6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Released from prison in 1976, Gary Gilmore attempts to go straight but ends up embarking on a robbery spree that culminates in two cold-blooded murders. Arrested and sentenced to be executed, Gilmore spends his final days as a poster boy for anti-death penalty activists. Adapted by Norman Mailer from his own book. Originally aired in two parts on Nov. 28 and 29, 1982.
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Christine Lahti, Rosanna Arquette, Eli Wallach, Steven KeatsBiography | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Tommy Lee Jones has a history of playing intense characters. It’s his bread and butter, often going out of his way to play men of limited emotion and short tempers. His gravitational pull to 1982’s “The Executioner’s Song” isn’t surprising, taking on the considerable challenge of portraying murder Gary Gilmore and his bizarre behavioral habits. It’s an easy lay-up role that Jones doesn’t take lightly, able to find the nuance and burgeoning volatility in the part, consistently making himself the most interesting aspect of this adaptation of a Norman Mailer novel. Without Jones, “The Executioner’s Song” wouldn’t have much dramatic vigor, often caught leaning on the star to juice up dry scenes.
The AVC encoded image (1.34:1 aspect ratio) presentation offers a standard HD viewing experience for "The Executioner's Song," brought to Blu-ray with what appears to be a relatively recent scan. Detail is satisfactory, offering a textured look at facial particulars and Utah locations, which deliver decoration to survey and rural distances. Colors are acceptable, handling greenery well, while colder prison and courtroom interiors register as intended. Costuming brings slightly more varied hues. Skintones are natural. Delineation isn't problematic. Source is in good condition, but a few surges of scratches and speckling are detected.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix is somewhat erratic, as an interview with Rosanna Arquette (detailed below) shares the actress's frustration with subpar sound work, forcing her to loop a large chunk of her performance. Indeed, sound quality is inconsistent, but not drastically so, with a few stretches in the movie coming through muddier, with some mild crackling. It's not a major distraction, but it's noticeable. Otherwise, performances come through adequately, finding emotional emphasis and procedural flatness. Scoring isn't memorable, but dramatic swells offer passable instrumentation. Sound effects retain snap, including louder gunfire.
Of the two versions, the Original Version is the more novelistic and melodramatic, moving slowly through dysfunction before it encounters violence, delivering a wider sense of Gary's influences and learned behaviors. The Director's Cut is more of a movie, with R-rated dialogue and sex inserted into the effort to hardened it, offering a more realistic depiction of Gary's reprehensible actions, but it's not always cohesive work, cleaving away major elements of the subject's life to bring down the run time by nearly an hour. Still, it's nice to have both versions of "The Executioner's Song" to sample, getting a better understanding of what was intended for television and theatrical audiences. The film is far from perfect, struggling to find its position as a crime story and a legal war, and while the narrative winds through some superfluous scenes, there's always Jones in the middle of the frame, working hard to communicate Gary Gilmore's prolonged path to assisted suicide.
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