Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Hunter Blu-ray Movie Review

...becomes the hunted.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater June 26, 2012

At the heart of The Hunter is a search for the thylacine, a.k.a. Tasmanian Tiger, the striped and dog-headed marsupial that presumably went extinct in the early twentieth century due to over-aggressive population control. The last known captive specimen died in a zoo in 1936, but ever since there have been nearly 4,000 unconfirmed sightings. In 1973, a couple even captured ten seconds of 8mm home movie footage showing an animal that looks quite like the thylacine loping across a road in South Australia. There’s at least a chance—however small—that the creatures are still around in dwindling numbers inside the island’s dense old growth forests. For Tasmanians, the Tassie Tiger has taken on Big Foot status—legendary and elusive, the stuff of local lore. But it’s also a potent symbol of the negative impact humans have had on the environment through deforestation and animal bounty hunting. If we found a living thylacine, would that make us feel any better about ourselves as a species? And is there possibly redemption in the ongoing—though increasingly futile—efforts to clone a Tasmanian Tiger? The questions remain in the background of The Hunter—which might be classified as an eco-thriller—while in the foreground the film focuses on the atonement of an individual man.

That man is Martin David (Willem Defoe), a mercenary hunter whom we meet in a Paris hotel as he waits for his latest client. We can tell two things about him immediately; one, he’s rather refined for a hired gun—he listens to opera as he bathes—and two, he’s a lone wolf, unattached and traveling light. In the lobby, he meets with a rep for Red Leaf, a “military biotech” firm that’s hiring him to go to middle-of-nowhere Tasmania, where his mission is to track down a recently sighted tiger, kill it, and bring back only hair and tissue samples, destroying the rest. The DNA is only important to Red Leaf if they have “exclusive ownership.” Already, we’re getting into some thorny ethical territory, thick with the promise of danger.

It only gets more tangled when Martin arrives in the Tasmanian outback, posing as a university biologist on a research trip. Suspicious local guide Jack Mindy—a sadly underutilized Sam Neill—has set him up with a rented room in the home of Lucy Armstrong (Frances O’Connor), a depressed widowed mother of two whose environmentalist husband, Jarrah, mysteriously went missing in the mountains the previous summer. Judging by the hostile reception Martin gets in the blue-collar logging town’s only pub, it’s quite possible that Jarrah’s death was no accident. There’s a cold war of sorts between the timber industry and the tree-hugging “greenies” who want to halt deforestation, and Martin’s cover story isn’t gaining him many friends. His accommodations aren’t exactly welcoming either; Lucy has self-medicated into a sleeping pill stupor, leaving the house in disarray and forcing her kids—outspoken Sass (Morgana Davies) and her mute brother Bike (Finn Woodlock)—to essentially fend for themselves.

Australian writer/director Daniel Nettheim’s film is at its best when Martin is tracking his evasive quarry, setting up survivalist-style traps, hiking alone through the woods, and getting a lay of the impossibly beautiful land. Shot on location in the wilds of Tasmania’s central plateau, The Hunter is certainly visually evocative—all moss and spitting snow, lush forests and outcrops of rock. There’s a Hemingway/Jack London-ish quality to these scenes of isolation in the wilderness, and it’s engaging enough just to watch Willem Defoe move stealthily through the environment, his face as craggy and stoic as the landscape. Basing his screenplay on a novel of the same name by Julia Hunter—who made her own filmmaking debut last year with the unnerving psychosexual drama Sleeping Beauty—Nettheim draws clear similarities between Martin and the ghostly tiger he’s hunting. Both are predators, and both are accustomed to being alone.

Of course, there’s more to the story than just a glorified nature walk. Martin begins to suspect that he’s not the only one searching for the tiger—he hears gunshots, and finds a motion-activated digital camera—and back in relative civilization, tensions with the loggers escalate. Some details about Jarrah’s own work in the forest are also revealed, causing Martin’s paranoia and self-doubt to increase. Nettheim generates a good deal of dread with his slow tracking shots through the forest, but there’s not much to the thriller aspects of the film, unfortunately. That said, and without spoiling anything, Martin’s inevitable encounter with the thylacine is haunting and emotionally loaded. “It’s probably better off extinct,” Lucy says at one point, hinting at the will-he-or-won’t-he-kill-it conundrum of Martin’s mission.

