Ruby Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Ruby Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 15, 2026

John Mackenzie's "Ruby" (1992) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new program with Stephen Davis; exclusive new program with director of photography Phil Meheux; and exclusive new audio commentary by Kevin Lyons. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Sparky

Is it a coincidence that Sydney Pollack’s Havana, Oliver Stone’s JFK, and Marty Scorsese’s The Irishman all agree that the same major players were involved in the assassination of President Kennedy? It could be a fascinating coincidence. But only if one assumes that the people who made these films did not bother to do any research and simply dropped a bunch of wild conspiracy theories in them that somehow ended up being oddly similar. Also, why is it that these films expose the same dynamic relationships between the same major players and present variants of the same events that preceded the assassination of President Kennedy? If they were simply interested in selling wild conspiracy theories to their audience, why didn’t they supersize their fabrications to make them far more exciting and profoundly different?

Instead of restating the obvious answer -- and no, this writer does not believe that absolutely everything these films are selling to their audience is the naked truth -- here’s an interesting bit of history for the rational mind to consider and relate to the three films. In 1963, during a highly anticipated televised testimony, Joe Valachi broke omerta and exposed the existence of Cosa Nostra a.k.a. the Mafia. Valachi then named the five big families in New York -- Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese -- and explained how they managed Cosa Nostra, forever changing the public’s perception of the American underworld. Before Valachi, there was no undisputable evidence that Cosa Nostra had a national structure and leadership. This means that describing Cosa Nostra’s existence and structure before Valachi’s televised testimony would have been yet another wild conspiracy theory.

John Mackenzie’s Ruby is an extremely close relative of the three films mentioned above and, for obvious reasons, has been frequently accused of selling wild conspiracy theories, too. In a short disclaimer, Ruby does acknowledge that a few of its characters are made up. However, its description of the dynamic relationships and major players believed to have been involved in President Kennedy’s assassination is practically identical to the ones produced by its close relatives. Ruby simply sees and describes everything from a different angle.

Most of it takes place in Dallas, where Jack Ruby (Danny Aiello), an aging streetwise import from Chicago, owns and manages a small but popular strip club. Soon after bumping into the sexy blonde Candy Cane (Sherilyn Fenn) and transforming her into the strip club’s biggest star, Ruby is drawn into a complex scheme whose objective is to free a prominent underworld figure locked up in a prison somewhere in Havana. At the same time, Ruby is also forced to work as an informant for the Dallas Police Department and the two most powerful three-letter agencies in Washington, D.C. Following a trip to Havana and a bold improvisation proving to the right people that he is still a reliable operator, Ruby becomes aware of an urgent discussion involving prominent underworld bosses from across the country -- including Sam Giancana from Chicago, Mickey the Shoe from Cleveland, and Santos Alicante from New Orleans -- who are deeply dissatisfied with President Kennedy, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, and ongoing developments in Cuba, where Fidel Castro has started taking orders from the Kremlin. While processing all the information coming his way, Ruby then realizes that multiple parties are working together to stage the assassination of President Kennedy during his upcoming trip to Dallas.

It is irrelevant whether the character Aiello plays is a believable replica of the real streetwise import from Chicago that killed Lee Harvey Oswald. It is just as irrelevant that he did not have a relationship with a sexy blonde stripper whose last name was Cane. It is also irrelevant who started the discussion to take out President Kennedy in Dallas. What makes Ruby a very, very interesting film is how it exposes the logical motives that apparently brought together various parties that have been linked to the assassination of President Kennedy. Many of these motives are one hundred percent legitimate. For example, it is well established that candidate Kennedy received crucial help from Giancana and the Chicago Outfit to win Illinois and the presidency, and once he moved to the White House, his brother's massive crackdown on Cosa Nostra created many powerful enemies who had felt betrayed. It is also well established that the CIA coordinated efforts with Cosa Nostra to take out Castro, and President Kennedy was aware of them, presumably because they were part of a pre-election arrangement to restore Cosa Nostra’s positions on the island after its liberation. Ruby gathers multiple such events and arranges them with impressive logic. Is this logic impossible to discredit? The real Ruby claimed he had the answers that would put everything in the proper order so that there would be no more speculating, and was getting ready to reveal them in a second trial, presumably like the one that made Valachi a national sensation. However, he was unexpectedly killed by a blood clot while recovering in a hospital in Dallas.

