Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Nomads Blu-ray Movie Review

Go where you wanna go.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 17, 2015

It’s not quite at the death defying level of the opening sequence of Billy Wilder’s immortal Sunset Boulevard, where the viewer discovers that the narrator of the film is in fact already deceased, evidently telling the story from some great cinematic beyond, but the early John McTiernan effort Nomads does in fact offer the putative death of its hero almost from the get go, as a seemingly incoherent vagrant is brought into an emergency room. The man, scruffy in appearance and evidently babbling some largely manic version of French, needs to be forcibly restrained, and the thought is if he isn’t just flat out stark raving bonkers, he’s obviously high on some dangerously hallucinogenic drug. When the guy ends up biting an emergency room doctor named Flax (Lesley-Anne Down), the film indulges in what will become at once an arresting but often confusing gambit wherein the lunatic’s memories are transported to the health care worker, making her a repository for everything he's been through. That approach then leads to the basic storyline, where somewhat similarly to the iconic Wilder film, the back story leading up to the death is detailed. Nomads is a bit of a hodgepodge, but from a content standpoint and also tonally, and some audience members may find themselves teetering precariously between gasps of shock at some admittedly frightening sequences and guffaws of hilarity at some fairly risible dialogue and hyperbolic performance styles. But the film has a palpable mood that is quite stifling and ultimately very effective, at least if taken on its own small scale merits.

Nomads was McTiernan’s first credit as a feature film director, and to date remains his sole credit as a screenwriter. He would of course establish himself as an action director par excellence with such outings as Predator, Die Hard and The Hunt For Red October, before perhaps lapsing somewhat with a series of sometimes visceral but just as often meandering efforts (Last Action Hero and the remakes of both The Thomas Crown Affair and Rollerball ). McTiernan’s directorial hand is relatively firm even here early on, but he’s repeatedly hobbled by McTiernan the scenarist. This film is a structural mess at the best of times, and verges on the illogical if not the outright incoherent more than once.

The deranged vagrant from the beach turns out to be a noted anthropologist named Jean-Charles Pommier (Pierce Brosnan, here second billed to Down), a well known researcher of ethnic peoples who had just recently moved to Los Angeles to take a teaching job. French, the language he was muttering and/or screaming in the emergency room, turns out to be his native language, but not the only tongue he was fluent in. Dr. Flax, who apparently survives being bitten by Pommier before he expires with only a few stitches to show for her trauma, is almost immediately beset by short snatches of visions of a red headed woman who not so coincidentally speaks French. Soon enough the film rather discursively proffers the fact that Flax has “inherited” Pommier’s memories, though it does so in a rather clunky way that first offers point of view shots and then simply gives over to Pommier’s narrative, albeit with Flax showing up (hilariously unkempt, it should be added) in various scenarios as an apparent onlooker.

Already it may be apparent what one of Nomads’ chief structural weaknesses is—when you get right down to it, the whole Flax angle is completely unneeded. McTiernan could have simply opted for the Sunset Boulevard route without the “intermediary” (so to speak), and had a much cleaner, better defined, narrative as a result. Instead, large swaths are given over to Pommier investigating prior dastardly doin’s at the house he’s just purchased and how that plays into a bunch of proto punk and/or Goth street toughs who keep harassing him and his wife Niki (Anna Maria Monticelli).

There’s a slightly vampiric quality to some of Nomads, with the gang of toughs seemingly sucking the veritable life out of their nemeses with a glare (the eclectic cast includes Adam Ant and Mary Woronov as members of the villainous cult). There’s some high-falutin’ verbiage espoused by Pommier at one point about how this semi-mystical group of baddies shares elements with the very nomadic peoples he’s been studying for years overseas, but it’s obvious that McTiernan has decided to come down squarely on the side of the mythic rather than anything anchored more firmly in “real life.”

Nomads stumbles over its own structural artifices in its early stages, and then probably takes too long to detail a key plot point involving Pommier tailing the bad guys (and gals) and supposedly snapping photos of them (a denouement which is itself linked to vampire lore). When the final act gives over to a somewhat hysterical interchange between the addled Flax and surprisingly sanguine Niki, things threaten to go completely off the rails until McTiernan indulges in a bit of predictable though still very effective sleight of hand in the closing moments.

Nomads Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nomads is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The elements utilized for this transfer have their fair share of issues, including quite a bit of dirt and dust, a couple of rather substantial scratches, and regular minus density and/or white flecks. There's enough grain here to suggest a dupe element source, though compression is generally good, only occasionally lapsing into splotchy yellow chunks. The overall look is fairly soft and detail, while decent, never pops in any overly dramatic fashion. There are recurrent issues with crush in several dark scenes, to the point that those wearing dark tones or black tend to become floating heads. The palette looks reasonably accurate, if slightly on the warm side at times.

Nomads Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nomads features a generally well detailed DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which capably supports the film's dialogue, effects and synth laden score by Bill Conti. There's some very effective sound mixing in parts of the film (listen to the amped up hyperventilating by Pommier when he's running by the beach late in the film) which exhibits quite a bit of force at various points. Prioritization is fine, and there are no issues of any kind to mention in this review.

Nomads Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Lesley-Anne Down (1080p; 16:28) finds the actress relaying some fun information about her general background and film career, as well as her thoughts on why cult films attract such an idiosyncratic audience.


• Interview with Composer Bill Conti (1080p; 17:24) is a really interesting conversation with the Oscar winner, who gets into some of the subliminal aspects of a film score.


• Radio Spot (1080p; 00:33) plays under a still image of the film poster.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:06)

Nomads Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

On a certain level (meaning fairly low expectations), Nomads is just good old fashioned goofy fun. Its very silliness is part of what gives it a bit of momentum even when its structural weaknesses threaten to send it veering over the veritable cliff. Performances are generally great (I was struck however by how much Down resembles Sharon Stone in this film) and McTiernan at least keeps things moving at a generally brisk pace. Technical merits are generally decent (video) to excellent (audio), and there are a couple of appealing supplements for those considering a purchase.