Run, Man, Run Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Run, Man, Run Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 11, 2023

Sergio Sollima's "Run, Man, Run" (1968) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critics Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman; new program with critic Stephen Thrower; new audio commentary by critics Howard Hughes and Richard Knew; vintage trailer for the film; and more. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

If you are getting ready to view Run, Man, Run you need to know that one of its key characters, the Mexican thief Cuchillo, first appeared in The Big Gundown. Sergio Sollima directed these films between 1966 and 1968, and in both Cuchillo was played by the excellent Cuban-born American actor Tomas Milian. Does this mean that familiarity with The Big Gundown is required to enjoy Run, Man, Run? It would not hurt if you see The Big Gundown first, but the answer is no. Why? Because Cuchillo’s antics in The Big Gundown are not in any way related to his antics in Run, Man, Run. Also, in the latter, there are no crucial relationships that originated in the former. If you decide to see The Big Gundown and then Run, Man, Run you will realize that in both Cuchillo is a likable but very, very shady character, which is one of the main strengths of these films. Simply put, Cuchillo’s shadiness adds a lot of exotic flavor to these films and ultimately makes it very difficult to predict the evolution of their tone and attitude.

In Run, Man, Run, Cuchillo helps a famous poet and Mexican revolutionary (Jose Torres) escape from prison and later, moments before he dies, learns from him about $3,000,000 hidden somewhere in a small town in Texas. But because he is unable to read the unusual map that is given to him, Cuchillo has no idea where to look for the fortune, which is to be used for the liberation of Mexico. Nevertheless, Cuchillo heads north to get rich and instantly attracts various parties that are interested in acquiring the fortune as well -- the revolutionary bandit Riza (Nello Pazzafini) and his men; two French soldiers-turned-bounty hunters (Edward Ross and Marco Guglielmi) who have been hired by President Diaz; former Sherrif Nathaniel Cassidy (Donald O’Brien), who has figured out that representing the law is not as profitable as bending it; and the revolutionary leader Santillana (John Ireland), who needs the treasure to fund the grand uprising everyone in Mexico is talking about. On the way up north, Cuchillo also bumps into the very beautiful Salvation Army devotee Penny Bannington (Linda Veras), who seems open to reconsidering her priorities in life, and his extremely jealous and feisty girlfriend Dolores (Chelo Alonso), who would happily put him in a casket if she cannot convince him to marry her.

A direct comparison between Run, Man, Run and The Big Gundown makes it very easy to conclude that the latter is a better film. But the latter is also a different film, one that relies heavily on the star power of Lee Van Cleef, who does lead with authority and shapes its identity. Also, in The Big Gundown Milian was a surprising bad character whose charisma produced some very unusual contrasts that enriched its fireworks and humor in a new way. What does this mean exactly? In previous spaghetti westerns, Mexican bad characters were usually very transparent, one-dimensional simpletons that never earned the sympathy of the audience. In The Big Gundown, while acting as a secondary character, Millian changed this tradition.

In Run, Man Run Millian is a big star -- well, sort of. Sollima’s camera frequently treats Millian like a genuine star but he plays Cuchillo in much the same way he did in The Big Gundown, so he remains a very shady Mexican thief. As a result, Run, Man, Run instantly becomes a different film that cannot possibly be considered a conventional sequel to The Big Gundown. Indeed, the balance of power in Run, Man, Run is not only altered but remains very fluid too because there are no classic good characters in it, which means that the crucial contrasts these types of films produced become quite difficult to predict. How do you embrace a star that is a bad guy who clashes with other bad guys that often beat him at his own game? If they make him look bad at being bad, do you root for him to become better at being bad?

It is clear that Sollima rolled the dice with Run, Man, Run because Millian’s unexpected success with Cuchillo in The Big Gundown created a lot of new opportunities to enrich the characters that were known to populate the spaghetti westerns. This trend -- transforming bad characters into leading characters without opposition by any classic good characters -- peaked during the 1970s with the frequently over-the-top poliziotteschi. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Millian’s best work is in some of these notoriously violent but very entertaining films as well.

*Eureka Entertainment's two-disc release features two versions of Run, Man, Run: the fully uncut Original Version of the film, which is approximately 121 minutes long, and the shorter Theatrical Cut, which is approximately 85 minutes long. Both have been fully restored in 4K by L'Immagine Ritrovata.

Run, Man, Run Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Run, Man, Run arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release has two versions of the film: the fully uncut Original Version of the film, which is approximately 121 minutes long, and the shorter Theatrical Cut, which is approximately 85 minutes long. Both have been fully restored in 4K by L'Immagine Ritrovata.

The technical presentation of Run, Man, Run is very similar to that of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. While I think that the end result here is slightly better, it is clearly not as impressive as it could have been. It is why very particular additional color-grading work was done to fix errors that were introduced during the initial grading of the 4K restoration. This is unfortunate because Eureka Entertainment -- or Kino Lorber -- should not be fixing another party's errors, especially when said party is a famous restoration lab.

