Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Hellfighters Blu-ray Movie Review

Mill Creek has released the 1968 John Wayne firefighting movie 'Hellfighters,' directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, to Blu-ray. The film was previously released to Blu-ray via parent studio Universal in 2015. This version includes a similar 1080p transfer but, unlike the Universal disc's 5.1 lossless soundtrack, includes a 2.0 lossless soundtrack. No extras are included with either release.

Hellfighters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There is not a significant discrepancy between Mill Creek's version of Hellfighters and the Universal release. Here is the review for the Universal issue, which generally suffices, but I will also include a few words written in isolation concerning this specific Mill Creek release.

While the Mill Creek and Universal discs share a a very similar look, the Mill Creek disc does appear to fall victim to slightly more in the way of compression issues that are rarely drastic but show just enough to make the image ever so slightly less impactful and stable than the universal issue. Here, grain remains rather clumpy, at times, but at other times often nice enough to give the picture a pleasantly faithful film-like look, especially in very controlled lighting and locations. Look at a dialogue scene inside at the 28-minute mark. It's a very nice-looking image, borderline striking at its best, with fairly even grain and, in close-up, very rich and complex facial textures. It's not perfect, but it's about as good as the transfer gets. Still, there are areas where definition sours a little, the grain clumps more severely, and the pops and speckles amplify to a higher degree. Overall, though, the various textural elements look OK-to-good. Color elements are good, not great. There's a lot of color expression depth, and accuracy, even vibrancy, but the image lacks the absolute tonal nuance of the best Blu-ray images. The red firefighting suits can be a little overbearing, but more grounded colors can be very rich indeed. On the other end of the spectrum, yellows are very dull and flat, whether taxi cabs or some of the equipment used in the firefighting sequences. Yet the orange/yellow flames can look bold and brilliant. Black levels are OK, whites are a little flat and creamy, and skin tones range from pasty to acceptable. This is not a great Blu-ray image, but it generally satisfies core demands.

Hellfighters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This Blu-ray release of Hellfighters includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. The previously issued Universal disc featured a 5.1 lossless soundtrack, so this is a downgrade for the Mill Creek disc. This release also loses the many alternate audio tracks -- Spanish, French, German, etc. -- so already the Mill Creek disc falls well behind its Universal counterpart. Indeed, this is the most obvious difference between the Mill Creek and Universal issues. Fortunately, the loss of channels is not a significant loss for the experience. While the Universal disc is a bit fuller, the Mill Creek still manages to rush audio through the left and right channels to some degree of satisfaction, especially in the raging fire sequences. While the track never engulfs the listener, so to speak, the intensity is obvious, even if dynamics are a little unkempt and overall clarity is lacking, issues that date back to the sound design and not the Blu-ray audio encode. Indeed, for everything from firefighting to music and from ambience to dialogue, overall definition is merely adequate. Dialogue does not always image perfectly to the middle, either, but neither does it stray too far off to the sides.

Hellfighters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Like the Universal disc before it, this Blu-ray release of Hellfighters contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen only includes options to play the film and toggle the English SDH subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Hellfighters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hellfighters strives to balance intense firefighting action with hot and heavy family drama and dynamics. It works well enough, and even as the fires are terrifyingly large and translate exceptional well to the screen, they play second to the characters and story away from the blazes. The rest of it just isn't all that interesting. The movie is resultantly a little slow and overstuffed. It is certainly not one of Wayne's best but it does spin a capable yarn with enough action and romance to leave audiences of both persuasions satisfied. While this is a decent enough presentation of Hellfighters, Universal's is better. At time of publication, the Universal disc is a few dollars cheaper than this Mill Creek edition on Amazon. It includes a superior soundtrack, a few more alternate language and subtitle options, and an ever-so-slightly better video transfer, so pick it up instead.