7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Rocco, Hervé Marec, and Mitch-Mitch are long-distance lorry drivers who work for Morocco-based Castigliano and Co. When a mysterious lorry with an unknown consignment is assigned to a new driver, Hans Steiner, they become suspicious. Realising that the lorry is carrying a valuable cargo, Rocco secretly drives the lorry away, accompanied by his girlfriend. When he learns what has happened, Castigliano offers Hervé and Mitch-Match a reward of two million francs if they can recover the lorry. A long, desperate chase ensues...
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Reginald Kernan, Bernard Blier, Anne-Marie CoffinetForeign | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Is there a method to Olive Films’ madness? Lovers of the sometimes obscure catalog title have no doubt noticed that Olive has embarked on one of the most ambitious release schedules of any supposedly “small” label, offering a multitude of unusual offerings every month, many of which diehard fans no doubt thought would never be released on DVD, let alone Blu-ray. These films are incredibly disparate in style, genre and even era, embracing everything from classic Max Ophüls (Letter from an Unknown Woman) to early John Wayne (Overland Stage Raiders) to something akin to Japanese new wave (Love Exposure). With such an exciting if sometimes bewildering array of titles (and those three are just the tip of Olive’s iceberg—look here), Olive’s strategy may not be instantly discernable, but they are certainly carving out an extremely wide swath that lovers of lesser known films should appreciate. This month’s release schedule is no exception, though a case could be made that there’s an odd sort of logic running through at least some of the titles Olive is bringing out. If you take the barren desert setting and scenarist (Michel Audiard) of Taxi for Tobruk and combine it with both the heist scenario and at least a couple of the stars of The Brain, you might end up with something like the 1964 French feature Greed in the Sun.
Greed in the Sun is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This sort of Gaumont sibling to Taxi for Tobruk has much the same image quality as that release, although grain is somewhat more evident throughout Greed in the Sun, even without opticals. The image offers really nice gradation in gray scale, with excellently crisp whites and (the few times they actually appear) solid blacks. There are no noticeable stability problems even when settings include heavily patterned Arabesques, as in some of the Moroccan village scenes. There are some slight contrast fluctuations throughout the film and the elements do show some very minor age related damage along the way, but overall this is yet another great looking Olive release that has not been artificially tampered with in any noticeable way.
Greed in the Sun's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track does just fine with regard to the dialogue, but there's some quite noticeable distortion in some of the music, most notably at the head of the film when the Gaumont fanfare is pretty badly wobbly and Georges Delerue's opening theme sounds awfully tinny, especially in the midrange. Things get appreciably better as the film goes on (though part of that is due to a relative paucity of underscore in any case). Fidelity is fine if not overwhelming, and aside from the passing distortion there's no other egregious damage to report.
Greed in the Sun is another unexpected choice from Olive Films, but it should be enjoyed by anyone who likes snappily written dialogue, exotic locations and a couple of very exciting set pieces. The film is wonderfully cast as well, with Belmondo absolutely perfect in yet another ne'er-do-well role to which he seemed so well suited. The slow unfolding of several little twists as the film moves along keeps things from becoming too predictable, and while it's at least debatable that the film would have been better had it been judiciously trimmed by twenty or so minutes (it comes in at a little over two hours), it also has to be stated quite firmly that things are never boring even as they stand. Verneuil is an oddly underappreciated director stateside, even though his approach is quite American, with dry humor and great action commingling in a sort of proto-arch manner. This may in fact not be Verneuil's finest turn (it would be great so see some of his collaborations with Jean Gabin get released by Olive), but it's a brisk and very entertaining film that is a joy to see on Blu-ray. Recommended.
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