7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In 1820, a group of fur trappers are returning with their goods to civilization. When guide Zachary Bass is injured in a bear attack, they leave him behind to die, but Bass recovers -- and pursues.
Starring: Richard Harris (I), John Huston, Henry Wilcoxon, Percy Herbert, James DoohanWestern | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Spanish=Latin & Castillian
English SDH, French, Japanese, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The "revisionist" Western may have peaked in the Nineties with the critical and box office success of Unforgiven and Dances with Wolves, but the trend began much earlier. During the restless experimentation of the Seventies, filmmakers as varied as Arthur Penn (Little Big Man), Robert Altman (McCabe and Mrs. Miller) and Clint Eastwood (The Outlaw Josey Wales) offered their own subversive takes on the genre. A lesser known entry is director Richard C. Sarafian's (Vanishing Point) 1971 spiritual adventure, Man in the Wilderness. The script by Jack DeWitt (A Man Called Horse) was partly drawn from the same historical events that inspired The Revenant, but Sarafian's film is a very different experience. The Warner Archive Collection is releasing Wilderness in tandem with a second Seventies Western starring Richard Harris, The Deadly Trackers. Both films challenge genre conventions, but Wilderness is by far the superior work.
Man in the Wilderness was shot by British cinematographer Gerry Fisher, whose varied credits
include Wolfen, The Exorcist III and The Ninth Configuration. Because the film's negative had
been used to generate multiple release prints, it had sustained substantial wear and damage,
which was "printed in" on the IP scanned at 2K by the Warner Archive Collection for this 1080p,
AVC-encoded Blu-ray. Substantial cleanup and repair, as well as extensive color correction,
were required to return the film to its original condition, but the results are remarkable. Fisher's
widescreen vistas of the film's landscapes—dense forests, open prairies, snow-covered mountain
slopes—have been rendered with striking sharpness and minute detail in both faces and objects.
The same is true of the many closeups of Harris' Zach Bass in his various stages of injury and
recovery. The palette alternates between the rich earth tones of Bass's makeshift encampment to
the chilly blues and whites that increasingly accompany Captain Henry's dubious expedition.
Nighttime blacks are deep and solid, and the film's grain structure is finely resolved. Fleeting
blue edges are artifacts of the original photography.
WAC has mastered Man in the Wilderness at its usual target bitrate of just under 35 Mbps, with a
capable encode.
Man in the Wilderness' mono soundtrack has been taken from the original magnetic masters, which had so deteriorated over the years that extensive restoration was required to remove noise, clicks, pops and thumps. Even so, the score by Johnny Harris (a favorite of both director Sarafian and star Harris) has limited dynamic range and a brittle upper end, but these issues appear to be inherent to the source. Fortunately, Harris' score is sparingly used, and much of Wilderness plays with nothing more than sounds of the natural world surrounding both Zach Bass and Captain Henry's expedition. Long stretches of relative quiet intensify the impact of sudden eruptions like the bear that attacks Bass or the snarling wolves he has to fight off so that he can feed himself from their prey. The lean dialogue is clear and intelligible for the most part, with an occasional line buried in the mix; here again, this appears to be inherent to the source.
The sole extra is the film's trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:02), which has been remastered in 1080p. Warner's 2008 release of Man in the Wilderness in a two-DVD set with The Deadly Trackers was similarly bare.
Man in the Wilderness was popular in its day and has retained a following, but its cinematic style
is more arthouse than mainstream. Its sustained takes, which invite the audience to contemplate
nature much as Bass is doing, may try the patience of contemporary viewers accustomed to faster
editing rhythms and more direct exposition. Still, once expectations are adjusted, the film is a
memorable experience, alternating between a brooding, dream-like atmosphere and a painfully
realistic depiction of Bass's injuries and gradual recovery. Recommended.
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2K Restoration
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