Though essential to Martin’s character arc, Lucy and her kids are the film’s weakest narrative link. The Hunter thankfully doesn’t jam in an unnecessary romance between Lucy and Martin, but certain aspects of their relationship move much too fast to be believable. For instance, how is it that Martin can get her off sleeping pills and into a comparatively chipper mood seemingly overnight? And although Martin’s transformation from a cold loner to an accidental father figure is well-handled, the film’s heart-swelling ending isn’t, with a sense of catharsis that just isn’t earned. Nonetheless, The Hunter is worth watching for the gorgeous scenery, the questions the film raises about the three E’s—extinction, ethics, and environmentalism—and the subtle power of Willem Defoe’s performance.

The Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cinematographer Robert Humphreys has given The Hunter a gorgeously moody look—shooting on a medium-grained Super 35mm—and the film's 2k digital intermediate transfers easily to Blu-ray, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation that's seemingly true to intent. The encode sits on a single-layer disc with no visible signs of compression, and the print looks wonderful, with a rich, natural grain structure unhindered by DNR or edge enhancement. Sharpness is no concern here; with the exception of a few softish shots—mostly due to shallow depth of field—the level of clarity is consistently impressive, cleanly rendering fine details like the craggy features of Willem Defoe's face, the textures of his clothing, and the hard lines of his rifle. Color is strongly reproduced too, with an emphasis on the lush forest greens and a palette of grayish neutrals. Contrast is somewhat softened, with black levels that skew closer to deep grayish, but I suspect this is probably an intentional aspect of the film's color grading. Regardless, the image looks fantastic—I really can't drum up any complaints.

The Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Hunter features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that more than does justice to the film's careful sound design. Since so much of the story is set outdoors in a harsh wilderness, it's important to get the ambience right—and this mix definitely does. The full multi-channel capabilities are utilized to put those with capable home theater systems right in the middle of Tasmania's central plateau. Wind moves through the rears; rain pours in torrential bucket-loads; insect hums and animal chirps seep into the soundscape from a distance. Even the quieter interiors—the hotel next to the airport, the logger's pub—include a good deal of environmental noise. The other key aspect of the mix is the music, from Martin's opera selections to the surging orchestral score by Matteo Zingales, Michael Lira, and Andrew Lancaster. It all sounds great, clear and resonant, with—at times—a surprising amount of subwoofer-wobbling bass output, underscoring the onscreen tension. Without exception, dialogue is cleanly recorded and easily understood, resting effortlessly at the top of the mix. For that might need or want them, the disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

The Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Director Daniel Nettheim and producer Vincent Sheehan sit down to describe, as they put it, "interesting and fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes." A listenable, informative track, if never exactly fascinating.
• Making of The Hunter (1080p, 32:50): A terrific four-part documentary covering the story, the characters, shooting in the backwoods of Tasmania, and the mythic status of the tiger.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 6:39): A handful of character-building deleted scenes, with optional commentary by the director.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:26)
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment (1080p, 2:26)

The Hunter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My one bit of advice: Don't expect The Hunter to be anything like last year's lupine thriller, The Grey. This is a more subdued story— with, forgive me, less bite—and those looking for amped up man versus nature action will most likely be disappointed. The film is entrancing in its own quiet way, though—even without a plot I could enjoyably watch Willem Defoe set traps in the woods for ninety minutes—and while it stumbles at the end with an emotional payoff that it doesn't quite earn, The Hunter does present some provocative questions about extinction and loneliness. As usual, Magnolia's Blu-ray presentation is excellent, with great picture quality and sound, and the disc includes some worthwhile special features too. Recommended.