Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Son of Saul Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 27, 2016

Son of Saul is almost too difficult to watch, but it's too good and too rewarding not to watch. Director László Nemes, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Clara Royer, has crafted a bleak but purposeful masterpiece with his debut feature that earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. The film takes audiences inside the Nazi concentration camps and explores a little-known facet of life inside for a select few prisoners who were privy to the brutality and inhumanity that ultimately cost six million Jews their lives. Through its intimate and immediate discomforts is an unforgettable film about the search for a sliver of humanity in a place where none otherwise exists.

All he can do is stare.

Most prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps are gassed. A few select prisoners, known as "Sonderkommando," are not only aware of what is happening, but they're tasked with the dirty work of cleaning the facility -- brushing blood off the floor, removing the bodies, and eventually spreading mounds of ashes -- to accommodate the next group of victims. One of these Sonderkommando is Saul (Géza Röhrig), a Hungarian Jew. A routine clean-up reveals one victim, a young boy, to still be alive. The boy is quickly put to death by suffocation. Saul claims the boy as his own. In the midst of the hellacious and inhumane conditions, he seeks only for the boy's body to be spared dissection and cremation and that a rabbi perform a proper burial service. In the meantime, Saul finds himself in the middle of a plot to get word of the camp to the outside world.

As life in the Nazi concentration camps must have been hellishly deplorable, emotionally destructive, and spiritually difficult, so too is Son of Saul. The movie elicits a sense of immediate discomfort, aguish, anger, fear, confusion, and frustration, but these are, in their own way and for the sake of the movie, dramatically positive qualities that are necessary to shape and tell the story with the proper thematic foundation and emotional resonance. One of the film's earliest shots depicts Saul standing along a wall, blankly gazing into nothing as tortuous screams and the painful sounds of death emanate from behind a nearby closed door, behind which an unknown number -- at least dozens, maybe more -- of people are dying. It's a stark contrast between the relative outward numbness he seems to feel versus the visceral, angry shock and disgust that courses through the audience. For the viewer, that stoic sense of disconnect never materializes. The movie is a constant challenge to sit through as it engenders waves of negative emotions that are a response to negative imagery, but the turnaround is a reminder of the value of life and the things in the world that are worth fighting for, whether that be a grand cause against mass murder or one's need to maintain a sense of dignity and normalcy in a world where both have been all but bluntly forced out of existence.

As if the narrative weren't already bleak, the film itself is claustrophobic and nearly as ugly from a visual perspective as it is in many of its dramatic components. Director László Nemes and Cineatpographer Mátyás Erdély have photographed the movie in a tight, personal manner. Many shots are intimately close to the subject -- mostly Saul -- and backgrounds are blurred jumbles of imagery, including piled bodies. The 4x3 framing further squeezes the frame and adds to the sense of personal tension and inescapability. László Nemes' framing is exceptional and a remarkable driving force in not only capturing the movie, but shaping it well beyond the visuals and using it to emphasize emotions while creating a huddled, hurried feel to the character. The movie further constructs its narrative, visually, with a dank, inhospitable tint to where the sum total of the dreary, green, gray, and yellow dominant scheme almost takes on the consistency of vomit, which again only further accentuates the overall tone. Performances are fantastic. Every actor carries a unique response to their work and place in the hierarchy of the camp, whether German or Jew. Géza Röhrig is remarkable in the lead, and so are all of his fellow actors. Much of the movie's success comes from their ability to convey so much through body language and look within that tight framing, though certainly the script, as written in part by Röhrig himself, is very well done and a critical support piece to a movie that's visually arresting for all the right, and thematically wrong, reasons.

Son of Saul Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As noted above, visuals are key to Son of Saul. The Blu-ray's 1080p transfer, framed at approximately 4x3 (with curved edges that give the movie a look of an old photograph or slide, perhaps), is dismal and bleak but reflective of the movie's director-intended appearance. Details are fine, though never quite so pristine and precise as to take attention away from the movie proper. Frayed prisoner garments, heavier Nazi apparel, facial lines, concrete walls in the chambers, and other assorted bits are sufficiently tactile and well defined. The color scheme is bleak and dreary. The brightest colors come by way of leafy greens and the rather subdued red "X" symbols on the backs of the Sonderkommando. Otherwise, it's a rather ugly collection of drab grays, greens, and pasty flesh tones. Black levels are fundamentally deep but a little prone to crush in shadowy, intimate corners. Film grain is never intrusive and compression artifacts are never a concern.

Son of Saul Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Son of Saul's Hungarian language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack (English subtitles are automatically selected upon movie playback) is tirelessly engaging. The movie uses sound design more than anything else to more fully shape the world around Saul. Rarely does the camera pull away from intimate character close-ups, making the aural component critical in fully shaping the movie. The track essentially fills in blanks that the audience doesn't see. Trucks rumble into the picture. Victims scream in agony off to the side. Workers furiously scrub the chamber around Saul. Industrial sounds of heavy iron and metal doors creak open and slam shut. Chatter and lighter background elements in several exterior scenes bring added life to the track. Dialogue is presented in a center focused, straightforward manner with fine clarity and presentation above surrounding details.

Son of Saul Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Son of Saul contains a commentary, deleted scenes, a trailer, and an hour-long interview. A UV digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director László Nemes, Actor Géza Röhrig, and Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély deliver a well-versed and informative track that covers all of the usual commentary insights -- story details, performances, themes, technical elements that make up the movie -- but also explores the deeper meanings and purposes that course through the story.
• Deleted Scene (1080p, 2:05): Return From the River.
• Q&A at the Museum of Tolerance (1080p, 1:03:27): Writer/Director László Nemes, Actor Géza Röhrig, and Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély participate in a sit-down with Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival Director Hilary Helstein. They discuss a myriad of topics including project origins, story construction and themes, casting and performances, the process of shooting the film, technical details, the film's ending, and more. This is a very intelligent conversation that's an outstanding support for a wonderful film.
• Son of Saul Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:43).
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Son of Saul Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Son of Saul is a deeply, darkly serious film that's as immediately disturbing as any film before it but more emotionally rewarding than many. The film's ability to so precisely convey its story and themes by way of the performances and visuals is remarkable. László Nemes has, in one film, proven himself a filmmaker with incredible vision and understanding of how the medium -- the imagery, the words, the performances, the manner in which it's assembled and presented on the screen and around the screen by sound -- can so precisely work together to construct one of the most important movies about the holocaust. Sony's Blu-ray release presents the movie with detailed and immersive audio. Video quality isn't appealing, but it's effective within the movie's contextual needs. Supplements are small in quantity but excellent in quality. Highly recommended, though this isn't a movie with especially high replay value, as good as it is.