6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A determined young anthropologist has come across a clue leading to a long-forgotten royal tomb. And pays no mind to the notion that Egypt’s last undiscovered treasure may carry a curse – and perhaps that there may be some black marketeers eager to sustain the illusion of such a curse…in a fashion as terrifying as any scary ancient legend.
Starring: Lesley-Anne Down, Frank Langella, Maurice Ronet, John Gielgud, Vic TablianHorror | 100% |
Supernatural | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
1659 kbps
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sphinx (1980) was a $10+ million production from Orion Pictures shot on location in Budapest, Cairo, and Luxor. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton; The Boys from Brazil), starred Lesley-Anne Down and Frank Langella, and received supporting roles from John Rhys-Davies (one year before he played Sallah) and Sir John Gielgud. Erwin Kim wrote his dissertation at USC on Schaffner, who he conducted many interviews with and turned it into the 500-page book, Franklin J. Schaffner (Scarecrow Press, 1985), which remains the only major study on the director. Kim did archival research on virtually all of Schaffner's TV and movie productions, including Sphinx. He found that Orion bought the rights to an untitled novel by Boston ophthalmologist Robin Cook (Coma) sight unseen. The manuscript was initially titled Tombs and later re-titled Sphinx, which G. P. Putnam's Sons published in 1979. Ed Blank, then the drama editor of The Pittsburgh Press, reported that Sphinx sold 600,000 copies in hardback. Kim has chronicled that in February 1979, Orion sent Schaffner the galleys of Sphinx. After he signed a contract with Orion, Schaffner let Cook try his hand at a screenplay of his novel but the results were reportedly unfilmable. According to Kim, Schaffner chose John Byrum to pen a new draft of the script, owing mainly to his screenplay, Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976). Byrum wrote four drafts until Schaffner was fully satisfied.
Sphinx opens with a prologue set in the Valley of the Kings in 1301 B.C. Mernephtah (Behrouz Vossoughi), the royal architect, and his men have caught beggars pillaging one of the tombs inside the caves. Mernephtah delivers punishment to one of the thieves reminiscent of what Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) inflicts on a man in Gangster Squad (2013). The narrative flash-forwards to the present day where Egyptologist Erica Baron (Lesley-Anne Down) is interested in visiting the tombs of Seti I, Seti II, and Tutankhamen. Erica takes a pilgrimage to the Antica Abdul shop in Cairo. There she meets Abdu-Hamdi (John Gielgud), an antiquities collector on the black market. Abdu-Hamdi shows Erica a statue of the Seti I and she's taken with it. Local terrorists are also after the statue and Abdu-Hamdi realizes he must get Erica some pertinent information before meeting his fate. The French journalist Yvon Mageot (Yvon Mageot) helps Erica get out of her predicament. When Erica thinks she's alone in her hotel room, a mysterious man named Ahmed Khazzan (Frank Langella) reflects in her mirror. Ahmed is UNESCO's Egyptian Director of Antiquities and supposedly wants to get the men who were after Abdu-Hamdi. For much of the rest of the film, Erica is on the run during several long wild-goose chases.
Shout! Factory's release of Sphinx comes on a BD-50, which uses the MPEG-4 AVC encode. The DI is based on a new 2K transfer of the interpositive. The movie appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The transfer boasts a pretty beautiful image. Look at how clear the details are on the statue of Seti I (Screenshot #17). You can spot the textured grain in capture #s 1, 5, and 14. Skin tones appear natural without any post-processing or wax work. Shout! has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 34000 kbps.
Shout! provides a dozen chapters for the 118-minute film.
Shout! has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1675 kbps, 24-bit). According to Erwin Kim, Sphinx was the first picture that Schaffner worked with that contained Dolby stereo, which he found difficult. A separate monaural track was prepared but Sphinx was released in theaters with stereo. It's an oddity that Shout! didn't include a stereo mix here. The mono track sufficiently reproduces the dialogue, which sounded comprehensible to my ears. There some Arabic words spoken that come accompanied with non-removable English subtitles (see Screenshot #s 19 and 20). The subtitles also were burned into the original release prints. Composer Michael J. Lewis delivers a four-star score that sounds rich and powerful along the front channels. Lewis came up with a theme that's reminiscent of Maurice Jarre's sweeping desert music for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). That's apropos since Schaffner was anointed as the "American David Lean." Lewis released a one-hour composer's promotional album in 1994 that introduces the theme in the cue, "Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza." He gives it a more majestic rendition in "Valley of the Kings," which boasts high brass notes. Lewis uses a lot of tablas and ethnic percussion throughout the score.
Shout! provides its own optional English SDH in addition to the compulsory English subs.
Sphinx is best appreciated as a cinematic travelogue across Egypt. If you can suspend your disbelief at the incomprehensible ways that Erica avoids doom, then you'll get more out of the film. The movie didn't deserve the critical shellacking it received. Shout! Factory delivers a splendid transfer from a recent 2K scan. It's disappointing that it didn't include the original stereo mix, however. There are no extras except for the trailer and a radio spot. RECOMMENDED to fans of Schaffner and Langella.
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