6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Sam Burton's second wife Neddy is Indian, their son Pacer a half-breed. As struggle starts between the whites and the Kiowas, the Burton family is split between loyalties.
Starring: Elvis Presley, Barbara Eden, Dolores del Rio, Steve Forrest (I), John McIntireWestern | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Flaming Star is often cited as the film where Elvis Presley proved he could act, but it’s also an interesting entry from a somewhat different standpoint. Fifties' westerns started reexamining the preconceived notions of what "Injuns" (as Flaming Star often calls them) were, with some films attempting to personify the clash of cultures between Native Americans and interloping whites in one character. These films started exploring issues of so-called “half breed” Indians, or at least individuals whose backgrounds caused them to have one foot in Caucasian society and the other in Native American culture. John Ford's immortal 1956 The Searchers is often thought to be one of the progenitors of this western subgenre, though in actuality the child in that film isn’t actually a half breed, but simply a white kid who’s been kidnapped and raised by the Comanche. Similarly, 1959’s The Unforgiven (based, like The Searchers, on a novel by author Alan LeMay), simply twists that idea on its head, this time positing a Native American child having been raised by whites. None other than Walt Disney himself also explored somewhat similar issues in his film version of The Light in the Forest, a 1958 film whose 1953 source novel by Conrad Richter might rightly be thought of as one of the first mass market presentations of some concepts shared by these properties, predating the first LeMay novel by a year or so. Presley’s character of Pacer Burton in Flaming Star is in fact a half breed, a “mixed blood” kid with a white father named Sam (John McIntire) and a Kiowa mother named Neddy (Dolores del Rio). Already Flaming Star is somewhat notable in that both parents are depicted openly as a quasi mixed race couple, so that there’s not the “convenience” of an abduction or kidnapping to create the conflict between two societies. That dialectic, as personified by Pacer, is at the center of Flaming Star’s rather intense and at times quite moving drama. Presley is commendable in the role, showing both a steeliness and a rather charming vulnerability (almost an insecurity at times) that makes Pacer’s predicament as he seeks to find his place in the world quite compelling.
Flaming Star is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The elements are in great shape from a damage perspective, but colors don't really pop with much vividness, with flesh tones skewing toward brown and the big skies of the film registering in a pale blue at best most of the time. Even the Fox masthead doesn't quite pop with its typical bright yellow hue. Detail is excellent for the bulk of the film, though director Don Siegel and cinematographer Charles G. Clarke opt for day for night techniques for several longer sequences, a gambit that presents obstacles toward any really significant fine detail emerging. There are some odd registration issues that pop up very occasionally as well. Otherwise, this is a solid effort that shows no signs of aggressive digital interference with regard to either sharpening or filtering.
Flaming Star features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix as well as a repurposed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround offering. These each are listenable, but each has its own anomalies. There's a slight but noticeable increase in amplitude in the 5.1 iteration, though it also comes with that attendant quasi-phasing quality that sometimes crops up in surround repurposings. While the 2.0 mix is considerably more focused, there's just a slight gurgle of distortion in the midrange that affects some dialogue scenes and Cyril Mockridge's score. The 5.1 mix isn't especially immersive, tending to utilize the surround channels mostly for the score, though occasional sound effects do emanate from discrete channels.
Elvis evidently wanted a "serious" acting career, but the relative box office failure of Flaming Star (and, later, Wild in the Country) probably relegated him to the lightweight musical fare that came to typify the rest of his cinematic career. Presley is quite convincing as Pacer, and the rest of the cast is similarly effective. The film is in some ways as interesting as The Searchers, even if it ultimately fails to achieve the same kind of mythic grandeur that the Ford film did. While not a traditional western, there are enough tropes in the film that most longtime western fans should find much to enjoy here. Elvis fans of course will not need much convincing to make this part of their permanent collection. Technical merits of this release are generally very good, and Flaming Star comes Recommended.
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1939
1979
1966
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1967
Limited Edition to 3000
1954
2016
2022
1964
2014
2014
Limited Edition to 3000
1958
1976
1972
1956
1956
1968
1936
1946
2017
1968