7 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
During the Civil War, a group of Confederates escapes from the Union POW camp at Fort Bravo but has to contend with the desert, the Mescalero Apaches and the pursuing Union troops.
Starring: William Holden, Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, William Demarest, William Campbell (I)Western | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
John Sturges' ever-shifting action/drama hybrid Escape from Fort Bravo feels like a project with more than one writer. Which it was, naturally: Michael Pate and Phillip Rock, both first-timers with few other credits to their name, worked off a screenplay by Frank Fenton, whose more prolific output even includes an uncredited contribution to Out of the Past. Its patchwork flow quickly shifts from Civil War-era drama to a more conventional love story, which eventually leads to a daring nighttime escape and a prolonged, violent standoff with the film's closest thing to a true adversary: savage Mescalero Apaches, who aren't afraid to defend their native land from Northern or Southern invaders.
It's a pretty suspenseful turn of events for a film that, up until its final 30 minutes or so, seems fine enough limiting itself to romantic drama and a bit of intrigue surrounding that escape plan. But everything leading up to this climax isn't consistently engaging: Escape from Fort Bravo is loaded with too many supporting characters and not enough organic elements, including the central romance between Roper and Carla which never really amounts to much more than a few fitfully passionate -- and mostly unrequited -- exchanges. (Even the quasi-triangle that forms courtesy of Captain Marsh never really seems all that believable.) Collectively, this is a film that aims for too wide of an audience and probably didn't please anyone completely, although it still seems to do more right than wrong. And the beautiful backdrops -- mostly captured in Gallup, New Mexico and California's Death Valley National Park -- create a memorable Western atmosphere made unique by Robert Surtees' somewhat soft and subdued Anscocolor cinematography.
Both are served well on Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray. which features predictably rock-solid A/V merits but no historical or retrospective
extras. It's perhaps not the most essential of their recent releases but, for fans of the cast and genre(s), Escape from Fort Bravo makes a
decent pick if you're in the mood for something different.
Unlike more boldly saturated Eastmancolor or Technicolor films of its era, Escape from Fort Bravo's use of Anscocolor photography makes it a subdued and almost pastel-colored affair, with this outstanding 1080p transfer maintaining all the hallmarks and quirks of the format. There are times when the soft greens and browns of its dry, dusty landscapes nearly resemble that of a colorized film, an observation bolstered by the format's lightly soft appearance in wider shots. Other odds and ends stand out too -- and not always in a good way -- including a few very questionable day-for-night shots; this technique rarely produces convincing results, and especially not in this case. But it's still dangerously close to a flawless transfer, all things considered, as evidenced by Escape from Fort Bravo's respectable amount of fine image detail, consistent film grain, and an ultra-clean appearance sourced from a brand-new 4K scan of the original camera negative. Although I'll admit to having seen very few films of this particular photographic format on home video, this one seems to have made the transition exceptionally well -- I dread to think what Escape from Fort Bravo would have looked like in the wrong hands, or on a much lower-resolution format like VHS or even DVD.
For these reasons and more, it achieves the mark set by most Warner Archive catalogue releases: basically perfect marks, thanks to the boutique label's careful touch and excellent disc encoding which holds the film on a 50GB Blu-ray and ensures a complete lack of compression artifacts, banding, and other eyesores. Simply put, Escape from Fort Bravo is a somewhat unusual-looking film that, for obvious reasons, has never looked better than it does here.
As usual, Warner Archive has uploaded a few YouTube videos showing off their new transfer; these include the full three and a half-minute opening sequence and an early nighttime interlude between Captain Roper and Carla.
Likewise, the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio follows suit with a very capable mix that supports Escape from Fort Bravo's modest one-channel roots. As expected there's a lot of variety here: bustling outdoor activity, the cozier locale of an evening wedding celebration, a few intimate one-one-one exchanges, thundering horse pursuits, and a few eerily quiet moments during the final standoff peppered by the faint whistle of overhead arrow volleys. Although all of this material is obviously reined in pretty tightly due to its format limitations, Escape from Fort Bravo achieves a modest amount of depth, direction, and sonic intrigue during key moments, many of which are also strengthened by Jeff Alexander's original score... even if the main theme kinda rips off the first line of "Jesus Loves Me" if you squint your ears hard enough. Overall, it's obviously not going to stack up to modern Westerns for overall sonic clarity or dynamic range, but what's here is more than acceptable and gets the job done with no distortion, drop-outs, or sync issues.
Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.
This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with original one-sheet poster art, no inserts, and one extra.
Director John Sturges made many better films in his career than the somewhat uneven Escape from Fort Bravo, but this fitfully great hybrid of romantic drama and action-adventure has its fair share of entertaining moments. So call it what you will -- I'm sticking with The Not-So-Great Escape -- but, at the very least, it's worth another look thanks to Warner Archive's predictably solid Blu-ray treatment. Featuring another top-tier A/V presentation but sadly light on extras, this one comes Recommended to established fans; newcomers might want to try before they buy.
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