Fort Yuma Gold Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		1.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Fort Yuma Gold Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 16, 2019

This Mill Creek Blu-ray release of the Spaghetti Western 'Fort Yuma Gold' is currently only available as part of a double feature with 'Damned Hot Day of Fire.'

The film opens at a Union prison camp where a number of bloodied Confederate soldiers are being held. It is the end of the War, but a band of about 800 Confederates are still taking up arms. They are “Fanatics” to the Union, “Patriots” to the Southerners. One of the interred men is a Rebel officer named Diamond (Giuliano Gemma) who is approached to carry out an urgent mission for the North, to guide a couple of men through his old home turf to Fort Yuma and warn the garrison there of a pending attack. If successful, the mission will allow Diamond to help save the lives of all 800 men who are on a suicide mission to raid the fort for the one million dollars inside. The 800 believe the fort sits undefended but it is actually heavily guarded.

Fort Yuma Gold Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fort Yuma Gold's 1080p transfer isn't bad, but it's certainly in need of a clean-up. Stray vertical lines, static hairs and fibers, and pops and speckles too numerous to count on a shot-by-shot basis are signs of extreme print wear. But the image does boast an otherwise satisfyingly filmic image. Grain is retained for the duration and detailing is actually fairly high. The image more than capably reveals skin textures with natural complexity, period attire with all the expected frays and accumulated dust, and environments both natural and manmade with enjoyably complex definition across the board. Colors are faded at times and certain scenes push towards a green tint, but often dirty Western landscapes, wooden structures around town, and assorted clothes look fine. The image could use a clean-up, but there's a certain charm to the wear and the cinematic texturing that make it fairly agreeable as-is.

Fort Yuma Gold Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The opening title music is terribly uninspiring. It's wobbly, scratchy, and clarity is severely lacking. Things improve -- slightly -- as the movie proper gets underway. There's still a parade of scratches, hisses, wobbles, pops, drops (which sometimes last for several seconds, check out the 29:50 mark), and an obvious absence of detail, but things come together to a barely passable level of sonic clarity, where essentials are at least conveyed with some semblance of accuracy. Dubbed dialogue is shallow, gunshots are flat, and music struggles to offer anything but crude essentials. The track does offer some modest stretch along the front, whether considering music or light atmospherics. Dialogue never really images to the center, sounding lost somewhere between sides and middle. This track carries the film, capably at the most crude level, but there's nothing here to warrant any sonic excitement.

Fort Yuma Gold Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are included. The parent two-pack linked above does include a digital copy code, which must be redeemed on Mill Creek's website.

Fort Yuma Gold Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fort Yuma Gold is a decent Western that's well paced, modestly exciting, and offers a few good plot twists and action scenes. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray is a disappointment. Video is halfway decent, but audio is borderline terrible and no extras are included. It's unlikely the film will ever be restored or look or sound much better than it does here, at least in the foreseeable future. The double pack in which it is included is a decent value. Worth a look.