6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A sleek, possessed black car terrorizes everyone it comes in contact with in a small town in Utah.
Starring: James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley, R.G. Armstrong, John RubinsteinHorror | 100% |
Mystery | 3% |
Thriller | 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 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In a new interview included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, director Elliot Silverstein comes off as an extremely nice older gentleman who obviously realizes that The Car is not exactly a lost cinematic masterpiece. He makes some rather cogent points about Universal’s almost obsessive attempts to make “Jaws on land,” including his assertions that one reason Jaws worked so well is that the titular “villain” was operating in its own environment, a dark and secluded place where humans had interloped (wittingly or unwittingly). Silverstein mentions that he had qualms about trying to create suspense out of a car marauding through the wide open vistas of the American Southwest, averring that “God lives in the desert, while the Devil lives in darkness.” That reference to a certain satanic element at play in The Car (and in the car, too, in a manner of speaking) is never really detailed with any expository specificity in the film, though those who recognize the name of Anton LaVey (who provides the film with an epigram of sorts at its beginning) or who recognize composer Leonard Rosenman’s portentous recasting of the venerable Dies Irae as “theme music” may at least have a head start of sorts in recognizing the supposed motivation of the vehicle's murderous tendencies, subliminal though it may be. The Car is resolutely silly stuff, and in fact attracted downright scorn from critics of the day, but looking back at it now from the perspective of several decades of other Jaws wannabes, the film comes off as surprisingly stylish and better than it probably has any right to be.
The Car is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1.
Judging solely by comparing screenshots, this appears to be largely the same if not absolutely identical to the British Blu-ray released by Arrow which was reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov. Once
you get past some slightly problematic credits, the image is quite commendably clear and well detailed, with a decently accurate looking palette
and some very good to excellent fine detail in close-ups. Depth of field in the many wide open vistas Silverstein and DP Gerald Hirschfeld offer is
quite substantial at times. Fine grain is natural looking though there are some very minor compression issues in some darker moments.
Note: I've attempted to replicate several of the screencaptures accompanying the British review (linked above) so that those curious can
open full size windows and toggle between views for a comparison.
The Car features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks, and both offer substantial depth and excellent fidelity. The 5.1 ups the sonic ante by featuring a more fulsome low end, including good rumbly bass when the car's engines roars or when Rosenman's score exploits lower brass instruments (which is frequently). There are also some good moments of immersion, typically in attack scenes where sound effects pan through the soundfield quite convincingly. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly and without any problems whatsoever.
Based on Svet's review, it looks like the British Arrow release has more in the supplements department than this Scream release (something that's at least a little surprising, given Shout!'s emphasis on providing ample bonus content for its horror releases put out under the Scream imprint), and so those with region free players may want to check out that version. Otherwise, though, video quality looks largely identical, and this release offers a lossless surround track which the British release does not. The Car is unabashedly silly, but it's fun in an unapologetically low brow way. Recommended.
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