7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
During a police strike in Nova Scotia's capital city, a gang of hoodlums end up unintentionally causing the owner of a gay bar to be killed. This escalates into a string of murders with a lone survivor trying to not be next.
Starring: Tom Nardini, Brenda Bazinet, Daryl Haney, Jack Blum, Keith KnightThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | 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 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In the world of accolades doled out to films, there's a rather interesting list that is aggregated only once a decade (or so) by the Toronto International Film Festival which polls both critics and "regular" people (yes, critics are irregular) to come up with a menu of "Top 10 Canadian Films". This kind of oddly intermittent assessment began in 1984, with the most recent installment coming out in 2015, and the films selected over the decades have included a number of lesser known standouts as well as better remembered titles like The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Dead Ringers, The Grey Fox , and The Sweet Hereafter. Despite a pull quote from filmmaker Jason Eisener (who is included on the supplementary commentary track on this disc) emblazoned across the front cover of this release proclaiming Siege as "the best Canadian film ever made", it evidently has never made the Top 10 list under either this title or its alternate moniker Self Defense, though of course there's always hope for the list due in another three or four years. This is yet another film that has at least a tangential connection to a "ripped from the headlines" element, in this case a long running strike by the police force in Halifax. Siege documents the efforts of a bunch of apartment tenants who therefore find themselves in dire straits when a group of murderous right wing agitators first wreak havoc in a gay bar and then come after an escapee from that fracas who has hidden out in the apartment building.
Siege is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states that this was "scanned in 2K from the original negative recently discovered in a Nova Scotia archive". Though the negative may have been located in an archive, it may not have been curated especially carefully, at least as evidenced by some occasional damage which includes a pretty rough looking opening few minutes featuring a ragged production masthead (kind of ironically given the crazed killer aspect, for a company called Manson International) and some badly damaged credits. Things improve markedly after that, though, with a natural looking palette and some appealing fine detail levels in close-ups. There are some recurrent deficits in fine detail in the second half of the film in particular, though, when vast swaths of the proceedings are bathed in deep blue tones and shadow definition can be negligible. Grain resolves rather well throughout the presentation, especially considering how dark so much of the film is.
Siege features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix that comes close to a bit of breakup in some of the pulsing synth and electronic effects featured in Peter Jermyn and Drew King's score, but which delivers dialogue without any issues whatsoever. Some of the archival news accounts feature audio that can sound just a tad bright on the high end when compared to the bulk of the presentation. There are a surprising amount of sound effects in the film, often mixed with the kind of quasi-electronic score, and those sound fine as well. Optional English subtitles are available.
Siege is surprisingly effective despite some of its more cliché ridden aspects. Jason Eisener may be one of the few who thinks this is "the best Canadian film ever made", but my hunch is many folks will easily think Siege is better than they expected it to be. Technical merits are generally solid, and Severin has provided two good supplements with the commentary and extended cut. Recommended.
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