Cornbread, Earl and Me Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Cornbread, Earl and Me Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 2, 2017

Joseph Manduke's "Cornbread, Earl and Me" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. The only bonus feature on the disc is an original trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

I have the money, I can pay now

Most Chicagoans will openly admit that there are two ways to get things done in their city: the right way, and the Chicago way. Quite a few will concede that the right way also tends to get bent so much that it is actually rarely worth defending. So, most of the time the Chicago way really is the only way.

Joseph Manduke’s film Cornbread, Earl and Me reveals how the Chicago way functions and who are some of the people that protect it. The film was completed in the early 70s, but there is probably very little that has changed in the Windy City since then. Perhaps there is a wider range of reasons that justify the existence of the Chicago way, but the driving force behind it remains the same -- it is called corruption.

The narrative is broken into two uneven acts. In the first we meet the friendly giant Nathaniel ‘Cornbread’ Hamilton (Jamaal Wilkes) who loves the game of basketball so much that there are days when he literally can’t think of anything else. He also can’t wait to go to college, and then with a bit of luck hopefully to the NBA. He is smart and realizes that the game of basketball is the only ticket that will permanently get him out of the poverty and misery that he has endured his entire life. He even has a plan for his parents and knows exactly how he is going to change their lives. His passion for the game and his determination to stay out of trouble is admired by everyone in the neighborhood, and to Will (a very young Laurence Fishburne) and Earl (Tierre Turner) he is actually already a local hero. The second act begins a few days before ‘Cornbread’ heads to college. While chasing a local thug, a cop shoots ‘Cornbread’ in the back and kills him on the spot. The community rises up and seeks justice, but soon after those who know exactly what took place are visited by investigators from the city who quickly convince them that when they go to courthouse it would in their best interest if they went with their manufactured version of the tragic event rather than with the truth.

There is plenty of footage in Cornbread, Earl and Me that can easily make your blood boil. The most tendentious footage is from the backroom dealing that occurs after the official hearing in the courthouse begins and the dead boy’s parents are forced to endure the lies that are coming from the ‘investigators’. The people that you see here are exactly the type of corrupt officials that have given Chicago its terrible reputation, and the whole ‘legal process’ is exactly the type of circus that continues to divide people in the city even today. The circumstances leading up to the boy’s tragic murder are equally infuriating. For example, the real thug is one of many that the local community has actually allowed to roam free. There is a very powerful sequence early into the film, for instance, where ‘Cornbread’ is confronted by some dope pushers while playing basketball with Will at a school gym and here it is made very clear that their presence has been tolerated by the officials. So the bigger picture that the film reveals is that crime exists in Chicago because criminals are also tolerated there. If they were to be isolated by Chicagoans and consequently driven out of the communities that they are destroying, then tragedies such as the one that is chronicled in the film would be entirely preventable.

It is incredibly sad that Cornbread, Earl and Me remains so relevant many years after it was produced because the wrongs that are chronicled in it are not difficult to right. But it takes courage to do it and people that are actually willing to pinpoint the root cause of the problem, not suave politicians who would focus on the symptoms and exploit them to promote entirely different causes and agendas.

Cornbread, Earl and Me 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, Joseph Manduke's Cornbread, Earl and Me arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

The release is sourced from a very nice remaster. There is a little bit of black crush that sneaks in, and ideally there should have been some targeted encoding optimizations to have a slightly 'tighter' grain exposure, but the entire film has a very solid organic appearance. A lot of the close-ups boast very good delineation and depth, while the outdoor footage typically has the type of consistent fluidity that excellent recent masters produce. There are no traces of problematic or sharpening adjustments. The color palette promotes solid and natural primaries as well as a decent range of nicely balanced nuances. I spotted a few flecks, but there are no distracting large debris, cuts, damage marks, or stains to report. My score if 4.25/5.00. (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).

Cornbread, Earl and Me 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 Enlgish SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The film does not have an active soundtrack. For the most part it really incorporates organic sounds and noises, and only during a couple of the outdoor sequences there is some noticeable dynamic movement. Still, the film's original sound design is quite modest. There are no audio dropouts, pops, cracks, distracting hiss, or digital distortions to report in our review.

Cornbread, Earl and Me Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Cornbread, Earl and Me. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Cornbread, Earl and Me Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chicago's terrible reputation is well deserved, and since 1975 when Joseph Manduke directed Cornbread, Earl and Me the city has undoubtedly deteriorated even more. What is truly sad is that it is not at all difficult to clean up the local communities and help struggling Chicagoans, but the crime and chaos that have brought the city to its knees are actually used by hordes of different politicians to support causes and agendas that keep them relevant. This is the inconvenient truth that no one wants to talk about. Olive Films' recent Blu-ray release of Cornbread, Earl and Me is sourced from a nice remaster, but the only bonus feature on it is an original trailer for the film. RECOMMENDED.