprehensible at worst. Technical merits are middling for those considering a purchase.