Support Your Local Sheriff Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Support Your Local Sheriff Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 21, 2019

Burt Kennedy's "Support Your Local Sheriff!" (1969) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The outsider

In the United States, Burt Kennedy's Support Your Local Sheriff was first released on Blu-ray by Twilight Time in 2016. For an in-depth analysis of the film, please see Jeffrey Kauffman's review of this release here.

Support Your Local Sheriff Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Burt Kennedy's Support Your Local Sheriff arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by MGM. (It is the same master that a couple of years ago Twilight Time used to produce this double-feature release). It is a bit inconsistent, but there are no races of digital anomalies and this is the main reason why it gets the job done. So, you should expect to see some small but noticeable density fluctuations that have an effect on delineation and depth (see screencapture #11). The entire film also looks slightly softer than it should, but this is primarily an inherited limitation of the element that was used to produce the master, which was not the OCN. Predictably, many of the wider panoramic shots do not have the optimal depth that they need to impress (good examples can be seen in screencaptures #5 and 10). The grading job is very nice, but as it is often the case with so many older masters some nuances can be expanded. By how much? In this case. not by a whole lot. Slightly improved saturation, better balance that realigns some background highlights, and improved shadow definition with new and healthy nuances will almost certainly be enough to make the film sparkle. Obviously, a proper new master will introduce healthier grain as well. Image stability is good, but there are quite a few white specks and black spots that pop up here and there. All in all, even though the current master is older and has areas that can be improved, the film has a rather good organic appearance. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Support Your Local Sheriff Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I think that the lossless track is very strong. It is clean, stable, and with a great dynamic range. A new remix could bring in some cosmetic improvements, such as enhanced dynamic nuances and some minor tweaks that can strengthen balance in areas where the music becomes prominent, but the basics are already solid. There are no encoding anomalies to report.

Support Your Local Sheriff Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Support Your Local Sheriff. (3 min, 480/60i).

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, filmmaker/historian Michael Schlesinger shares a lot of great information about the production histories of Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter, some of Burt Kennedy's trademarks and their reappearance in this film, the manner in which different actors shift in comedy mode, the soundtrack, some of the stunts that were done in the film, etc. It is a good commentary that is worth spending time with.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following releases from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. Support Your Local Gunfighter
  2. Duel at Diablo
  3. Rawhide
  4. Young Billy Young

Support Your Local Sheriff Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kino Lorber's new release of Support Your Local Sheriff is sourced from the same master that MGM supplied to Twilight Time for the first release of the film, which also included Support Your Local Gunfighter. If remastered Support Your Sheriff will look better on Blu-ray, but the current master is free of digital anomalies and I think that it has pretty decent organic qualities. RECOMMENDED.