McQ Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

McQ Blu-ray Movie Review

The Only Honest Man in Town

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 8, 2016

After John Wayne turned down the role of Inspector Harry Callahan, which he later admitted was a mistake, he starred in McQ, his first major role as a cop. With an original script by Lawrence Roman (A Kiss Before Dying), McQ reflects the influence of Dirty Harry in pitting Wayne's maverick detective against the system (and just about everyone else), but it also confirms what a different film Harry would have been with Wayne in the part. At age 66, Wayne could no longer be convincing as an angry rebel. Wayne's seen-it-all McQ shares Harry Callahan's cynicism, but McQ has passed the point of outrage. Unlike Harry, he already knows that "the system is crazy", and he doesn't waste time or energy battling it. It takes Callahan the entire running time of Dirty Harry to throw away his badge in disgust, but McQ tosses his at the outset, freeing himself to do what he thinks is right.

Although both Wayne and director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) were famous for Westerns, their only film together was this modern police procedural, shot on location in Seattle and heavily influenced by the kinetic style of Bullitt and The French Connection. But despite heavy gun fire, elaborate car chases and a memorable encounter with a pair of menacing tractor trailers, McQ plays less like an action movie and more like a Seventies version of film noir. Wayne's gravitas provides the film with the equivalent of a hard-boiled narration, conveying the world-weariness of a man who long ago lost his illusions and is no longer surprised at just how low people can sink.

McQ opens with the ambush and murder of several Seattle cops, one of whom is Stan Boyle (William Bryant), former partner of Det. Lon McHugh, nicknamed "McQ" (Wayne). Even as McQ comforts Boyle's widow, Lois (Diana Muldaur), he is already certain that responsibility for the killings lies with Seattle's biggest drug dealer, Manny Santiago (Al Lettieri, who played the drug dealer Sollozzo in The Godfather). Stymied in his investigation by Captain Kosterman (Eddie Albert), McQ quits the force and turns P.I., joining the office of an old friend, Pinky Farrell (David Huddleston). Having rid himself of the constraints of criminal procedure, McQ sets about taking down Santiago.

Sturges has already suggested in his staging of the opening sequence that the situation is more complicated than McQ initially suspects. There are other players in the city's drug trade besides Santiago, and almost everyone McQ encounters lies to him about something. In a plot device that has now become all too familiar, the veteran lawman discovers that the police force is just as untrustworthy as the underworld.

Sturges gamely labors to enhance his aging star's credibility as an action hero by putting him in a Firebird Trans Am Green Hornet that recalls Steve McQueen's signature Bullitt vehicle, as well as arming him with a MAC-10 submachine gun, which was new to audiences at the time. More effective, however, is the director's use of the Seattle locations, especially at night, to create a sense of menace and corruption. To the same end, he surrounds McQ with an array of first-rate character actors, allowing them to serve as foils to Wayne, who was one of the screen's great reactors. Besides Muldaur, Albert and Huddleston, the supporting cast includes Clu Gulager and Julian Christopher as members of the police force on whom McQ depends for favors and information; Roger E. Mosley as a resentful snitch; Julie Adams as McQ's ex-wife, from whom he borrows money; and, most memorable of all, the great stage actress Colleen Dewhurst as a forlorn waitress and drug abuser named Myra, to whom McQ turns for criminal scuttlebutt. Dewhurst conveys the character's sadness and quiet desperation, which makes it all the more pitiable when McQ takes advantage of her.

McQ Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

McQ was shot by Harry Stradling, Jr., who was previously nominated for Oscars for the widescreen photography of 1776 and The Way We Were. (He would later reteam with Wayne for Rooster Cogburn.) For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, Warner has newly scanned an interpositive at 2K, and the result effectively captures Sturges' expressive widescreen framing and his creative use of Seattle locations. As is typical of Seventies productions shot with anamorphic lenses, the image has a soft texture, but detail is plentiful and the film's grain pattern has been finely resolved. The film's palette isn't eye-popping, but it has its share of bright colors; McQ's shirts, for example, seem to have been chosen to counterbalance his dour personality. Nightime blacks are deep and solid without crushing detail. Overall, McQ is a fine demonstration of how well a Seventies film can be represented by a fresh scan with the latest technology.

Following the practice of the Warner Archive Collection, Warner has mastered McQ on a BD-50 with a high average bitrate of 35.00 Mbps.

McQ Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

McQ's original mono track has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, and it's fairly robust in both fidelity and dynamic range. The gunfire is authoritative (most noticeably from McQ's MAC-10 submachine gun), as are screeching tires and the impact of crashing vehicles. The dialogue is clear (though some is obviously post-dubbed). The brassy score by the prolific Elmer Bernstein (Cahill U.S. Marshal) sounds very much of its time.

McQ Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner previously released McQ in 2005 on a DVD that was reissued several times. The extras have been ported over from the DVD, except for the additional Wayne trailers. As per its now-standard procedure, however, Warner has remastered McQ's trailer in 1080p.

• John Wayne: Man of Action (480i; 1.33;1; 6:57): The style of this EPK is old-fashioned, but it does show the cast and crew filming on location, with special attention to the stunt work of the seashore car chase.



• Trailer (1080p; 1.37:1; 2:12): "John Wayne is McQ. And this time—for the first time—he's a cop."

McQ Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

McQ may not be top-tier Wayne, but in both form and content, it's very much a product of its time and has become progressively more interesting as a period piece. In an era where much of the best filmmaking went against the studio grain, it's a studio picture with a traditional star that can't help but reflect the contemporary malaise. Warner's presentation is first-rate and highly recommended.