Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

The Big Heat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 28, 2017

Fritz Lang's "The Big Heat" (1953) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Indicator/Powerhouse Films. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; video interview with director Martin Scorsese; video interview with director Michael Mann; exclusive new video piece with critic Tony Rayns; original promotional materials; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by critic Glenn Kenny and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The detective

Detective Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford, 3:10 to Yuma, Gilda) is sent to investigate the suicide of veteran cop Tom Duncan. He arrives at his home and quickly concludes that the man did indeed take his own life.

Shortly after, however, Bannion is contacted by Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green, No Time To Be Young), a call girl, who assures him that Duncan, with whom she had an affair, wasn’t thinking of blowing his brains out. Intrigued, Bannion heads back to Duncan’s home where his widow, Bertha (Jeanette Nolan, No Time To Be Young), assures him that her husband was unable to cope with the fact that he was terminally ill.

Without a medical report proving it, Bannion begins asking questions and very quickly annoys a number of very important people. Amongst them are the influential crime boss Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby, Affair in Trinidad), his right-hand man Vince Stone (Lee Marvin, Point Blank) and even the Police Commissioner Higgins (Howard Wendell, How to Murder Your Wife). He is promptly warned to stop sniffing around and complicating people’s lives, but refuses to do so and someone plants a bomb in his car.

At a chic nightclub, Bannion confronts Stone after he hurts an innocent girl. The gangster walks away, but later on, after he discovers that Bannion has met his beautiful toy, Debby (Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place), he goes berserk and all hell breaks loose.

Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest noir films ever made. It is bleak, notably uncompromising, very direct and overflowing with the type of atmosphere that made the noir films special.

At the core of its story, there is a big and quite dramatic transformation -- Bannion is slowly taken out of his comfort zone and then forced to become exactly like the men he has confronted. And as soon as he does the film becomes unusually cynical, openly suggesting that in the real world this type of transformation is essentially unavoidable, as at some point people with moral values are either forced to abandon them and adopt a new lifestyle or simply destroyed.

I’ve always found the atmosphere and cynical tone of The Big Heat to be very similar to those of Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon. Obviously, these films belong to different eras, but if one compares the manner in which women and immigrants are treated in them and then precisely how they expose the ruthlessness of the worlds their protagonists exist in -- both are nonconformists who gradually discover how hopelessly corrupt everyone around them is -- one would see that they are concerned with much bigger issues that still make them relevant today.

The acting is absolutely fantastic. Ford is undoubtedly the star of the film, but the supporting cast is equally impressive. Grahame, in particular, looks astonishing as the ill-treated beauty who decides to teach Marvin’s psychopath a lesson he won’t forget.

The Big Heat was lensed by the great American cinematographer Charles Lang, whose credits also include such classic films as Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole and Some Like It Hot, Delbert Mann’s Separate Tables, and John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and The Magnificent Seven.

The Big Heat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Indicator/Powerhouse Films.

The release is sourced from the same U.S. master that French label Wild Side Video accessed when it prepared its local release of The Big Heat in 2014. I believe that this master was prepared a little earlier with the involvement of Martin Scorsese, The Film Foundation and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Unsurprisingly, I did not see any major discrepancies as far as the major characteristics that we address in our reviews are concerned. Typically, depth and clarity are very pleasing, while the grayscale supports a nice range of healthy primaries and nuances. There are a few areas where density can fluctuate a bit, but these fluctuations are a byproduct of limitations that are present on the master. (A new and more elaborate restoration done on better equipment, however, almost certainly would introduce some noticeable improvements. As it was the case with Sony's restoration of Gilda, at times it is easy to see that there is some room for improvement). There are no traces of compromising sharpening adjustments. In our review of the French release I mentioned that some encoding optimizations could have been made and on this release improvements are indeed easy to see (compare screencapture #12 and screencapture #11 from the review of the French release). Image stability is very good. Lastly, there are no distracting debris, damage marks, cuts, or warped/torn frames to report. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player or PS3 regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

The Big Heat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Clarity and depth are very good, though some very minor unevenness can be noticed in a couple of sequences. I assume that in these areas time has left its mark because there are no traces of the type of anomalies that occur during digital remastering. Also, occasionally some extremely light hiss makes its presence felt, but it never affects fluidity or balance. There are no audio drops or digital distortions to report in our review.

The Big Heat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

NOTE: All of the supplemental features on this Blu-ray release are perfectly playable on North American Blu-ray players, including the PS3.

• Tony Rayns on Fritz Lang and The Big Heat - in this exclusive new video piece, film critic Tony Rayns takes a closer look at the life and legacy of director Fritz Lang and discusses the production history and significance of The Big Heat. In English, not subtitled. (34 min).

• Interview with Michael Mann - in this video interview, director Michael Mann (Heat, Thief) discusses the expressionistic qualities of The Big Heat, the unique qualities of the female characters, the framing/lensing of different sequences, the cultural, social and economic climate in the United States at the time when the film was shot, some of the similarities between Dave Bannion's world and the city of Chicago (where Michael Mann grew up), etc. In English, not subtitled. (11 min).

• Martin Scorsese on The Big Heat - in this video interview, director Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) discusses the visual style of The Big Heat, Glenn Ford's character transformation, and the evolution of Fritz Lang's directing style (particularly during the '50s). In English, not subtitled. (6 min).

• Audio Commentary - featuring Lem Dobbs, Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman.

• Trailer - original trailer for Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Image Gallery - presented here is a collection of original promotional materials for The Big Heat.

• Isolated Score - LPCM 2.0 track.

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by critic Glenn Kenny and technical credits.

The Big Heat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I think it is fair to say that Fritz Lang's The Big Heat should have transitioned to Blu-ray in the United Kingdom a lot earlier, but folks there might be getting the best release of this classic film. Indicator/Powerhouse Films' new release is sourced from the same master that Sony Pictures prepared a few years ago and other boutique labels have already used, but it has the best selection of supplemental features. If you don't have The Big Heat in your collections yet, this is the release to own. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.