Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Executioner's Song Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf January 6, 2018

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.

Released after a 12-year-long stint in prison for armed robbery, Gary Gilmore (Tommy Lee Jones) is ready for freedom but doesn’t know how to adjust to the outside world after being away for so long. His cousin Brenda (an excellent Christine Lahti) offers a helping hand, while his Uncle Vern (Eli Wallach) provides initial employment, but Gary can’t control himself, soon spiraling out of control after a brief period of self-improvement. Getting caught up in love with 18-year-old Nicole (Rosanna Arquette) complicates his living situation, and as he burns through responsibilities, violence returns to his life, turning to murder to feed his rage, resulting in a death sentence he’s determined to keep, rattling legal systems and extended family with his focus on maintaining his execution date.

“The Executioner’s Song” isn’t a bio-pic, instead catching up with Gary on the day of his release from prison, reuniting with Brenda, who’s determined to maintain faith in the felon, believing that with the right opportunities, he can forge a peaceful existence in Utah. The family dynamic in there, especially with Vern, who also strives to give his problematic nephew the benefit of the doubt, but notices the 35-year-old man struggling with control issues, hurting his ability to keep a job and live what passes for a normal life. Gary is all reaction, no introspection, unleashed on a society he doesn’t understand, openly howling at pretty women and treating responsibility as an afterthought, gradually returning to the base sensibilities that initially sent him away, experiencing a prolonged meltdown brought on by monetary and relationship issues.

Jones makes a meal out of the role, delivering a sensationally concentrated turn as Gary, highlighting the man’s unspoken hope to make a better life for himself, while his instincts return him to self-destructive ways -- a willingness to destroy his life that’s explored in detail when he returns to prison, demanding his death as he fights a system designed to protect it. Co-stars are capable, but they have trouble keeping up, especially Arquette, who locates the violated naiveté of Nicole but her dramatic range is limited, finding the feature most sluggish when examining the union between the killer and his young lover, trying to sell some type of spiritual connection between broken people. “The Executioner’s Song” elevates when showcasing Gary’s inability to find his footing in everyday society, slowly sabotaging himself with reckless behavior before he returns to crime, almost out of comfort.

“The Executioner’s Song” is presented in two versions: a Director’s Cut (135:43) and an Original Version (188:30, presented in two parts). Please note that on the set I received, the disc labels were incorrectly swapped, creating some initial confusion. Also, no information is provided to explain why two cuts of the movie were prepared.

The Executioner's Song Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Executioner's Song Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

The Executioner's Song Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview (6:51, HD) with Rosanna Arquette briefly discusses her role in "The Executioner's Song," including her initial audition, where she beat out Diane Lane for the part. Arquette discusses the shoot in Utah and her experiences with Tommy Lee Jones, who remained in-character for maximum intensity. The actress addresses some of the sound issues, and digs into Nicole's psychology, exploring her research and brief friendship with the young woman she played.

The Executioner's Song Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.