Sole Survivor Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Sole Survivor Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 12, 2016

Paul Stanley's "Sole Survivor" (1970) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent British distributors Mediumrare Entertainment. The only bonus feature on the disc is a gallery of original stills. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The forgotten ones

I must warn you that there is a major spoiler below. However, I think that it is impossible to discuss Sole Survivor without it because its story is built upon it. So, consider ignoring the entire review if you wish to experience Sole Survivor as director Paul Stanley intended.

A small portion of the story was inspired by a true event. In 1943, on its way back from a dangerous mission to Naples, Italy, the American B-24 bomber Lady Be Good crashed in the Libyan desert. For a while, no one knew exactly where, but in 1959, a team of petroleum engineers discovered its remains. Large parts of the plane were perfectly preserved by the desert air, and military specialists were able to understand what happened to it. However, the bodies of the nine crew members were not found at the crash site. A year later, a second team of oil engineers located the remains of some of the crew members more than one hundred kilometers north of the crash site. At this point, the U.S. government launched Operation Climax, and the remains of the missing crew members were also discovered.

Sole Survivor begins shortly after top military officials in Washington are informed that the missing plane has been found in the Libyan desert. Amongst them is the only survivor, Russell Hamner (Richard Baseheart, Fixed Bayonets!, Il Bidone), who has a difficult time believing that there is anything left of the plane. After he agrees to travel to the desert and assist the investigators, it is gradually revealed why.

While the investigators study the wreckage and try to reconstruct the tragedy, the ghosts of the crew members quietly observe Hamner as he clarifies what took place some twenty-five years ago. However, the more they hear from him, the angrier they become, because they remember the tragedy differently. A few even insist that Hamner was a coward who abandoned them at a time when they desperately needed his help.

Sole Survivor was made for TV, but it very easily could have been a theatrical feature. In fact, it is rather surprising to see that it was not modified in some way and given a theatrical release. I think that it almost certainly would have appealed to viewers who went to see Robert Aldrich’s The Flight of the Phoenix.

The supernatural twist -- which is one of several very good ones -- gives Soul Survivor quite the exotic vibe, but at the end everything comes together very well. The controversy is essentially analyzed from a couple of different angles, and the viewer is forced to consider different scenarios that make perfect sense. When the truth is finally revealed, there is a predictable moral victory. However, there are bits of thought-provoking material suggesting that a slightly different version of it is plausible as well.

The performances are uniformly excellent. Baseheart looks like a man whose life has been an intense rollercoaster. Vince Edwards is very convincing as the clever Major Devlin, who is determined to prove that the ghosts’ version of the tragedy is the only one worth documenting. William Shatner is also convincing as Lt. Col. Josef Gronke.

Soul Survivor was lensed by Oscar nominated cinematographer James Crabe (John Avildsen’s Rocky, James Bridges’ The China Syndrome).

Sole Survivor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Paul Stanley's Sole Survivor arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mediumrare Entertainment.

The release is sourced from a very nice master. There are a couple of segments with very small density fluctuations -- during the air attack, there are also bits of raw archival footage -- and a few tiny blemishes and flecks, but the film has an attractive organic appearance. The majority of the close-ups boast nice depth, and when there is an abundance of natural light clarity is terrific. Fluidity also ranges from good to very good. Colors appear natural and healthy. Saturation can be better, and ideally, there should be a wider range of nuances, but the primaries are good. There are no traces of recent degraining or sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is very good. As mentioned earlier, a few flecks can be spotted, but there are no annoying damage marks, large cuts, or warped frames to report. (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).

Sole Survivor 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 not provided for the main feature.

The audio is clean and stable. Paul Glass's score easily breathes, but this isn't a film with an exceptional sound design. The dialog is easy to follow, though very light rebalancing work could introduce some minor improvements. There are no pops, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in our review.

Sole Survivor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Stills - a collection of stills.

Sole Survivor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Later this summer, Eureka Entertainment will bring to Blu-ray Robert Aldrich's excellent war drama The Flight of the Phoenix, and I think that Sole Survivor is the perfect companion for it. If you have not seen it before but enjoy these types of genre films, it is probably best that you order Mediumrare Entertainment's release without reading our review, as it features what I consider to be a crucial spoiler. The technical presentation of Soul Survivor is probably as good as one can expect for a film of this caliber. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.