Mad City Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Mad City Blu-ray Movie Review

Three nights at the museum.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 30, 2023

Costa-Gavras' Mad City, an evenly-paced thriller with heavy doses of satire, was one of only six English-language films by the acclaimed director of politically-charged fare like Z and Missing. Starring Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta with a game supporting cast full of familiar faces, it failed to connect with audiences in the fall of 1997 and was last released on domestic home video during the infancy of DVD. Finally earning a second life on Blu-ray courtesy of WB's reliable boutique label Warner Archive, it's now ripe for re-evaluation more than a quarter-century after its theatrical debut. This isn't exactly a forgotten masterpiece, but Mad City is slightly better than its reputation suggests.

Unfolding first in near real-time before lengthening to a grueling three-day standoff, Mad City introduces us to past-his-prime TV journalist Max Brackett (Hoffman), whose recent attempt to uncover a banking scandal is ignored by his boss Lou Potts (Robert Prosky). On assignment at a local museum with impressionable intern Laurie Callahan (Mia Kirshner), Max freshens up in the restroom before an interview with curator Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner) when former employee Sam Baily (Travolta) walks in to demand his job back. He's armed with a shotgun and holding a duffel bag, so it's not long before the situation spirals out of control... especially when a group of elementary school students on a field trip become part of the unexpected hostage situation and a security guard (Bill Nunn) is accidentally shot. Watching the chaos unfold from his secret location, Max sees a perfect opportunity to revitalize his floundering career.

With a catalyst like that, it's no surprise to learn that Mad City paints mostly in broad strokes. As the situation spirals further out of control, Max tries to spin the story into a human-interest one; first for his own gain, but eventually for Sam's sake as it becomes clear that, despite his terrible decision to try and take his job back by force, the resultant violence and perceived terroristic threat were either accidental or out of his hands. Sam should clearly be punished for his actions but stubbornly rationalizes them instead, which slowly but surely leads to a flip-flop of roles exacerbated by media influence and good old-fashioned mob mentality. To the film's credit, its two main characters are compelling and well-acted, though if Mad City had been released earlier I daresay their casting should have been reversed.

This film's two biggest influences are certainly Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, taking the media-driven perspective of the first and applying it to a setting closer to the second. Mad City doesn't hold a candle to either of those classics; it's too predictable and watered-down, for starters, and has a noticeably less self-aware grasp of its message delivery that doesn't effectively skewer its biggest target. Yet it earns bonus points for an even-handed pace and multitude of perspectives; these include different character arcs for our two leads along with intern Laurie (who, in my opinion, gets too drastic of a character arc in just three days), as well as more steadfast and unchangeable outside influences like police chief Alvin Lemke (Ted Levine) and brash rival journalist Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda). There's a lot going on here and most of it works well enough a dramatic perspective, allowing Mad City to function more smoothly as a straightforward drama than something that goes much deeper than that.

So even though Mad City doesn't fully succeed on its mission, it's far from a failure and at least stands as an entry-level gateway for advanced media-skewering fare like both films linked above, as well as more distant relatives like Sidney Lumet's Network and Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler. For these reasons and more it's worth a look via Warner Archive's new Blu-ray, which serves up a solid A/V presentation that obviously outpaces Warner Bros.' old 480p DVD edition.

Mad City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Despite its relatively young age in comparison to most Warner Archive releases, Mad City has reportedly been sourced from a brand-new 4K scan of the original camera negative. The result is a clean and crisp 1080p presentation of a film that clearly looks like a product of its time, at least as far as grain and fine detail are concerned, though portions of its color palette lean a bit heavier towards teal than expected. (I'm not suggesting any kind of color timing shenanigans, especially given Warner Archive's reliable track record for purism, just that it's a bit surprising in the moment.) Depth and contrast levels are superb as well as shadow detail, which is crucial during certain nighttime scenes both inside and outside of the museum's walls. As usual, disc compression is tight with no obvious compression artifacts, rounding out what's essentially another strong effort by the boutique label that should delight fans and first-timers alike.

Mad City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix follows suit with a quality presentation free from defects, aside for a brief pop in the surround-rear channel that can be heard early on at the 1:51 mark -- it's hardly recall-worthy, but noticeable enough to point out. Dialogue and background effects are clean and well-balanced with a hefty mid-range and even sporadic uses of low end from stray shotgun blasts, one explosion, and overhead objects such as approaching helicopters. The hit-or-miss score by Thomas Newman veers wildly in tone but enjoys a nice presence, occasionally drifting into the rears where crowd noise and other elements of location-based ambiance usually reside. Overall, a solid effort.

Mad City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with familiar poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. Sadly, given Mad City original DVD release window (years before regular Special Editions), there's only one carryover extra.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:23) - This vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

Mad City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Costa-Gavras' Mad City was a box office bomb back in November 1997, and a somewhat surprising one given the names involved. In hindsight it seems to work better as a straight drama/thriller than a satire of media's grip on public consciousness, as it lands a few well-placed blows but also throws too many wild punches. It's still entertaining on the whole and worth a look on Warner Archive's new Blu-ray. which provides some much-needed support on the A/V end after last appearing on domestic home video more than 25 years ago. Recommended to the right crowd.