Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 8, 2011

Selected to represent Algeria in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 83rd Academy Awards, Rachid Bouchareb's "Hors-la-loi" a.k.a "Outside the Law" (2010) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Palisades Tartan. The supplemental features on the disc include the film's original theatrical trailer; teaser; deleted scenes; video interview with director Rachid Bouchareb; making of featurette; and video interviews with Sami Bouajila, Jamel Debbouze, and Roschdy Zem. In French and Arabic, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Protesting in Algeria

A small village somewhere in Algeria, 1925. An old man, his wife and three sons are told that they have three days to pack and leave their house - unless they manage to come up with a document proving that their home and land were legally purchased.

Twenty years later. The three brothers have parted ways - Messaoud (Roschdy Zem, Le petit lieutenant, Go Fast) has joined the French army and gone to Indochina; Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila, Nid de guêpes, Full Treatment) is in a French prison; while Said (Jamel Debbouze, Amelie, Angel-A), his father and seriously ill mother have moved to a small town in rural Algeria. During a spontaneous uprising, the French army kills most of the men in the town, including Said’s father.

Convinced that there is no future for him in his home country, Said decides to go to France. He begs his mother to follow him, and she agrees, after he convinces her that Messaoud and Abdelkader will find a way to join them.

Said and his mother reach France and end up in an immigrant camp in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris. The men and women there are from various French colonies, but the majority of them are from Algeria. A few have found work in a new Renault plant, but most are unemployed.

Determined to make enough so that he could rent a decent place to live with his mother, Said approaches a shady businessman who allows him to run a small corner for him on Place Pigalle. Said becomes a pimp and begins making more in a day than what most Algerians working in the Renault plant would make in a month.

Meanwhile, Messaoud returns from Indochine and joins Said and his mother in the camp. Soon after, Abdelkader is also released from prison. Eventually, Messaoud and Abdelkader decide to organize the Algerian immigrants and have them assist the FLN, while Said opens up a night club.

Hors-la-loi a.k.a Outside the Law, the sequel to Rachid Bouchareb's fabulous Indigenes a.k.a Days of Glory, is again a controversial film. This time around the focus of attention is on FLN’s activities in France, prior to the signing of the Evian Accords, and the open confrontation between Algerian "freedom fighters" and the French secret service across France.

Unlike Gillo Pontecorvo’s legendary The Battle of Algiers, however, Outside the Law does not explore the ideas and philosophy that united Algerians in their fight for independence; rather it deals with the various strategies FLN members employed to fight the French on French soil.

Parts of Outside the Law are also firmly grounded into "classic crime film" territory. Messaoud and Abdelkader’s raids, for instance, are routinely excused as necessary in their struggle to unite their fellow countrymen, but often times they remind about the actions of Noodles and his boys in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America.

What keeps the film from turning into a predictable and annoying piece of propaganda, told as an epic crime story, is Bouchareb’s refusal to treat the three brothers and the rest of the FLN members as revolutionary heroes. They are all men with disturbingly flexible moral standards who eventually become involved in a dirty war that cannot be won. (To this very day, Algeria and France continue to be wracked by terrorist attacks carried out by "freedom fighters").

Note: In 2010, Outside the Law was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was also selected to represent Algeria in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 83rd Academy Awards.

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rachid Bouchareb's Outside the Law arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Palisades Tartan.

This high-definition transfer has been struck from the same Studio Canal master Optimum Home Entertainment had access to when they prepared their Blu-ray release of Outside the Law. The U.S. and UK releases, however, are not 100% identical. The U.S. release actually has slightly better compression and looks marginally tighter when projected, though I assume that very few people would be able to tell.

As I noted in our review for the UK release, clarity and contrast fluctuate as the action moves from Algeria to France, and then from the camp in Nanterre to the streets of Paris. The film's color-scheme also evolves as Messaoud and Abdelkader begin organizing the immigrants, and the prominent soft and warm yellows are eventually completely replaced by cold blues and grays; the blacks, however, are consistently weak, never once looking well saturated. Mild edge-enhancement occasionally creeps in, but it is never overly distracting. Small artifacts and ringing patters pop up here and there, mostly during the first half of the film, but are quite easy to tolerate. Lastly, there are absolutely no stability issues whatsoever. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0. For the record, Palisades Tartan have provided optional English and French subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 opens up the film quite well, especially during the action scenes, but do not expect it to test the muscles of your audio system. In other words, there is a good range of nuanced dynamics that I must speculate are missing from the SDVD release of the film. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. The English translation is excellent.

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of - in this informative featurette, director Rachid Bouchareb discusses how Outside of the Law came to exist. The featurette also contains footage from the various sets (quite elaborate) used during the shooting of the film. Actor Jamel Debbouze and Roschdy Zem, among others, also comment on the film and its message. In French, with optional English subtitles. (28 min, 1080p).

• Deleted Scenes - a gallery of deleted scenes. In French and Arabic, with optional English subtitles. (29 min, 720p).

• Director Interview - in this video interview, director Rachid Bouchareb explains what he wanted to accomplish with Outside the Law. In French, with optional English subtitles. (13 min, 1080p).

• Cast Interviews - Sami Bouajila, Jamel Debbouze, and Roschdy Zem answer a series of questions about the characters they play and the complex relationships between them. The actors also discuss the controversial message of the film. In French, with optional English subtitles. (20 min, 720p).

• Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for Outside the Law. In French, with optional English subtitles. (2 min, 720p).

• Teaser - a short teaser for Outside the Law. In French, with optional English subtitles. (1 min, 1080p).

• Trailers - trailers for other Palisades Tartan releases.

Outside the Law Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I can't say I disliked Rachid Bouchareb's Outside the Law, but I certainly expected a far more balanced film after his brilliant Days of Glory. The story is fascinating, but the politics behind it are quite annoying. If you are planning to add the film to your collections, I suggest picking up Palisades Tartan's Blu-ray disc - it actually looks slightly better than the UK Blu-ray release and has a bigger selection of supplemental features.