Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Sweeney! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 3, 2020

David Wickes' "Sweeney!" (1977) 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 critic Simon Abrams. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Regan's crew

On the other side of the Atlantic everyone knows that David Wickes’ film would not have been made without the success of the original TV series The Sweeney, which British audiences enjoyed from 1974 until 1978. However, it may very well be that the same success was also responsible for the launching of the similarly-themed TV series The Professionals.

A small-time businessman reaches out to veteran cop Jack Regan (John Thaw) and informs him that he has reasons to believe that his girlfriend, who was recently discovered dead in a hotel room, might have been killed. Regan reluctantly agrees to take another look at her case and quickly discovers that she was secretly working as an upscale escort, which is why even though she was a lot younger than her ‘boyfriend’ she found him to be quite special. Meanwhile, the businessman dispatches one of his assistants to find out more about his girlfriend’s final hours from her best friend, Bianca (Diane Keen), who is also in the escort business and servicing foreign clients that are working with the British government. A few days later, the businessman and his closest associates are found dead in a lousy junkyard. Regan and his Flying Squad boys then go to work to solve the mysterious executions, and the more they dig, the more it begins to look like the dead girl and her friend might have been involved with some very well-known public figures. When Regan vows to track them down and reveal their identities with Bianca’s help, the two instantly become moving targets.

Wickes’ feature film spin-off does feel like a natural extension of the popular TV series. Regan and his boys are the same street-smart crew that gets results the old-fashioned way -- while using their fists and guns significantly more than their deductive and negotiating skills -- and their opponents are the familiar underworld types that flourish amidst corrupt cops and politicians. The only notable difference between the TV material and the content from the film comes from the manner in which the characterizations are developed. In the film extra attention is given to natural human flaws that provide more depth to the key relationships as they shape up the big conflicts, so when eventually Regan confronts the real villains the overall dramatic effect is certainly more authentic.

The visual style of the film is a carbon copy of the one that the TV series promoted as well. The camera basically captures London as is, so when the drama begins to unfold its rawness certainly leaves a lasting impression. But this is a quality of the production that is also directly related to the attitudes that Regan and his boys are allowed to freely express throughout it; all of these cops are ordinary guys that have all sorts of different flaws and because they are not hiding them everything they say and do sounds and looks incredibly authentic.

*The organic rawness of the TV series and the feature film is precisely what the latter seasons of The Professionals lost. As its writers began exploring different themes, such as international espionage, a lot of episodes introduced polished characters that slowly changed the type of identity that Brian Clemens gave its first season. The problems that Bodie, Doyle, and The Cow had to fix became so big that eventually it became impossible to take them seriously.

Kino Lorber's release of Sweeney! is sourced from a recent 2K remaster that was struck from the original 35mm camera negative. During the restoration process, the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.75:1 was preserved.

Sweeney! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Sweeney! arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

I expected to see a technical presentation of the film that is virtually identical to the one that Network Releasing had on this Region-B release, which emerged in 2019. But what is on this release is quite different, and I am not referring only to the obvious framing discrepancy. (As far as I am concerned, this is actually the most meaningless discrepancy because the composition is the same and the framing difference is extremely small). So, even though the release is sourced from the same restored master that Network Releasing worked with, here the visuals are actually sharper -- not digitally sharpened -- and on my system I could quite easily see the difference. No, the difference is not massive, but it is meaningful and can make certain parts of the film appear better defined. Close-ups with plenty of light, in particular, can highlight the discrepancy very well. The overall color balance is also different, but here there are only a few specific hues that introduce the discrepancy. If you compare screencapture #1 with the corresponding screencapture from our review of the Region-B release, you should get a pretty good idea how the two color schemes differ. The rest looks practically identical. In the darker areas it is again easy to see that some fine nuances should be better defined, plus the same very mild traces of grain management that were present on the previous release are retained. So, after testing this release on my system, I think that it offers a marginally better overall presentation of the film. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).

Sweeney! 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.

There are no technical discrepancies to report. The audio has been fully remastered and clarity, depth, and stability as good as they can be. Dynamic intensity is also very good, at times perhaps even surprisingly so because there is plenty of organic footage where the recording equipment was likely not always positioned in the best spots.

Sweeney! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - author, critic, and film buff Simon Abrams discusses in great detail the production of Sweeney! and the TV show that inspired it, some of the main socio-cultural themes that emerge in it, the era in which it was conceived and its reception, etc.

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Sweeney!. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following titles from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. Robbery
  2. Sudden Terror
  3. The File of the Golden Goose
  4. The Laughing Policeman
  5. Busting
  6. Trouble Man
  7. The Silent Partner

Sweeney! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

David Wickes' film is as good as the original TV series that inspired it, though I don't think that this was ever a shocking surprise because the same great cast that did the series was hired to do it. (Diane Keen is the only notable excellent new addition). Kino Lorber's release is sourced from the same recent 2K remaster that British label Network Releasing first introduced, but I like its technical presentation on this release a tiny bit better. RECOMMENDED.