6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
34-years after his death, Airman William H. Pitsenbarger, Jr. ("Pits") is awarded the nations highest military honor for his actions on the battlefield. One of the great untold stories of the Vietnam era.
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Christopher Plummer, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Samuel L. JacksonWar | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
More than three and a half thousand Medals of Honor have been awarded to various brave fighting men (and only one woman, rather incredibly) since the award was created during the Civil War Era. With that many recipients, it’s probably understandable that not every story of a Medal of Honor winner has been imprinted on the general public consciousness. The Last Full Measure attempts to remedy that situation, if only by “baby steps”, by presenting the ostensible story of one William Hart Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine), a United States Air Force Pararescueman who sacrificed his life in Vietnam in 1966 (at the tender age of 21), during a daring rescue mission where he was able to save scores of his comrades. Aside from the theater of battle, that might make The Last Full Measure sound like it’s at least a bit similar to Hacksaw Ridge, but this particular film tries to make hay out of the fact that the powers that be didn’t initially award Pitsenbarger a Medal of Honor for his heroism, choosing instead to “downgrade” him to an Air Force Cross, something that in turn led to a decades long quest by Pitsenbarger’s parents, along with some concerned military types, to try to rectify that situation.
The Last Full Measure is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists both Arri and RED cameras as having been used, but fails to specify at what resolution the DI was finished (I'm assuming 2K). This is a sharp and appealingly precise looking transfer when lighting conditions allow. A lot of the outdoor daytime material pops very well, as does even some of the interior sequences taking place in presumably fluorescent lit Pentagon offices. Some of the nighttime material, notably a major scene involving the Peter Fonda character, as well as some of the Vietnam flashback material (which also looks graded and slightly desaturate at times), can be just a bit murky on occasion. Aside from some of those intentional grading choices, the palette looks natural, sometimes gruesomely so in the case of some of the wounds shown in the Vietnam sequences. That said, this is a film without a ton of visual "pop", though some CGI was evidently utilized to provide effects in some of the Vietnam scenes.
The Last Full Measure's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track can be a kind of study in a ping ponging sound design. Much of the contemporary material achieves surround activity courtesy of ambient environmental sounds, which can often be on the subtle side. But when the film ventures back several decades to the firefight in Vietnam, all bets are off, sonically speaking, and the film pretty much explodes into a flurry of LFE and panning effects as various guns are fired and explosions set off. While the noisy environment of the battle scenes can be chaotic at times, for the most part dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.
I did some cursory Googling in attempting to research the Pitsenbarger story in preparation for writing this review, and I certainly was unable to come up with anything even close to the conspiracy element and/or elements this film alleges. Choices like that, while perhaps (perhaps) understandable for dramatic reasons, always strike me as needlessly manipulative. The Pitsenbarger story is obviously meaningful and moving enough on its own merits that any "fictionalization" seems almost churlish. This film will probably strike a lot of viewers as undeniably moving, but it may be emotion generated on the whims of a screenwriter, not the actual historical record. Technical merits are solid and the supplementary package quite interesting, for those considering a purchase.
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