6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A CIA veteran is in charge of assassinating those who pose a threat to the US. He often partners with Scorpio, a gifted freelance operative, who now has orders to kill him !
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Paul Scofield, John Colicos, Gayle HunnicuttThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
How bad is Scorpio? One indication might be the less than glowing “reviews” the film gets on the commentary track included on this Blu-ray, where even Twilight Time’s Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo, along with regular cohort Lem Dobbs, struggle at times not to reel off a litany of negatives, many centering around the film’s director Michael Winner. Winner has been a regular punching bag for many through the years, something Dobbs acknowledges while also stating that perhaps it’s time for at least a minor reassessment of the director’s oeuvre (though utilizing that term may seem seriously out of place given some of Winner’s filmography). Though Winner is probably at least arguably best remembered for Death Wish, he did a number of relatively interesting pieces through the years, films as disparate as The Cool Mikado and The Jokers. But anecdotes are legion about various less than pleasant interactions casts and crews had with Winner through the years, though it’s also evident based on some commentaries by Winner (check out The Nightcomers or The Sentinel) that the man, while obviously a handful, was also frequently hilarious and quite the raconteur. Maybe Winner had some good stories to tell about Scorpio, but the film itself is a pretty predictable slice of early 1970s espionage fodder, suffused with that Watergate era paranoia that made folks feel like they couldn’t trust anyone, especially those who worked in government.
Scorpio is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Culled from the Metro Goldwyn Mayer archives (by way of United Artists), this has the same somewhat dated look of other releases from this catalog coming from this same era, with some variabilities in sharpness, clarity and (most noticeably) grain structure. Elements are in generally decent condition from any damage standpoints, but colors look slightly anemic, with flesh tones skewing toward the pallid side of things and nothing ever popping with much immediacy. Still, Winner's penchant for extreme close-ups (often at the end of those aforementioned zooms) offer abundant fine detail, as can be seen in various screenshots accompanying this review. That said, when comparing sharpness and grain fields between various moments (as exemplified by screenshots 18 and 2 on the "fuzzy" end of things, and screenshots 5 and 13 on the clearer end of the spectrum), there's a noticeably wide difference in evidence.
Scorpio features a decent if narrow sounding DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track, one which capably supports the film's sometimes silly dialogue, a number of sound effects and the well done score by Jerry Fielding. The sound design of the film isn't overly ambitious, even given some of the opportunities of some of the chase scenes, but things are rendered cleanly and clearly with excellent prioritization and no issues of any kind to warrant concern.
Michael Winner may ultimately be remembered as something of a hack, a capable actor wrangler who typically brought his films in on schedule and under budget, which, as this Blu-ray's commentary mentions, was "good enough" for the programmatic sensibilities of a certain niche of seventies' filmmaking. The sad thing is that with a little retooling Scorpio really could have been an exciting if undemanding film. Technical merits are generally very good for those considering a purchase.
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