Crackers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Crackers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 21, 2021

Louis Malle's "Crackers" (1984) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by critics Daniel Kremer and Scout Tafoya. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Wrong hole, eh?

The general consensus is that Crackers is the worst film in Louis Malle’s oeuvre. What a lot of people disagree on is why it turned out as it did and whether Malle could have done better. It was apparently inspired by Mario Monicelli’s Big Deal on Madonna Street, but it is difficult to tell whether Malle intended for his film to be seen as a distant relative of it. These films have very different personalities and goals.

In Malle’s film, the miserable outcasts live in San Francisco and are a pretty diverse group. Weslake (Donald Sutherland) is the brightest bulb and the one that seems most likely to figure out how to permanently redirect his life. Turtle (Wallace Shawn) is a perpetually hungry loner who simply exists. Boardwalk (Larry Riley) is a failed pimp who is stuck taking care of a child he says happened because of a mistake. Dillard (Sean Pean) and Ramon (Trinidad Silva) are the most clueless thieves in the area. Garvey (Jack Warden) is the owner of the owner the old pawn shop where the group gathers daily and each of its members reports on his miserable existence. From time to time the horny cop Maxine (Christine Baranski) stops by as well, but only to remind Weslake that he has something she needs and when she expects to get it. While there is never a shortage of new stories, each day is like the previous day, and the previous day is always like the one before it.

The cycle of repetitive moaning is broken when Dillard and Ramon convince Garvey to purchase a discounted security system from them while Weslake convinces the rest of the outcasts that they have the right people to temporarily disable the security system and rob the pawn shop. After a series of minor concerns are addressed, the outcasts agree on a day and time they would break into Garvey’s pawn shop and empty the safe he has somewhere in the back. But as it usually happens complications force the amateur thieves to drastically alter their perfect plan.

It is probably fair to speculate that Jeffrey Alan Fiskin was approached by Malle to write the screenplay for Crackers because of the great work he did on the screenplay for Cutter's Way. But it is unclear what happened once Fiskin agreed to do it, and specifically whether Malle actually ended up working with the screenplay that was later on handed to him. Here’s why: Crackers is unlike any other film Malle had directed before it and the quality of its characterizations is simply awful. There is a lot of chatter in it but instead of bringing the colorful characters together it pushes them apart and creates the impression that they are actors auditioning before a director who lacks the patience to shoot the film he wanted to do. As a result, the entire film looks like a collection of random episodes where a lot happens but for no particular reason. Additionally, Malle shoots and treats these characters as if they are delinquent teenagers and the concept does not work because there are quite a few situations where they have to behave as adults. This is arguably the main reason why this film fails so convincingly -- its stars and its director are most definitely not on the same page.

What was the real reason for the disconnect? It could be that Fiskin’s screenplay was not right. It could be that at some point, and likely very early into the production process, Malle abandoned it and began improvising. Or it could be that for some unspecified reason Malle and certain members of the cast simply did not get along and the entire film was immediately doomed to be a stinker. It is really difficult to guess what the real problem was because there are some big-time stars in Crackers and their actions before Malle’s camera are very unconvincing. Consider this: How can the film expect the audience to see Warden’s penny-pincher emerge as a sympathetic character when everything he says and does until the very end is part of the daily litmus test that reveals how profoundly screwed up the outcasts are?

Crackers 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, Crackers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. Large portions of this master look quite harsh, which is arguably the main reason why delineation and depth are not as good as they need to be. Predictably, grain exposure can be very uneven as well, especially in darker areas where strong black crush can create all sorts of other anomalies. The harshness, which has a digital quality, interferes with fluidity as well, so on a larger screen often times you will notice unnaturally blurry visuals. The color grading is adequate at best. In darker areas the blacks can appear severely crushed and many supporting nuances are lost. On the positive side, there are enough primaries with good saturation levels. Image stability is good. A few white specks and black marks can be spotted, but there are no distracting large debris, cuts, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 2.75/5.00. (Note: This 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).

Crackers 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 provided for the main feature.

I was able to view Crackers during the day and had the volume turned up a lot, so I was quite surprised to hear how strong the lossless track is. Michael McDonald's "We Got More Than We Need", for instance, sounds terrific, and there are quite a few sequences where dynamic intensity is excellent (or at least for a film from the early '80s). The upper registers are very healthy as well.

Crackers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - vintage U.S. trailer for Crackers. In English, not subtitled. (1 min, 480/60i).

• Audio Commentary - in this new audio commentary, critics Daniel Kremer and Scout Tafoya share their thoughts on Louis Malle's Crackers and provide plenty of interesting information about the real locations in San Francisco where different parts of the film were shot. Also, there is good information about the career paths of many of the people that made the film.

Crackers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Crackers is a genuine head-scracher because it was conceived by some very talented people but very little in it works as it should. This isn't the first time I have seen it, and I have long wondered how Louis Malle completed it. It does not look like a Malle film, and it definitely does not behave like a Malle film. There is a good exclusive new audio commentary on this release from critics Daniel Kremer and Scout Tafoya in which the two share some quite interesting speculations about the film's production and Malle's intentions, so it is definitely worth spending ninety minutes with it. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from an old master that was supplied by Universal Pictures.