Pray for the Wildcats Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Pray for the Wildcats Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 6, 2020

Robert Michael Lewis' "Pray for the Wildcats" (1974) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the disc is an exclusive new audio commentary with Amanda Reyes and critic/podcaster Bill Ackerman. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

This is it, boys!

It is only a matter of time before someone remakes Pray for the Wildcats because the original story Jack Turley delivered to Robert Michael Lewis is simply brilliant. Of course, this imaginary new film should be a total stinker because it will embellish the contrasts that emerge in the three segments of the story and then politicize the finale with some ridiculous message about corporate culture. Pray for the Wildcats works really well because it does not attempt to extract any universal truths about anything. It takes a rather exotic story and then carefully uses it to force the viewer to consider a number of very realistic what-if scenarios that are essentially unrelated to it.

At the center of the story are four men -- one is a buyer while the other three are sellers. The buyer is a very wealthy and cocky businessman named Sam Farragut (great Andy Griffith) who expects to close a deal with a prestigious advertising company from LA. The sellers are Warren Summerfield (William Shatner), Paul McIlvain (Robert Reed), and Terry Maxon (Marjoe Gortner), all employees of the company and part of the team that has been preparing the deal for the businessman. While they are all on the same page, it seems like Summerfield (William Shatner), the most experienced amongst them, might be the one with the most practical business concept for Farragut.

On the day when the company welcomes Farragut to its building in downtown LA to choose the right concept and close the deal, the two sides break the protocol and engage in an unusually straightforward discussion at the end of which the businessman makes an unexpected offer to the sellers: if they agree to join him on a motorcycle trip to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, he would finalize the deal and they would get their bonuses. The offer catches the sellers off-guard and puts them in a very difficult spot, but because so much is on the line eventually all three agree to make the trip.

Before they cross the border with Farragut, the sellers have short altercations with the women in their lives (Angie Dickinson, Janet Margolin, Lorraine Gary) that reveal entirely different sides of their personalities as well as insecurities that later on influence the crucial choices they are forced to make.

The trip to the Baja Peninsula has a couple of major twists which essentially invalidate the adventure element that initially appears to be the main attraction in the film. Each twist also pushes the four men away and then further away from each other, and as they begin spending more time with their thoughts interesting character transformations introduce the ‘what-if’ scenarios that are mentioned at the top of this article. (It is best not to describe any of the twists so that the transformations are not spoiled either). The common thread that unites the scenarios is this: life is a game full of players that are constantly buying and selling, even when they least expect or are completely unaware that they do. The trip, which is broken into three segments, only shifts the angle from which the players are observed so that the nature of the game becomes clearer.

The management of the cynicism that permeates the film is of the kind that nowadays has become something of a lost art. Indeed, instead of hurting its authenticity, it actually legitimizes the moral contrasts that define the narrative and make the dilemmas the main characters are presented with so fascinating to behold.

John Morley Stephens, who lensed William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, makes the most of the beautiful locations the bikers are passing through without turning the film into a show off piece. Fred Myrow’s lush jazzy score is quite surprising but simply perfect for the film.

Pray for the Wildcats Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Pray for the Willdcats arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a beautiful 2K master. I don't know what party finalized it, but it is every bit as convincing as the masters that were prepared for the recent releases of Michael Crichton's Pursuit and Lee Philips' The Girl Most Likely To . . ..

On my system Pray for the Willdcats conveyed all of the strong organic qualities I expect to see when older films get proper makeovers. Clarity, depth, and fluidity remained consistently pleasing, and the density levels were as good as I wanted them to be. A few minor density fluctuations are noticeable, but they are part of the original cinematography, not a byproduct of transfer anomalies. The color grading job is very convincing as well, but I have never owned a copy of this film in my library and do not have a reference source for specific comparisons. If graded right, a master struck from a higher resolution scan would likely expand some minor nuances in darker areas, but the overall balance on the current master is already convincing and attractive. There are no distracting large debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Pray for the Wildcats Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

There are no technical anomalies to report in our review. Clarity, depth, and balance are all very good and remain stable. I only felt that a few time the audio was not as fuller as I wanted it to be, but I am fairly certain that this is just a source limitation that is present on the original audio mix.

Pray for the Wildcats Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - author Amanda Reyes and critic/podcaster Bill Ackerman, both apparently big fans of Pray for the Wildcats, have some quite interesting observations about the era in which the film emerged, and specifically the counterculture movement and the popularity of the Hell's Angel's gang, the unusual themes that are intertwined in the narrative, the visual style and composition of different segments, etc. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Kino Lorber.

• Trailers - trailers for the following Kino Lorber releases:
  
  1. High-Ballin'
  2. Return to Macon County
  3. The Border
  4. Vigilante Force

Pray for the Wildcats Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Immediately after the disc loaded up and the menu with the cool jazzy theme popped up on my system I knew that Pray for the Wildcats would turn out to be a special film -- I just did not know how special. Well, it is a top-quality multi-layered production that exceeded all of my expectations. I don't know who is suggesting these great vintage TV titles to Kino Lorber, but it is someone that unquestionably understands quality because I am yet to see one that I have not been thrilled with. (Pursuit is a minor masterpiece, so if you don't have it yet you have missed one of the label's best recent releases). On top of this, these TV titles transition to Blu-ray with very solid recent remasters, so they usually look terrific as well. Fantastic release. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.