Essential Killing Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Essential Killing Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 7, 2011

Winner of the Grand Special Jury Prize and Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s "Essential Killing" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; video interview with director Jerzy Skolimowski; and a special effects demo. In English, Arabic, and Polish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Chased

The film opens up somewhere in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Pakistan, with three U.S. soldiers looking for someone, or something. A man (Vincent Gallo, Tetro, Arizona Dream) - possibly a Taliban member – kills one of them. He is captured and tortured. Then he is transferred to a secret U.S. base somewhere in Central Europe, most likely in Poland.

An accident allows the man to escape and he finds himself in the middle of a frozen countryside. Cold and hungry, he begins running for his life. A group of U.S. soldiers begin tracking him down.

The man’s journey – to nowhere – is a difficult one. He suffers enormously and nearly loses his mind. Flashbacks from his past show that he had a wife, that he was trained to kill, and that someone taught him that suffering is part of human nature. Eventually, the man becomes an animal.

Essential Killing is Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski’s second feature film after a 17-year break from directing (in 2008, his Four Nights with Anna was screened at the Cannes Film Festival). Last year, the film was screened at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Grand Special Jury Prize and Volpi Cup for Best Actor (Gallo).

Portions of Essential Killing remind about Hardy Martins’ As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, which tells the true story of Clemens Forell, a Nazi soldier who was sent to the notorious Camp Dezhnev (a deadly GULAG camp), the eastern-most point of Russia, after the end of WWII. Forell managed to escape and walked nearly 14,000 (fourteen thousand) kilometers, passing through the heart of Siberia, before reaching Tabris, Iran, from where he was flown back to Munich. It was an incredible journey, lasting nearly three years, which German writer Josef Martin Bauer described in a book that was published in 1955.

In Essential Killing, a man embarks on a somewhat similar journey, but his name is never revealed. The locations seen throughout the film also remain unidentified, though the U.S. base where the man is flown is most likely somewhere in Poland, because the people he encounters while running for his life are heard speaking Polish.

The man looks like a jihadist, but his identity isn’t important. What the film focuses on is his transformation - from a man into an animal.

In a rather long interview included on this Blu-ray release of Essential Killing, director Skolimowski explains that he intentionally tried to make his film as vague as possible. In other words, there isn’t a hidden political message in it – the main protagonist is who he is because only a man in his shoes could be as desperate as he is.

The film could be easily criticized – if one views it through a certain political prism. But just like As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me does not promote Nazism, Essential Killing does not promote jihad or glorify terrorism. The film is not about right or wrong, good or evil.

There are two sequences in the film in which Gallo is simply incredible. In the first, he steals a fish from an elderly man in the middle of a frozen lake and runs away with it. While he eats the raw fish, he produces some strange sounds, like a hurt animal would. In the second, he goes berserk after he sees a young woman breast-feeding her baby.

Cinematographer Adam Sikora’s (Lech Majewski's Angelus) lensing is superb. The panoramic vistas from the covered with snow countryside are breathtakingly beautiful.

Note: On July 18th, the BFI will also release on Blu-ray director Skolimowski's Deep End.

Essential Killing 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, Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing arrives pm Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Artificial Eye.

As it is the case with all Artificial Eye Blu-ray releases, the presentation is of exceptionally high quality. The footage from the desert and later on from the frozen countryside (supposedly shot on location in Norway) is stunning - detail is excellent, while the natural light is beautifully captured (see screencapture #4). With the exception of the memory flashbacks where whites, light reds and blues have been boosted (see screencapture #2), contrast levels are also consistent throughout the entire film. Edge-enhancement is never a serious issue of concern. Heavy artifacting and banding do not plague the high-definition transfer either. There are no traces of overzealous sharpening either or serious stability issues. Lastly, there are no purely specific transfer-related anomalies to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Essential Killing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with portions of Arabic and Polish). For the record, Artificial Eye have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. Please note that the English subtitles are used only for the non-English dialog.

There is very little dialog in the film, but the various shootouts, occasional screams, nature sounds, and excellent atmospheric soundtrack sound great. Indeed, the loseless 5.1 audio track has a wide range of nuanced dynamics that give the film quite the edge. The sporadic bits of dialog aren't always easy to follow, but this is intentional. For the record, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Essential Killing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: The supplemental features on this Blu-ray disc are encoded in 1080/50i. Therefore, if you reside in North America, you must have a Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to view them.

• Interview - an excellent video interview with director Jerzy Skolimowski in which he discusses how Essential Killing came to exist, its message, the locations where the film was shot, etc. The Polish director also talks about his love of painting. In English, not subtitled. (17 min, 1080/50i).

• Special Effects - a look at the helicopter special effects. Music only, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080/50i).

• Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for Essential Killing. Music only, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080/50i).

Essential Killing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing is an enormously dark and at times very disturbing film that is also beautifully lensed. Certain sequences in the film look as if they were directed by the legendary Andrey Tarkovsky. On this side of the Atlantic, the film is guaranteed to split audiences. I liked it a lot. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.