Count Three and Pray Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Count Three and Pray Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 3, 2019

Count Three and Pray tells the multifaceted story of a protagonist looking to start fresh in a place where he's not wanted. Director George Sherman's film is a character study of man, culture, religion, place, and purpose in a post-Civil War era, a microcosm of "reconstruction" not on the grander, national scale but in a more intimate manner that challenges war-weary individuals and those who skeptically hold to earthly values to accept a man who fought "on the wrong side" and found religion on the bloody fields of battle. It's a film about finding oneself and fighting a new kind of war, not with guns but rather with actions, combating the world as it aims to hinder one man's struggle to rise above his past, find his place in the present, and secure a better future for himself and everyone around him.

Luke Fargo (Van Heflin) is a Civil War veteran who betrayed his Southern heritage to fight for the North. He’s considered a traitor by his kind -- called “blue legs” -- and his return home at the end of the war is not easy, either on him or on his community. He returns to find an uneasy peace even in his intent to live in peace. He is determined to set his old, sinful ways behind him -- not to mention the bloodshed he experienced in war -- and settle down to lead his old local community as its preacher. But he finds resistance along the way, first and foremost in the 18-year-old tomboy Lissy (Joanne Woodward) who has taken up residence in the parsonage and refuses to leave. The two are at odds but begin to find a mutual admiration for one another. As Luke attempts to preach to a minuscule congregation and sets out to construct the church building by hand and from scratch, he finds himself drawn back to an old flame, Georgiana (Allison Hayes), and the local madame, Selma (Jean Willes). Meanwhile, underhanded local leader Yancey Huggins (Raymond Burr) fights against Fargo tooth-and-nail, fearing the threat of peace and stability to his ruthless ways.

Unsurprisingly, Fargo has a lot of work to do if he’s going to be able to settle back down at home and sleep without one eye open. As he works hard to reorder his life as he believes he’s been led to do, obstacles form his past arise to hinder his progress to his future. It’s a rather simple story that’s set against a complicated background of antagonism and loyalties to a cause rather than a calling. Everyone around Luke is out to get him, one way or another. His congregation slowly builds, but it requires him to dance around the edges of what he believes: he must one day, on a Sunday no less, set aside his disdain for and abstinence from gambling to participate in a horse race in hopes of winning the vital woods and nails he needs to build his church. Other temptations arise, gossip swirls, and progress is stymied. Director George Sherman builds a fairly complex tale, made all the more so in the post Civil War era, of a man who aspires to rise above himself but who cannot escape any number of personal and communal challenges along the way.

Performances are solid all around. Heflin works hard to inhabit the protagonist, a man with a dark past who is trying to set aside everything that’s come to define him in order to obey a calling to minister to people who don’t much like him. That he chooses to serve in his old community, where he is greeted by graffiti labeling him a “traitor” and where it’s near impossible for him to find a firm enough foothold to settle and start, is the biggest hurdle he’ll have to leap. He leaps it confidently, certainly not without some physical and emotional bruises along the way, and it’s almost as if he knows that the biggest challenge will be reconciling with his own past, and nowhere better to do that than where it all began. Joanne Woodward is the movie’s cornerstone as the rambunctious Lissy, the lively young woman taking up residence in the parsonage. She’s the halfway point for Luke and for the audience, the character who approaches Luke cautiously -- antagonistically, even, pointing a gun at him on more than one occasion -- but softening significantly along the way to his cause and to his heart.

Count Three and Pray Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony's pressed MOD (Manufactured on Demand) 1080p Blu-ray presentation of Count Three and Pray is unsurprisingly terrific. The image maintains a firm, if not a little sharp, grain structure. It's healthy and accentuating, a key component in presenting the film with regular and practically impeccable sharpness and that highly desirable film-like texturing. Period attire is of particular note for its steady clarity and revelatory presentation. Old woods (and, for that matter, the new woods Fargo wins in a horse race and subsequently uses to build his church), terrains, and odds and ends like saddles and stirrups are likewise amazingly sharp, while skin textures are intimately revealing across the board. Colors are gorgeous. There's life and depth to the palette, perfectly attuned contrast that captures healthy skin tones, solid blacks, dusty earthen terrains, and multicolored clothing with resplendent accuracy. Flaws are kept to a bare minimum. One can see some significant macroblocking in the blacks right at the very end in the movie's penultimate shot on the porch but there are otherwise no noteworthy source deteriorations or compression issues in evidence. This is a very nice catalogue release from Sony.

Count Three and Pray Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Count Three and Pray features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. It's not particularly stout but it's capable in terms of delivering the core necessities -- particularly dialogue -- with enough general clarity and stage presence to satisfy demands. Music is capably wide. Clarity wants a bit but it's adequate in all facets. Light atmospheric effects -- chirping birds, primarily -- during Fargo's first sermon in chapter five find nice, gentle presence and adequate clarity in defining the moment. The most would-be active scenes are a little stymied and lacking smooth movement and precise imaging; a horse race in chapter five struggles to command the stage. The racing horses and cheering crowds never quite move smoothly or sound all that realistically implemented. Dialogue does propel the movie and it not only images well to the center but it's also nicely detailed and well prioritized.

Count Three and Pray Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sony's Blu-ray release of Count Three and Pray contains no supplemental content. No "top menu" is included. The "pop up" menu offers only the opportunity to toggle English SDH subtitles on and off. A strange glitch: pressing the "top menu" button during movie playback disables the ability to pause playback, at least on the review Oppo UDP-203 player. It also removes the counter on the front panel and replaces it with "top menu" text. Resetting by pressing stop or opening the disc tray appear to be the only remedies.

Count Three and Pray Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Count Three and Pray tells an interesting, if only occasionally engaging, story of a man in search of redemption where he's least likely to find it: home. It's well acted and a worthwhile time investment. Sony's featureless MOD Blu-ray does deliver stunning video and adequate audio. Recommended.