Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

City of Industry Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 4, 2017

John Irvin's "City of Industry" (1997) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by producer/director Steve Mitchell and critic Nathaniel Thompson. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"I am my own police"

City of Industry is British director John Irvin’s most underrated film. It is very rarely mentioned when his work is discussed, but it is a first-class revenge thriller that now, twenty years after its release, should be considered a cult classic. Harvey Keitel’s performance in it is on par with the one he gave in Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant.

Lee Egan (Timothy Hutton) has it all figured out. There is a fancy jewelry store in downtown Palm Springs that functions as a distribution site for the Russian diamond traders that is begging to be robbed and he is going to do just that -- get in, empty its safes, than get out and disappear without a trace. Lee has described the job to his best pal, Jorge Montana (Wade Dominguez), and he is in. Their wheelman, Skip Kovich (Stephen Dorff), is already in LA to pick up their guns from a local ‘provider’. Lee’s brother, Roy (Keitel), is also on his way and in a few hours they will meet in a cheap motel on the outskirts of the city.

They do the job and then gather in a secluded trailer park to see how much they have picked up. Even after Lee pays the guy that sold him the inside information about the store there will be plenty for everyone, maybe about a million per person. That’s fine with Roy but he will not wait for the guys to exchange the diamonds for cash, so when they are ready Lee can just transfer his share to his bank account. Lee does not have a problem with it.

But Skip does. He pulls out his gun and instantly kills Lee and Jorge. Somehow, in a cloud of dust and with a large bleeding wound on his chest, Roy manages to escape.

As soon as Roy overcomes the initial shock and comes to terms with the fact that he no longer has a brother he goes out looking for Skip. It isn’t easy to track down the punk, but with the help of Jorge’s girlfriend (Famke Janssen) eventually he figures out a way to send a message to him and let him know that one way or another he is going to pay dearly. Meanwhile, Skip meets an aging well-connected loan shark (Elliot Gould) and promises to pay him double what he already owes him if he helps him get rid of Roy. The old-timer likes the deal and quickly puts him in touch with a Chinese gang that regularly finds ‘solutions’ for people with ‘serious business problems’.

Industry City has the beating heart and attitude of a classic noir film but Irvin adds a hard edge to it that makes it rather easy to compare to the various crime dramas that Olivier Marchal has directed in France. (For reference, see MR 73/The Last Deadly Mission and 36th Precinct). So there is a part of that has this very interesting retro vibe but it is countered with a lot of brutal action that ultimately gives its identity.

The film comes from an era when the political correct madness was not yet a factor, so the entire cast is very loose and credible. Keitel, in particular, is totally ‘in the zone’ and in the second half he becomes an angry animal that would not stop until he gets his revenge. Dorff is equally impressive as the mean punk who listens only to the loud voice in his head.

Irvin worked with cinematographer Thomas Burstyn, whose previous project was the stylish adaptation of Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami’s manga Crying Freeman.

There is a first-class soundtrack, too. It features top tracks by Massive Attack (“Three”), Tricky (“Overcome”), Lush (“Last Night”), Bomb the Bass (“Big Powder Dust”), and Death In Vegas (“Rocco Sing For A Drink”), amongst others.

City of Industry 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, John Irvin's City of Industry arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old and very weak master, almost certainly the same master that MGM used for the DVD release of the film in 2001. Some of the daylight footage can look somewhat decent, but large portions of the darker indoor and nighttime footage basically look like upscaled material (see examples in screencaptures #8, 14, and 15). The release is also poorly encoded, and in quite a few segments the poor encoding actually exacerbates existing issues. For example, there is plenty of black crush that is inherited from the master, but the poor encoding has introduced additional softness and mush that ultimately produce various smeary dark patches. Ironically, the two gentlemen that have recorded the new commentary that is included on this release cite the heavy darkness and blacks as part of the film's noirish appearance, but this is only partially true because the collapsed palette in screencapture #16 where the blacks are so overwhelming is actually a direct byproduct of a problematic master plus poor encoding. Colors are stable, but the entire film should have much healthier primaries and a very different range of healthy nuances. Image stability is good. Lastly, there are no large distracting debris, damage marks, cuts, stains, warped, or torn frames to report. (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).

City of Industry 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 not provided for the main feature.

The dialog is clean and easy to follow. From time to time it feels like the sound becomes a bit flat, but there are no distracting anomalies. I assume that if the audio is fully remixed, however, there will be meaningful improvements. There are no audio dropouts, background hiss, pops, or distortions to report.

City of Industry Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for City of Industry. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Audio Commentary - in this new audio commentary, Steve Mitchell, producer/director of King Cohen, and critic Nathaniel Thompson (Mondo Digital) share some interesting information about the production history of City of Industry and discusses its style. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Kino Video.

• Cover - reversible cover.

City of Industry Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is becoming increasingly clear that Kino Lorber are quite simply not the right label to be releasing a very large number of the films they license. For example, in August I purchased John Huston's Prizzi's Honor, which for years was available only on a dreadful non-anamorphic DVD, and now it is virtually guaranteed that for years to come it will be available only on a dreadful Blu-ray. Indeed, there is just an endless number of catalog releases like it from Kino Lorber that make it painfully obvious that they were produced with zero effort to ensure that an older film transitions to Blu-ray as it should -- licensing an HD master does not automatically mean that you are ready to produce a Blu-ray. Frankly, I find it quite astonishing to see that a smaller label like Vinegar Syndrome understands what the correct route is when choosing to bring much smaller genre films to Blu-ray, but established distributors with a long history in the business like Kino Lorber do not. Even the folks at newcomer ClassicFlix, which bring the same type of classic films that Kino Lorber target, are doing a drastically better job while preparing masters for Blu-ray release. It pains me to say all of the above as I like Kino Lorber as distributors and because they have acquired a very large number of titles that I would love to add to my library, but the lack of quality standards and an awareness of what collectors actually expect when they decide to spend their money on a Blu-ray release is hugely disappointing.

Kino Lorber's recent release of John Irvin's City of Industry, which is one of the British director's best films, featuring a first-class performance by Harvey Keitel and an equally impressive soundtrack with trip-hop club hits, is yet another major fumble. It is sourced from a very weak old master that basically makes large portions of the film look as upscaled material. I really like this film and secretly hoped that when it transitions to Blu-ray it would look right, but sadly I must confirm now that it does not. Hopefully an overseas label will acquire it, properly remaster it, and then bring it to Blu-ray.