Jory Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Jory Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 13, 2026

Jorge Fons' "Jory" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only supplemental feature on the release is an exclusive new program with star Robby Benson. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The oprhan

Jory would have been a lot easier to evaluate had Mexican filmmaker Jorge Fons directed it in the 1960s, when various American filmmakers went to work to redefine the classic western. Monte Hellman was one of these American filmmakers, and his westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, both completed in 1966, demonstrate well the scope of the evolutionary process. The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, as well as all of their relatives from the same period, are low-budget hybrid projects tweaking the conventional characters, visual aesthetics, and clear messaging of the classic western.

This evolutionary process continued in the 1970s, when Jory was completed. However, the next slate of experimental westerns, which included the likes of McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Zachariah, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, were notably different hybrid projects. Some were very big, carefully managed period extravaganzas, and some, despite identifying as westerns, were entirely different genre films. Jory, while also an experimental western, has virtually nothing in common with these films.

This is what makes Jory a difficult to evaluate experimental western. It is not entirely clear whether it attempts to expand some of the changes introduced by the first slate of experimental westerns, or rebel against the drastic liberties promoted by the second slate of experimental westerns. It values realism, but freely defies western logic. It introduces conventional western characters, but then works hard to make them appear out of sync with their western environment. In other words, Jory is a western that is not at all comfortable with its western identity.

Most of its material is penned to fit into a period coming-of-age melodrama. In it, somewhere out West, fifteen-year-old Jory Walden (Robby Benson) witnesses the murder of his father, kills the murderer, and then joins a horse drive bound for Texas. After befriending the horse drive’s leader (John Marley) and his right-hand man (B.J. Thomas), Walden learns from the latter how to handle a gun, and then witnesses his murder as well. In Texas, a wealthy rancher (Todd Martin) hires Walden to protect his teenage daughter (Linda Purl), and a local rival and his men make him witness yet another murder that irreversibly changes his mind about making ends meet as a cowboy in the West. While somewhat inconsistent, this material produces the best moments in Jory.

Unfortunately, the remaining material is a mixed bag, stretching the narrative in ways that suggest Jory was a failed attempt to view the Old West from an unconventional angle. For example, here Walden effortlessly juggles two completely different personalities -- that of a silly teenager ready to fall in love and that of a fearless young gunslinger who has become best friends with Lady Luck -- that make it awfully difficult to take seriously any of the unmissable messages about surviving in the Old West. Several key characters also exhibit odd behavior in Walden’s company, which makes their rational decisions elsewhere even more problematic.

The clearest evidence that Jory is a mismanaged project emerges from the action footage. Some of it is so violent, so graphic, it just isn’t right for a PG western, which is what Jory is.

Jory Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jory arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

It is very easy to tell that, at some point, Jory was fully remastered on behalf of StudioCanal. Its visuals are very healthy and have solid organic qualities. Delineation, clarity, and depth are consistently pleasing. However, as is usually the case with so many masters graded overseas, the master used to produce this release reveals various color issues. For example, in multiple areas, primary blue and blue nuances are replaced by light turquoise/cyan, and elsewhere odd greenish nuances cause similar anomalies. You can see examples here and here. In some areas, saturation levels are quite simply off, too. However, there is plenty more footage that looks mostly decent, even good. In other words, Jory does not have its entire color scheme comprised, like Point Blank and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. It looks similar but better than Macho Callahan. Image stability is good. I noticed a few nicks, but there are no large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Jory Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I did not encounter any serious issues to report in our review. All exchanges are clear, sharp, and easy to follow. During the action footage, dynamic intensity is quite good as well. However, it is very easy to tell that the soundtrack was not expected to leave a lasting impression. It features good but understated music, and plenty of the outdoor footage has areas that seem underdeveloped.

Jory Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Are We Gonna Survive This? - in this exclusive new program, star Robby Benson recalls how he landed his part in Jory and its production process in Mexico. Benson has some quite interesting comments about his struggles to learn how to ride a horse and stay in the Mexican desert where he made plenty of new friends. In English, not subtitled. (24 min).

Jory Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Robby Benson speculates that Jory was not well received because it emerged at the wrong time in the 1970s, after films had taken a left turn and mainstream audiences expected them to be different. However, Jory, which was made by the people behind Love Story, is also an experimental western, and the overlapping of the conventional and unconventional material in it is not particularly convincing. It would have been a much better western had it been as different as Monte Hellman's experimental westerns from the 1960s, bigger and more ambitious variations of which were made in the 1970s. It is worth a look, but it is unlikely to impress seasoned western fans.