Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Man Down Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 4, 2017

Note: A couple of unavoidable plot points need to be discussed in attempting to recount Man Down’s sometimes intentionally opaque plot. Those wary of even potential spoilers are encouraged to skip down to the technical merits of the review, below.

Post traumatic stress disorder is a very real problem, as should probably go without saying, and it has provided at least some tangential plot elements in various films, even if it wasn’t always known as PTSD, including The Best Years of Our Lives, The Deer Hunter and Coming Home. Recent incursions into Afghanistan and other battlefields would seem to offer opportunities to explore this important subject, but Man Down largely wastes that opportunity, cloaking what could have been an insightful look at a veteran suffering from debilitating psychological issues in a fractured narrative style that is further removed from its supposed subject by a patently weird quasi-science fiction angle that places everything in what seems to be a post- Apocalyptic United States. That “seems” in the previous sentence is an important caveat and hints at what director and story co-writer Dito Montiel may want to indicate is even more delusion that Gabriel Drummer (Shia LeBoeuf) is experiencing.

The film is bookended with sequences which seem (again, that important word) to detail Gabriel rescuing his young son Jonathan (Charlie Shotwell) from some kind of untoward situation, possibly a quasi-hostage crisis. It may or may not go without saying that the first depiction of this incident at the head of the film is markedly different from the one shown at the end of the film, when certain pieces fall into place and a number of disparate elements that have been seen like light through a refracted prism suddenly focus to make at least a little more sense. Speaking of the word “incident”, that term is used repeatedly to hint at some horrible event during Gabriel’s recent tour in Afghanistan that has caused him to be referred to a kindly Marine psychologist named Captain Peyton (Gary Oldman, positively tamped down in this role).

As Captain Peyton attempts to get Gabriel to open up about the “incident”, the film ping pongs rather haphazardly through several different timeframes, documenting happier times pre tour of duty with Gabriel loving his family life with wife Natalie (Kate Mara) and son Jonathan. He’s also got a buddy for life in his Marine cohort Devin Roberts (Jai Courtney), whom Gabriel credits with getting him through the rigors of Afghanistan (in one of the other timeframes which unspool at random intervals). The friendship between Dev and Gabriel remains one of the narrative anchors of the film, which posits the pair returning to a United States apparently decimated by some kind of biological warfare (kind of interestingly, if sadly, the film was shot in New Orleans, which provided an appropriately distraught appearance in its post Katrina state).

Making things even more emotionally acute is the fact that Natalie and Jonathan have evidently disappeared, leading Gabriel and Dev to set out on quest to find them, a trek which ultimately brings them into contact with a bizarre homeless man named Charles (Clifton Collins, Jr.) who seems (yep, again) to have more information about the situation than he is initially willing to share. Montiel takes a concept which is already dripping with misdirection and further complicates matters by the shards of narrative from different eras and situations which he attempts to knit together in what one assumes is supposed to be a depiction of Gabriel’s unsettled inner world. The fact that much of the presentational aspects turn out to be something of a cheat only reinforces the feeling that the worthy subject of PTSD is being utilized as a gimmick in Man Down, something that may turn off at least some prospective audience members.

The fact that the film closes with a text card documenting a few data points that detail the sad fate of so many of our vets who return from their battles with post traumatic stress disorder makes it apparent that there may have well been good, maybe even noble, intentions with regard to what “message” was attempting to be conveyed. But that message is obfuscated in an overly hyperbolic way that actually minimizes and maybe even trivializes the psychological horrors many returning vets face as they attempt to matriculate back into domestic (in both senses of the word) life. It’s probably no coincidence that both war and the ultimate destination of a road paved with good intentions are hell.

Man Down Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Man Down is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.42:1. While it's probably no huge surprise at this point that the IMDb omits technical data on the film, even Panavision's site doesn't seem to have anything (at least that I could find), something that unusual in that the film's credits list Panavision lenses and typically the site is very up to date with technical data on the films which use its lenses. That said, your intrepid reviewer was able to track down an Instagram post by the ASC where it's stated the Alexa was utilized. However, one of the more interesting things mentioned in the post was this comment about the film's kind of interesting grading choices:

Another key contributor to the look of the film was Bradley Greer at KyotoColor in New Orleans. Bradley worked tirelessly to give the Alexa material an expressive color grade across scenes that took place in reality, a warped world that seemed real to some and the battle-scarred world of the middle east.

This alludes to but perhaps doesn't adequately describe the wide variances in grading and just overall appearance that are on display throughout the film. As might be expected, some of the happy family flashback material is extremely warm and natural looking, while Gabriel's interactions with Captain Peyton and at least some of the other war material is skewed more toward yellow. Quite a bit of the battle material, as well as a lot of the post- Apocalyptic material, is almost monochromatic, with barely a hint of color emerging at times. Due to these wide variances, there are noticeable upticks and valleys in detail and especially fine detail levels, though generally speaking this is a sharp and well defined looking transfer, with the exception of what might be intentionally artificial looking backgrounds.

Man Down Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Man Down's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is really rather impressive given the film's self confessed (in the commentary track) low budget and short shooting schedule. While there is the requisite LFE apparent in both some rumbly ambient effects as well as elements like gunfire, some of the more evocative sound design comes in the bleak and barren post-Apocalyptic material, where a bleak but effective use of environmental effects helps to create a nightmarish ambience. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

Man Down Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Dito Montiel and Military Advisor Sergeant Nick Jones Jr.

Man Down Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Man Down wants to offer a supposed mind boggling twist at its overwrought climax, but the film's emphasis on post traumatic stress disorder makes that a pretty risky gambit, and one that this film isn't able to successfully bring off. Instead this effort, while well intentioned, comes off as needlessly manipulative and overly melodramatic. There's a great film to be made about PTSD (for those who haven't seen the fantastic and weirdly lesser known John Huston documentary Let There Be Light, I highly recommend it for a nonfiction take on the subject). Unfortunately, Man Down isn't that film. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.