7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A man, his wife, and their friend, stage a bloody bank robbery, unaware they are stealing money from the Mob.
Starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson (I), John Vernon (I), Sheree NorthDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Don Siegel's "Charlie Varrick" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Indicator/Powerhouse Films. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; archival audio lecture with Don Siegel; archival audio lecture with Walter Matthau; Robert Fischer's documentary "Last of the Independents: Don Siegel and the Making of Charley Varrick"; vintage stills and promotional materials; and more. The release also arrives with a 40-page illustrated booklet featuring new essay by author and critic Richard Combs, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and historic articles on the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Partners
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Don Siegel's Charley Varrick arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Indicator/Powerhouse Films.
The release is sourced from an old and quite problematic master that possesses just about all of the conventional shortcomings that old masters that emerge from Universal's vaults are known for. Indeed, it appears that some sort of a denoising work was done on the entire film and then sharpening was applied to give it a more 'polished' appearance. Predictably, the end result is actually a very harsh looking film with seemingly endless anomalies. For example, take a look at screencapture #3 where the effects of the filtering and the sharpening can be observed on the hand in the right side. On a larger screen many of these these effects can be quite distracting because every time the camera moves, it looks and feels like there is an entirely new layer of artificial grain on top of the natural grain. During outdoor and indoor footage highlights repeatedly appear problematic as well, and in some cases actually interfere with and destabilize proper nuances (see screencaptures #5 and 7). Overall color saturation should be quite a bit better as well. Image stability is good. There are no large debris or torn frames, but a few white flecks and dirt spots remain. All in all, in order to have a stable organic appearance and really look as it should this film needs to be fully remastered from a proper source. (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).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The lossless audio must have been remixed at some point because it is very healthy. Indeed, there is proper depth, clarity is very good, and the existing range of dynamic nuances is most appropriate for a '70s film of this caliber. Balance is very good as well. The backgrounds are clean and there are no distortions in the high-frequencies.
This cult crime thriller from director Don Siegel will only get bigger as time passes because it effectively promotes all of the great qualities that American films had before Jaws and Star Wars. Walther Matthau also gives one of those truly special performances that once witnessed are never forgotten. Indicator/Powerhouse Films' recent Blu-ray release of Charley Varrick is sourced from an older and regrettably quite problematic master that possesses just about all of the conventional shortcomings that old masters that emerge from Universal's vaults are known for, so if you decide to pick it up for your collection it will have to be for its good selection of bonus features. I really hope that in the United States the film is acquired by the folks at Criterion, and they invest in a proper 2K or 4K restoration that will make it shine again.
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