Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

The Don Is Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 18, 2022

Richard Fleischer's "The Don is Dead" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailers for the film; exclusive new program with critic Kim Newman; and exclusive new audio commentary recorded by critics Edward Heuck and Glenn Erickson. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

I cannot agree that The Don is Dead was produced to compete with The Godfather. Compete for what exactly? The honor of being crowned the greatest mafia film ever made? A quick look at the cast that was assembled for The Don is Dead immediately invalidates such a theory. There are some very solid actors there -- Anthony Queen, Frederic Forrest, Al Lettieri, Robert Forster, Abe Vigoda, and Louis Zorich -- but you are not looking at a team of top stars that could have made The Don is Dead a grand classic. This is simply an indisputable fact. The kind of epic film some folks have speculated The Don is Dead was conceived to be requires very serious polish work and right from the get-go you can tell that Richard Fleischer was going for the exact opposite quality. Indeed, it is not a coincidence that The Don is Dead has a very casual, street-smart personality. Pay attention to the seemingly endless executions that are part of its narrative and you will realize that the lack of glamour is entirely intentional. Why? Because the goal is to portray the killing almost as a nuisance in a very messy business, which means that the emotions that build up the great drama in The Godfather are utterly incompatible with it. This is what Fleischer emphasizes ad nauseum in The Don is Dead -- being a mobster is a lousy occupation and the risk of getting a bullet in your head is always the same, regardless of whether you are at the very top and calling all the shots, or at the very bottom doing the dirty work for the people above you.

The original material for The Don is Dead comes from Marvin H. Albert’s novel, who also worked on the screenplay, but the film delivers Fleischer’s interpretation of it. The aging Don Angelo (Quinn) is tricked by the younger and very ambitious mobster Luigi Orlando (Charles Cioffi) to begin a romantic relationship with the young and very beautiful aspiring singer Ruby Dune (Angel Tompkins). What Don Angelo does not know is that Ruby is already in a romantic relationship with Frank Regalbuto (Forster), who happens to be the son of his late best friend. Frank also has huge ambitions and is already working with a prominent mafia boss in Naples whose people supply massive amounts of drugs that are distributed in America. When Frank discovers that Don Angelo has been seeing his girl, he goes berserk and a deadly gang war becomes inevitable, which of course is precisely what Orlando has been hoping for. So, there isn’t a shortage of intrigues in The Don is Dead, but once the mayhem begins everything actually becomes very pragmatic -- the betrayals, the dirty tricks, the executions, they are all done with a clear understanding that the business comes first.

If there is still any doubt that Fleischer wasn’t interested in glamorizing the mafiosi, as it appears some folks expected he would after the success of The Godfather, examine closely the transformation of Forrest’s character. Initially, he is a low-level executioner who seems eager to find the right excuse to walk away from the business. His brother (Lettieri) urges him to stay with him because they would become independent and eventually have enough to retire in style, and he reluctantly agrees. Then in the midst of the gang war he abruptly concludes that there are opportunities for him to claim a piece of the business and begins dealing with the same people that forced him on the warpath. All is suddenly forgotten and proper arrangements made in the most unglamorous way imaginable. This guy turns out to be an even more cynical pragmatist than the people he previously planned to walk away from, which of course makes him even more repulsive.

There are winners and losers in The Don is Dead but they are all seriously unlikable characters. This is entirely by design. From time to time a few of them get opportunities to appear strong and impress the clueless around them, but everything about these characters and their existence is off-putting. Needless to say, when the final credits roll The Don is Dead accomplishes exactly the opposite of what The Godfather does -- it portrays mobsters as a big tribe of backstabbing losers.

The Don Is Dead 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, The Don is Dead arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment.

If you have already seen our review of Kino Lorber's release of The Don is Dead, you know that I am not a fan of the old master Universal supplied for it, which is the exact same master this release was sourced from. To be clear, this master does not make it impossible to enjoy the film, but its visuals do not have the stable organic appearance that we expect to see. For example, there are traces of light denoising work that sporadically produces obvious anomalies. Sometimes they affect delineation and depth (see screencapture #4), and sometimes they impact fluidity and produce light smearing. Traces of surface sharpening can be seen as well. As a result, plenty of daylight and especially darker footage can appear quite artificial (see screencaptures #9, 12, 15, and 16). Color balance is good, though some meaningful improvements can be introduced. Image stability is very good. There are no large distracting debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report in our review. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The Don Is Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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

Clarity and sharpness are good. However, the minor distortions during the melee scene that I mentioned in our review of the Kino Lorber release are present here as well. I think that the majority of viewers will miss them because their presence becomes obvious only if the volume is turned up quite a bit, but I have to mention them. The rest is fine.

The Don Is Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailers - two vintage trailers for The Don is Dead. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, critics Marc Edward Heuck and Glenn Erickson (CineSavant) provide a terrific deconstruction of The Don is Dead, and discuss the exact period in which the film was conceived, the interesting fact that it is the only Hal Wallis film to be rated R, its 'rivalry' with The Godfather, etc.

• Kim Newman on The Don is Dead - in this exclusive new program, critic Kim Newman discusses Richard Fleischer's diverse body of work, the gang wars during the '60s and '70s and the evolution of gangster film, and the conception and style of The Don is Dead. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

The Don Is Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The damage great films like The Godfather and Scarface have done on mainstream perceptions about mobsters in America is truly incalculable. They legitimized lifestyles and values that were essentially incompatible with the real world of organized crime, where loyalty and honor for instance meant very little and life was as cheap as a pack of cigarettes. (In case you have any doubts that it is so, spend a night with Whitey: United States of America V. James J. Bulger). Richard Fleischer's The Don is Dead comes much closer to the truth, which is precisely the reason why it lacks the glamour of The Godfather and Scarface. What its unlikable characters do is essentially a lot of pragmatic backstabbing and killing that weed out the weaker and naive amongst them. The survivors then keep rearranging their interests until the next wave of disputes and bloody troubles disrupt the business, exactly as it used to happen in the real world. Via Vision Entertainment's release is sourced from the same older master Universal supplied to Kino Lorber in the U.S. and Eureka Entertainment in the UK, which I don't think is particularly convincing. If you want it in your collection, find a way to rent and test it first, and then consider a purchase.