6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
When Confederate soldier Matt Weaver returns to town after the Civil War, he finds that his home has been sold by town boss Sam Brewster. Brewster hires gunfighter Jules Gaspard d'Estaing to deal with Weaver, but d'Estaing's independent approach settles the town's problems in a very unorthodox manner.
Starring: Yul Brynner, Janice Rule, George Segal, Alfred Ryder, Clifford DavidWestern | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
There’s an appealing sense of disorientation that flows throughout 1964’s “Invitation to a Gunfighter.” It’s not a dramatically dense effort, but it holds focus on shifting allegiances and desires, attempting to find different dramatic directions that move past traditional offerings of six-gun violence than typically motivate the genre. Returning Yul Brynner to the old west, “Invitation to a Gunfighter” scores with surprise and intimidation, finding the star’s icy stare and the screenplay’s behavioral curiosity combining to deliver a slightly askew take on revenge.
The AVC encoded image (1.66:1 aspect ratio) presentation comes through brightly, with outdoor encounters delivering the best detail of the disc, finding sunlit close-ups bringing out facial textures and fibrous costuming. Delineation is secure, offering clarity during evening events, which typically follow a lot of secretive creeping around. Colors are stable, delivering western hues that favor brown and white, while female costuming adds variation. Print is in decent shape, with a few spots of damages and speckling. Flicker is periodically spotted. Grain is fine and filmic, slightly dialed down.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA has difficulty with clarity, finding hiss carrying through the entire listening experience. While it doesn't swallow dramatics, it retains a pronounced presence. Dialogue exchanges are handled adequately, finding deep voices and bright accents. Scoring delivers the basics, supporting dramatic events as intended, with passable instrumentation. Atmospherics are simple, but gunshots retain punch, and town activities are detailed.
Brynner commands the screen here, making Jules a troubling figure, but also a vulnerable one, sharing some charged moments with Rule, who's also a strong dramatic presence in the feature. "Invitation to a Gunfighter" isn't a roughhouse picture, but one that's more interested in the corrosion of men and their secretive ways. It can slow going at times, but it retains a toxic mood and few confrontations that satisfy all western requirements.
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