The Immortal Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.5

The Immortal Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 9, 2022

Marco D'Amore's "The Immortal" (2019) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the disc is a gallery of promotional trailers. In Italian or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

They say The Immortal can't be killed. Do you believe it?

The evolution of Marco D’Amore’s career has been quite remarkable. The first time I encountered D’Amore was more than a decade ago in Claudio Cupellini’s thriller A Quiet Life where he was excellent but not in the same way he is in Gomorrah. In A Quiet Life D’Amore is required to be remain the orbit of Toni Servillo, a terrific veteran actor, who is the catalyst of its drama. I remember liking D’Amore, but I picked up A Quiet Life for my library because of Servillo’s excellent performance. In Gomorrah D’Amore is like Servillo, unleashing and controlling the drama with impressive confidence and style, and effectively shaping up the show’s identity with his unique presence before the camera. D’Amore also directed a few episodes for Season Four of Gomorrah and they revealed that he could be just as good on the opposite end of the camera.

But I assumed that the directing work would remain a one-off event because D’Amore had spent too much time with Gomorrah and as the catalyst that is described above was able to get it done right. I genuinely did not expect to hear that he would even consider directing a feature film.

I just finished viewing The Immortal, a spin-off from Gomorrah and D’Amore’s feature film directorial debut, and I have to admit that it exceeded all of my expectations. By a lot, too. Until very recently, even after I had seen D’Amore’s directorial work, I had assumed that it would turn out to be a nice looking but small film, one that would have an awfully difficult time matching the depth of the characterizations witnessed in Gomorrah. Why? Because of the complex structure of the storytelling in each season and the multi-layered nature of the drama that makes the entire show so special. I could not see a feature film that removes D’Amore’s character, Ciro di Marzio, from his native habitat might work as well as Gomorrah. And I definitely did not think that there was a good way to fill the void that would emerge with the removal of Salvatore Esposito’s character, Genny.

However, less than fifteen minutes into The Immortal I had already forgotten about my concerns and was completely immersed in Ciro’s world again. And another fifteen or so minutes later, after Ciro’s past and present had started overlapping, I could have sworn that I was viewing the work of a director with years of experience and a long resume of critically acclaimed hits. I was very impressed. My mind then repeatedly attempted to draw comparisons between the The Immortal and Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet.

If you have seen some of the official promotional materials for The Immortal you already know that D’Amore digs deep into Ciro’s past, but you don’t know that the past is only a fragment of a very rich story that connects exceptionally well with Gomorrah. Also, after all the drama in the Latvian capital, The Immortal flawlessly merges into the final season of Gomorrah.

The pacing and especially the mood of The Immortal are incredibly well managed. Ciro arrives in Riga as a broker for Don Aniello Pastore (Nello Mascia), who has an active business relationship with the Russian mafia, but gets caught in a turf war with local gangsters. He also reconnects with his childhood mentor, Bruno (Salvatore D’Onofrio), who runs a small crew of counterfeiters but barely makes ends meet. As the turf war intensifies, Ciro begins reexamining the choices he has made over the years and heavy price he has paid while pursuing his dream of being a top boss in Secondigliano.

D'Amore shot The Immortal with Guido Michelloti, who worked on Gomorrah and was also the camera operator on Stefano Sollima’s equally impressive crime thriller Suburra.

The soundtrack features original tunes by Mokadelic, the ambient rockers that scored Gomorrah, but only some of the contemporary footage incorporates electronic themes and variations of “Doomed to Live”.

The Immortal Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Immortal arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The Immortal looked absolutely incredible on my system. Delineation, clarity, sharpness, and depth were at 'reference levels' and as a result I felt like my system was displaying native 4K content. The outdoor footage in particular looked sensational, both in the present, which features footage shot almost exclusively on location in the Latvian capital, Riga, as well as in the past, where young Ciro is seen with his mentor, Bruno, in various period Italian settings. Fluidity was outstanding, too. Colors were rich, solid, and incredibly well balanced. Again, my system left me with the impression that it was displaying native 4K content because the quality of the visuals was incredible. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review. Great technical presentation. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Immortal Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are four standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I viewed the entire film with the Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. I thought that it was great. During the action footage its dynamic intensity was superb, but the film has a lot of intimate material where the wonderful music of Mokadelic produces some excellent nuances. To be honest, I thought that this intimate material showcased the strength of the lossless track a lot better. The English translation is excellent.

The Immortal Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers - original trailers for:
  
  1. Gomorrah: Season Two
  2. Gomorrah: Season Three
  3. Gomorrah: Season Four
  4. Gomorrah: The Fifth and Final Season
  5. The Immortal

The Immortal Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The ambience, pacing, and characterizations of Marco D'Amore's The Immortal are so good that in a way they don't actually seem right for a directorial debut. I was surprised, but approximately fifteen or so minutes after I had started viewing it, I was convinced that it was a natural extension of Gomorrah. In fact, The Immortal transitions so incredibly well into Season Five that it should be considered mandatory viewing for fans of the hit series. Kudos to the folks at Kino Lorber for producing this release, which is also amongst the best looking ones that I have seen from them. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.