Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

The Boys in Company C Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 31, 2024

The Boys in Company C feels like a practice run for Full Metal Jacket, albeit a practice run from an entirely different filmmaker. Director Sidney J. Furie's 1978 film tells the story of the lives of a handful of young men on their way to Vietnam, spending the first half of the film following their transformation from civilians to soldiers at boot camp, followed by their experiences "in country" and fighting a war halfway around the world. Director Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film tells the story of the lives of a handful of young men on their way to Vietnam, spending the first half of the film following their transformation from civilians to soldiers at boot camp, followed by their experiences "in country" and fighting a war halfway around the world. Indeed, the plots are identical. It's not uncommon for films to share plots -- in fact one could argue that there are not many original plots out there anyway -- but one cannot ignore the similarities to cadence, look, structure, setting, and purpose. Whether Kubrick "ripped off" The Boys in Company C is a debate for another space, but this film does hold serve on its own. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray release is rather unimpressive, with Hen's Tooth delivering shoddy picture and sound qualities and a poor showing of extras, all paling in comparison to the clearly superior Australian Imprint release.

At this stage of the game, decades after both The Boys in Company C and Full Metal Jacket have released, it's difficult (though certainly not impossible) to speak about this film without referencing the other, though certainly there's enough here in a vacuum to make a discussion worthwhile. But the clear-cut difference between the two, playing that comparison game, is the technical superiority of Kubrick's work, the greater cinematic and artistic appeal that is apparent in every shot, where this is more of a gritty sort of film. That is not to say that this film is absent any level of technical polish, but it is not the artistic genius that is Kubrick's masterpiece. The acting is lesser here, too, but there are a couple of things to consider. First, there are just better actors in Full Metal Jacket and working off of a more polished script. Second, both casts exude plenty of heart and character immersion, but one could almost say that the sense of character soul is slightly more evident here given the more raw sense of filmmaking at work. Even after the men lose what amounts to their external identity in the opening haircut scene, the actors bring enough internal characterization that begins to manifest externally both in their growth as fighting men and as soldiers in the field that there's a very palpable sense of identity at work and legitimate human manifestations in play. Certainly, the level of character depth does not reach the more philosophical and existential components of Platoon, but there's plenty here to admire here in terms of character building and character expression to make this film, at least on that level, equal to, if not slightly ahead of, Kubrick's otherwise monumentally superior presentation of what is essentially the same story.

For a full film review, please see Dr. Svet Atanasov's writing accompanying the previously released Imprint Blu-ray by clicking here. Note that the film score above reflects my own for the film.

The Boys in Company C Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hen's Tooth releases The Boys in Company C to Blu-ray with a "D" grade picture quality. The picture is hardly ideal and clearly not sourced from any kind of remaster, restoration, or even an image with just a little touch-up performed on it here and there. The picture is fairly weak and middling, with some flickering and some spots and speckles (heaviest during the opening titles, but remaining persistently bothersome for the duration) causing the most damage throughout. The picture looks flat and faded, too, with detail that hardly captures the would-be splendor of film that its resolution should allow and which audiences are accustomed to seeing even at 1080p. Granted, this is not a classic film, and granted it comes from a smaller studio, and granted the source lacks the pristine polish of a higher budget effort, but there is clearly room for improvement, and even a slight bump to "decent" would have done wonders for the picture. With bland and inconsistent detail at every turn, and not much sense of a natural or tangible grain structure, there's just not much here to commend. On the color side of the ledger, things are not much better. There's a decent sense of fullness to core colors, like natural greens, military fatigues, and the like, but forget the sort of robust hues and rich expressions the best Blu-ray releases bring. Again, some level of expectation is key, but it seems like there is room for at least a mild gain in color depth and accuracy to be had. Black levels struggle to hold true black, whites are creamy, and skin tones look, at best, passable. Sadly, "passable" would be a modest upgrade for this Blu-ray which can teeter there on occasion, but at least it never falls to "abysmal."

The Boys in Company C Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hen's Tooth releases The Boys in Company C to Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtrack. As with the video, there are not really any high points of which to speak. The presentation is satisfactory at the basest level, as in it "gets the job done" to convey dialogue and basic sound effects, but listeners will have to set expectations to "low" and be prepared to be content with the bare minimum. At best, the track is intelligible and adequately clear, allowing dialogue to present with able detail and a decent sense of front-center imaging. It is also decently prioritized. Not much more can be said of it. Music is a little wider, but it never stretches the listening area beyond a basic sense of space. There's no real sense of stage dominating width; the track is content to huddle closer to the middle ground between center and speaker location. Again, basic clarity, allowing the music to scrape by with just enough definition, represents just about the zenith of its capabilities. Action elements, like gunfire, present no real sense of depth or volume, but the core sound effects enjoy basic clarity and recognizeability. Ambience if very basic and very minor with no real sense of place at work.

The Boys in Company C Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unlike the Australian Imprint release, which was packed to the gills with supplements, Hen's Tooth's Blu-ray release of The Boys in Company C is much more sparsely populated, containing only a single commentary track (the Imprint release was home to two tracks), a trailer, and a few lobby card images. Fans who will buy, or who have bought, this issue would be wise to add the Imprint release as well.

• Audio Commentary: Actor Andrew Stevens discusses the film. For a few additional thoughts on the track, see Dr. Atanasov's writing on the original Imprint release by clicking here.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:41).
• Lobby Card Gallery (480i, 4x3, 0:42): A series of auto-advancing stills. There is no accompanying audio.

The Boys in Company C Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kubrick's film is the masterpiece and Furie's is the forgotten template. Yet even absent Kubrick's masterful technical presentation, The Boys in Company C holds up as a quality outing that proves to be an effective storyteller, offering better-than-solid performances and often compelling narrative flows that keep it solidly in the mid-tier of the sprawling Vietnam War arena, and genre fans might even rank it higher apart from the existence of Kubrick's later take on the same story. Hen's Tooth's Blu-ray is rather poor in quality, sad to say, with substandard video and audio leading the charge. the disc lacks almost all of the extras from the much fuller Australian imprint release. Wait and hope for a superior edition down the line.