6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Set in the 1930s Arab states at the dawn of the oil boom, the story centers on a young Arab prince torn between allegiance to his conservative father and modern, liberal father-in-law.
Starring: Tahar Rahim, Mark Strong, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Nathin Art ButlerDrama | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Day of the Falcon, which was originally titled Black Gold for international markets, is a curious and not entirely successful amalgam of the West and the Mideast. The standard marketing line is that the film is one of the most expensive productions every produced and financed by Arab interests and filmed in Arab locales—which is accurate but not complete. The producer and primary creative force behind the project, Tarak Ben Ammar, is a native Tunisian, but he is also a fillmmaking veteran with decades of experience that include overseeing the Tunisian shoots for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Monty Python's Life of Brian, producing TV mini-series on the lives of Jesus and the disciples and producing films for Brian DePalma (Femme Fatale) and Guiseppe Tornatore (Baarìa). Ben Ammar has had his share of flops (notably, 2002's Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever), but anyone with his longevity in film and TV has to have sharp commercial instincts. As much as Ben Ammar may have aspired to create a film from the Arab point of view, he clearly wanted to appeal to a broad international audience. Day of the Falcon's source material was a novel by a Swiss author, Hans Ruesch. The director was a Frenchman, Jean-Jacques Annaud. A Dutchman, Menno Meyjes, wrote the screenplay from an adaptation by Annaud and fellow Frenchman Alain Godard. When it came to casting, many of the extras and supporting players were local actors in Ben Ammar's Tunisian homeland, where much of principal photography occurred. But the key roles of the two opposing Arabian tribal leaders were played by a Spaniard and an Englishman, the two Arab princes by Muslims born and raised in France and England, and the main female roles by natives of Bombay and Ethiopia. Now, I'm not suggesting a "political correctness" test in which Day of the Falcon fails because its staffing and casting were ethnically and nationally "inauthentic". My point is simply that the film's producer assembled the project in the same way as any other major motion picture, drawing from industry veterans and with an eye on the international box office. And that is indicative of why something feels badly "off" about this ambitious enterprise, even though all the money ended up on the screen. For all the film's "made in the Muslim world" credentials, it still feels like a Western take on Arabia, pouring the region's history into the same mold for cinematic epics created by the likes of David Lean and Otto Preminger—and the mold doesn't fit the material. Ironically, one of the very subjects of Day of the Falcon is how Westerners arrived in the Arabian desert and failed to understand the world view of its inhabitants. How, then, should one interpret a plot that elevates as a hero the prince who ultimately embraces that very Western view? Notwithstanding its references to the Quran and its depictions of tribal life, Day of the Falcon plays as an account of how the discovery of oil dragged the Muslim world, kicking and screaming, from savagery into civilization. Even within the film's own terms, that hardly sounds like an Arab point of view.
Whatever its limitations as a film, Day of the Falcon certainly shines on Blu-ray. Sumptuously photographed by French cinematographer Jean-Marie Dreujou using primarily film, with an occasional shot acquired in HD and the sources harmonized in post-production on a digital intermediate, the film has the epic sweep that is typical of director Annaud's work. Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray provides both the scale of the landscapes (with Tunisia and Qatar standing in for Saudi Arabia) and the fine detail of weather-beaten skin, clothing, camel and horse hair and, of course, endless varieties of sand. Colors range from the bright yellows of the daytime desert to the deep blues and blacks of the night, with a varied palette of hues for the finery of the royal family and its retinue in Emir Nesib's household and also for Sultan Amar's attendants. The grain pattern from the filmed portions has been retained in its natural form, but it is so fine that it will hardly be noticed. None of the image's sharpness appears to have been induced by artificial means, and the image is free of artifacts caused by compression or other digital anomalies. (The extreme weather conditions under which the production photographed did generate an occasional lens flare, however.) Overall, this is about as good a Blu-ray image as one could hope to see for complex desert scenes of combat involving tanks, camels, horses and guns. I just wish it were in service of a better film.
Perhaps because its producer and director were aiming for a traditional Hollywood-style epic, the soundtrack to Day of the Falcon, encoded as DTS-HD MA 5.1, avoids the kind of "whiz-bang" effects that one associates with action films, even though there are many scenes that would support them. Even a big effect involving a huge oil tank explosion is relatively sedate, at least compared to how Michael Bay would have done it. The soundtrack is well-mixed with clear dialogue, effects that blend smoothly and a distinct sense of each environment, but the surrounds do not call attention to themselves. James Horner's contemplative, almost mournful score, which features vocals by Fahad Al Kubaisi, attempts to bridge the gap between the film's Western point of view and its Middle Eastern subject matter, with mixed success.
Image Entertainment's Blu-ray contains some, but not all, of the supplements featured on the Region B-locked French edition of Black Gold. Omitted are the following: one of the two documentaries; the two photo galleries; and the commentary, in French, by director Jean-Jacques Annaud. (As is evident in the documentaries, Annaud speaks fluent English, but he either wasn't available or wasn't willing to record a new commentary.)
In "The Making of Day of the Falcon", the founder of Qatar's Doha Film Institute says that their "investment" in the film lies in the opportunity for aspiring young filmmakers to observe firsthand a professional film company at work. Her comments reflect an astute, long-term view. The film that Day of the Falcon aspires to be will almost certainly not be made by Westerners. It will be made by as-yet-unknown talents who emerge from places like the DFI and, having absorbed the techniques of classic Hollywood epics, reinvent them for their own purposes, to tell their own stories. Day of the Falcon stands as an object lesson in the futility of outsiders trying to tell the story of a culture they are still trying to understand. Lawrence of Arabia works, because its hero is one of the outsiders. Day of the Falcon is Arabia without Lawrence, and it never gets beyond the surface. Recommended as a Blu-ray, but not as a film.
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