I viewed the longer Original Version of the film, which is graded exactly as the shorter Theatrical Cut. The good news is that I can share is that the raw scan that was prepared for Run, Man, Run is outstanding, so the potential for an outstanding presentation of the film was there. Generally speaking, grain exposure is excellent and the surface of the visuals is very, very healthy. There are some noticeable fluctuations in terms of density, but virtually all of them are inherited. Some are not, but they are exacerbated by the initial incorrect color values and the color adjustments. This is a familiar issue on badly graded 4K restorations because the native dynamic range of the visuals is destabilized. What does this mean exactly? If you attempt to repair an area where grays/blacks have been destabilized by the improper grade, more than likely you are not going to get all shadow nuances right. Why? For the same reason, you cannot fix crushed blacks by playing with the settings on your TV. You can come close to where color values and balance need to be, but the fixed image(s) will not be ideal. You can see examples of similar developments in screencaptures #13 and 16. Regardless, I was not distracted by these fluctuations because, as mentioned above, there are inherited fluctuations as well. The big issue is the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the color scheme. I like what was done on this release a bit more than what was done for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but a lot of color values are only closer to where they need to be, not where they ideally should be. For example, in the sky there are plenty of decent blues, but often times in the peripherals you can see light green hues sneaking in. Elsewhere some reds could look right (see screencapture #34) but in a different area they are clearly off (see screencapture #3). There are all kinds of different variations of whites and many are not quite where they need to be as well (see sceencapture #24). The same can be said about the different ranges of green as well. There are no traces of sharpening adjustments. Contrast levels are set well, too. Image stability is very good. All in all, this is a passable presentation of Run, Man, Run, but if L'Immagine Ritrovata ever figures out how to properly grade older color films, each time one of these 4K restorations transitions to Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray, you would be looking at a definitive home video release. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Run, Man, Run Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. and Italian LPCM 2.0. Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I viewed the entire film with the English audio track, which should be considered the original audio track because virtually all of the main characters utter their lines in English. Clearly, they were overdubbed too, which is why there is some unevenness here and there, but this is how these tracks were done back in the days. I thought that the quality of the audio was outstanding. Clarity, sharpness, and depth were often very impressive for a spaghetti western, so I do not know precisely what type of restoration work was done, but it easily shows that a lot of time was spent to get as much right as possible. There are absolutely no traces of inherited age-related imperfections.

Run, Man, Run Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

BLU-RAY DISC ONE - FULLY UNCUT VERSION OF THE FILM

• Trailer - presented here is an original international trailer for Run, Man, Run. In Spanish, with English text/titles. (4 min).

• Alternate Opening Credits - in Spanish, with English subtitles. (4 min).

• Stephen Thrower on Run, Man, Run - in this exclusive new program, critic Stephen Thrower discusses the production history of Run, Man, Run and some of its unique qualities. In English, not subtitled. (19 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman. The commentary follows a familiar format, meaning that it similar in tone and score to the work the two gentlemen have done for other Blu-ray releases of genre films. There are many observations about the era in which Run, Man, Run was conceived and produced, Sergio Sollima's political beliefs -- he was an outspoken communist and often channeled his politics in his films -- and whether some of his ideas are reflected in the film, the casting choices that were made and the film's relationship to The Big Gundown, some general trends in Italian spaghetti westerns at the time, etc. (For what it's worth, Run, Man, Run is one of Sollima's least political films).

BLU-RAY DISC TWO - SHORTER THEATRICAL CUT OF THE FILM

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by author Howard Hughes and filmmaker Richard Knew. The majority of the comments address the stylistic identity of Run, Man, Ran and the performances and careers of the many actors that appear in the film.

• Cover - reversible cover.

• Booklet - an illustrated collector's booklet featuring two new essays by Howard Hughes, covering both the film and the "Zapata Western" sub-genre.

Run, Man, Run Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you compare The Big Gundown and Run, Man, Run, you will quickly conclude that the former is unquestionably a superior film. However, while playing Cuchillo in Run, Man, Run, Tomas Milian conveys a lot of the wickedness that made his very bad poliziotteschi characters iconic. I like this a lot. Also, Run, Man, Run does not have any classic good characters, or classic big characters of the kind that ruled the spaghetti westerns, which makes it quite unpredictable. I like this, too. This upcoming two-disc set introduces a recent 4K restoration of Run, Man, Run that was prepared in Italy. I give the folks at Eureka Entertainment a lot of credit for trying to make it look decent, but to be honest, it is infuriating that small boutique labels with minuscule budgets have to do additional "restoration" work to fix the restorations coming out of notorious labs that get massive funding to do this type of work. So, for the time being, I think that this release is worth picking up, but I would have preferred to tell you that it is the definitive home video release of Run, Man, Run. RECOMMENDED.