Ruby Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rubby arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films.

The release is sourced from an older master, supplied by Universal. The quality of the visuals I saw on my system varied quite a bit. All of them reveal traces of mild sharpening. However, virtually all of the darker material, which is plenty, hides the sharpening quite well. The daylight footage tends to exacerbate it, and some of it also couples it with light smearing. This is a typical development on older masters that emerge from Universal's vaults. Still, in many areas, delineation, clarity, and depth remain surprisingly decent. Close-ups usually look best. Color reproduction and balance are fine. However, a new 2K or 4K master will easily expand and strengthen some supporting nuances. Image stability is very good. Lastly, I did not see any major age-related anomalies to report in our review. All in all, the current presentation of Ruby is acceptable. However, if remastered properly, Ruby will look healthier and significantly more attractive. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Ruby Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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

The lossless track is outstanding. It has a great dynamic range that helps several seemingly ordinary sequences leave a lasting impression. All exchanges are very clear, sharp, and stable, always easy to follow. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

Ruby Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Writing Ruby - in this exclusive new program, writer Stephen Davis recalls the moment when he heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, and comments on the long conception of Ruby and how it evolved from a play into a film, the extensive research he did, and and the film's relaitonship with Propaganda/Polygram. Davis also comments on several very curious developments and facts related to the assassination of President Kennedy, one of them about Beverly Oliver, who was apparently the notorious Babushka Lady, believed to have filmed the entire tragic event with a portable camera. In English, not subtitled. (36 min).

• Shooting Ruby - in this exclusive new program, director of photography Phil Meheux discusses his long professional relationship with John Mackenzie and comments on their collaboration in Ruby. Also, Meheux shares very interesting information about an old hotel in Palm Springs, where plenty of content was shot, and Puerto Rico, where the Cuban content was done. At the end of the program, Meheux also comments on the much bigger production of JFK, which was underway at the same time. In English, not subtitled. (21 min).

• Commentary - this new audio commentary was recorded by critic Kevin Lyons.

Ruby Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sam Giancana and the Chicago Outfit worked hard to secure additional votes for Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy so that he could win Illinois and become the next President of the United States of America. Soon after, the CIA coordinated efforts with Cosa Nostra to take out Fidel Castro, with President Kennedy fully aware of them, presumably as part of an arrangement to restore Cosa Nostra's positions on the island following its liberation. However, a lot went wrong. The plan to take out Castro failed, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy began cracking down on Cosa Nostra, and bitter, powerful crime bosses across the country started plotting their revenge. Somewhere in the middle of it all, in Dallas, Jack Ruby, an aging streetwise import from Chicago, who had opened a small but popular strip club, found himself talking to the crime bosses, other shady characters, and CIA and FBI agents, right before President Kennedy's trip to the Lone Star State. After President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, a lot of other people died, too. Like Lee Harvey Oswald, whom many considered a patsy, Giancana, and Ruby, while getting ready for a second trial, where, like Joe Valachi, he was supposed to name big names and reveal it all. How much of this is true? Just about all of it. John Mackenzie's film adds more, and some of it is classic fluff, but it does not make it any less illuminating or enjoyable. Like Sydney Pollack's Havana and Oliver Stone's JFK, it is a wonderful reexamination of facts and half-truths that will always be dismissed as elements of a wild conspiracy theory by those who have good excuses not to want to connect the dots. Ruby is included in Directed by John Mackenzie, a four-disc box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.