Sgt. Will Gardner Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Sgt. Will Gardner Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 21, 2019

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but in the case of Sgt. Will Gardner, while that aphorism probably holds true for the film itself, it might be salient to point out that the titular character in the film is already experiencing a private hell of sorts, and that he in fact attempts to utilize roads to find his way out of it. That said, this is a film that obviously has a noble cause at its root, but which is perhaps too rote to ever deliver the emotional impact it quite clearly is aiming for. A pet project of star, writer, co-producer and director Max Martini, Sgt. Will Gardner documents the travails of Gardner, an Iraq war veteran who returns stateside badly injured both physically and (perhaps especially) emotionally. Like many films as varied as The Best Years of Our Lives and Coming Home have amply displayed, stories of returning vets have an almost inherent emotional component that can almost instantly appeal to viewers, but Sgt. Will Gardner may simply be traveling roads already driven by many of these preceding entries, making it suffer, if only subliminally, by comparison.

Martini obviously feels very passionately about the plight of America’s vets, many of whom return home broken in both body and spirit, only to find an uncaring or at least incompetent government which is not able to capably handle their traumas. Sgt. Will Gardner takes this basic premise but perhaps unwisely ups the ante by having Gardner so seriously afflicted that he’s a walking disaster area. There are also a number of kind of almost churlish vagaries of fate that Martini’s screenplay throws Gardner’s way, including a seemingly duplicitous guy named Tony (Robert Patrick) who takes advantage of the already addled Gardner.

That leads to the main conceit of the film, whereby Gardner absconds with a motorcycle and takes off on a journey to — well, discover himself, one supposes, those there’s the more pressing issue of Gardner wanting to reacquaint himself with his young son (played by Martini’s real life son, Leo). That leads to some friction with his ex-wife Kimmy (Elisabeth Rohm), who is trying to forge a new life with Buddy (Dermot Mulroney).

All of this fits pretty squarely into the template previous “returning vet” films have at times essayed, but Sgt. Will Gardner adds a couple of other elements which may strike some as strange and in one case a little tonally at odds with the rest of the film. First of all, without going into outright spoiler territory, let’s just say that the film goes a certain A Beautiful Mind route with regard to a war buddy of Gardner’s nicknamed “Top” (Omari Hardwick). Unfortunately, this aspect is dealt with so obviously that there’s no ambiguity as to what “state” the character of “Top” is in, which in turn deprives the film of what is obviously meant to be one of the main cathartic moments late in the film.

Even odder and potentially more problematic is the character of Mary Anne Mackey (Lily Rabe), who storms out of an unhappy job situation to see Gardner zooming by on his motorcycle, being instantly taken with the burly bearded guy. Later, she comes across him again as she’s on her own cross country trip, and the two end up forging a kind of halting relationship. Except — the whole thing is predicated on the fact that Mary Anne thinks Gardner is a famous (real life) actor who’s gone undercover to study for an upcoming role. I won’t spoil the identity of whom Mary Anne thinks Gardner is, other than to say it’s so peculiar as to make the underlying romance just seem downright weird. There are also some other vignettes involving Mary Anne that, like this one, may strike some viewers as being way too whimsical for a film which is otherwise pretty firmly set in a world of extreme psychological disruption.

Sgt. Will Gardner Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sgt. Will Gardner is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to track down a ton of technical data on this shoot, though it seems from some tangentially related social media posts that Arri Alexas were probably used for at least part of the shoot, and I'm once again assuming that everything was finished at a 2K DI. A lot of the film takes place in fairly dimly lit environments like clubs, or dingy hotel rooms, and as such there are occasional deficits in shadow detail and fine detail. But a lot of the daytime material, especially that in the vast outdoors that Gardner rides through, pops extremely well, with a nicely suffused palette and generally excellent detail levels. Several flashbacks to wartime are heavily graded toward green (almost to night vision levels), and those sequences understandably have much less fine detail visible. There are a few slight moments of banding during fades (one very noticeable one takes place early in the film during a shot of a wind turbine farm).

Sgt. Will Gardner Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sgt. Will Gardner features a very effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that offers abundant LFE in the wartime flashback sequences, as well as even some of the contemporary material (as in one of the film's most effective moments, where Gardner is holed up in an abandoned room, barricaded in a bathroom, and the film intercuts between police breaking down the door to get him and memories of Gardner's wartime shootouts). The motorcycle aspect also gives rise to a number nice rumbly effects, as well as some good panning activity. A glut of outdoor material also provides good opportunities for ambient environmental effects. Dialogue and score are rendered cleanly and clearly, and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Sgt. Will Gardner Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews

  Max Martini (1080i; 10:44)

  
  

  Gary Sinise (1080p; 12:51)

  
  

  Leo and Max Martini (1080p; 4:47)

  
  

  Omari Hardwick (1080p; 8:34)

  
  

  Robert Patrick (1080i; 12:56)

  
  

  Hugh Middleton (1080p; 4:54)

  
  

  Lily Rabe (1080p; 8:18)

  
  

  Luis Bordonada (1080p; 8:04)

  
  

  Shad "Hammer" Hamilton (1080p; 8:57)

• Trailer (1080p; 2:02)

Sgt. Will Gardner Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those with an interest in veterans' affairs, especially the problems returning vets often experience, will almost certainly find this a worthwhile viewing experience, even with the film's sometimes stumbling narrative choices. Performances are certainly committed, and the film has an important message to deliver. Unfortunately, Martini may have simply taken on too many roles here and may have benefited from some objective eyes looking over his screenplay in particular. Technical merits (especially audio) are generally strong, for those considering a purchase.