Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

The Longest Ride Blu-ray Movie Review

No. Bull.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 16, 2015

The pull quote adorning the cover of The Longest Ride states with breathless alacrity, “The best Nicholas Sparks movie since The Notebook,” which may be somewhat analogous to someone saying that the Britannic was the most successful White Star Line ship since the Titanic. Critical hyperbole and/or damning with faint praise aside, The Longest Ride traffics in many of the tropes which by now will be old hat (and/or Stetson) to Sparks aficionados. Doomed love, semi-doomed love, unrequited love, slightly requited love, a tragic accident or several, and messages from long ago, all unfolding in a North Carolina that is picturesque if slightly overheated (in several ways) some of the time. Like many cinematic Sparks adaptations before it, The Longest Ride survived a fairly brutal critical drubbing at the time of its theatrical release (including by Blu-ray.com’s Brian Orndorf here) to do at least reasonable box office, proving that Sparks’ fan base doesn’t much care what critics say. The film also supposedly established Scott Eastwood as a leading man, in a film that features at least two other progeny of famous movie folks (co-stars Jack Huston and Oona Chaplin have surnames at least as redolent as Eastwood’s). For a certain demographic of the populace, one of the more interesting elements in The Longest Ride is its emphasis on Jewish culture, something the presumably goyische Sparks may have thought seemed “exotic,” but which I suspect will often come across as almost hilariously labored within the film, at least to Jews like myself who have a penchant toward eye rolling curmudgeonly behavior. (My hunch is screenwriter Craig Bolotin may be a member of the tribe, at least if my genetically enhanced Jew-dar recognition of surnames is operating correctly.)

Before that element is introduced, however, The Longest Ride sets up the two young characters who will provide one half of this typically Sparksian cross-generational saga. The young man is Luke Collins (Scott Eastwood), an ambitious rodeo bull rider who suffers a perhaps debilitating injury as the film gets underway. In recovery some time later, he meets pretty young art student Sophia Danko (Britt Robertson) and a faltering romance begins blossoming, despite the fact that the two insist they’re very different from each other (yeah, right— like, they’re both young, white, relatively well to do and extremely beautiful). On a rainy night (aren’t rainy nights supposed to be the purview of Georgia, not North Carolina?) they rescue an elderly man who has been involved in a serious car accident, along with rescuing a basket of letters the old guy screams is more important than his own life. The man’s name is Ira Levinson (Alan Alda), and, voila, the Jewish angle has arrived.

At this point The Longest Ride becomes somewhat strangely bifurcated in a couple of ways (which may indicate actual quadra- furcation, if I might be permitted to coin a word). Luke heads off to pursue his dreams of rodeo stardom, while Sophia stays behind to nurse Ira. But more saliently, Sophia begins to read Ira’s letters to him, at which point the film detours into the tale of Ira’s long ago love affair with a woman named Ruth (Oona Chaplin). Jack Huston, who it must be mentioned bears absolutely no resemblance to Alda, portrays Ira as a young man during these sequences.

The Ira-Ruth romance actually culminates in marriage, but Ruth, a Polish Jewish emigré who has escaped from the horrors of early World War II, wants a big family, and an unfortunate war injury to Ira makes that impossible, at least in the traditional way of creating children. Adoption would seem to be the next best option, but this is after all a Sparks tale, and so obstacles of course rear their ugly heads. The couple does at least mentor a down on his luck child, but even that attempt goes a bit haywire. Those who are counting on Sparks to deliver a “reveal” that somehow the long ago potential adoptee will magically be a portal of sorts into Luke and Sophia’s tale will perhaps be a bit surprised at the outcome of that particular element, but the real connection here turns out to be art (you'll recall Sophia has been studying this subject), as it’s revealed that Ruth has a rather inerrant eye for young talent on the rise and eventually amasses a truly stupendous collection of paintings by a coterie of soon to be famous (real life) names.

The narrative here is already about as wobbly as an unsure cowboy atop a buckin’ bronco (and/or a bull), and the typical Sparks approach of interweaving various timeframes and stories never really bears much fruit here. The Ira-Ruth story is actually quite touching in its own way, but its connection to Luke and Sophia is tenuous at best, tethered basically only by the fact that Sophia is there reading these old letters. (The artifice of the letters is especially odd in any case, since many if not most of them were obviously written when Ira and Ruth were not separated from each other. Perhaps this is analogous to the modern day situation of marrieds in separate rooms of a house posting on each other’s Facebook walls.) When the two tales are ostensibly woven together at the film’s climax, it’s in such a patently ridiculous way that any semblance of emotional verisimilitude is tossed to the veritable North Carolina winds.

The Longest Ride Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Longest Ride is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with the Arri Alexa, the presentation offers excellent sharpness and clarity most of the time, especially in close-ups, where fine detail reveals elements like individual drops of perspiration dotting Luke's face as he attempts to wrangle the bull named Rango. Some of the herky jerky POV shots showing what it's like to be atop a bull suffer from a bit of inherent shakiness and tend to often be a blur. While a couple of nighttime sequences offer sterling detail and precision (see screenshot 7), some of the dimly lit sequences, especially the black and white and/or sepia toned flashback sequences, lack the superb levels of detail that the contemporary sequences offer. Aside from the intentional color grading of the flashback sequences, the palette looks appealingly natural and is very vividly suffused. Contrast and black levels are both solid, and there are no issues with compression artifacts.

The Longest Ride Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Longest Ride's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix offers some excellent immersion in the bull riding scenes, where everything from the roar of the crowds to the thunk of the bull galloping around the arena are delivered with suitable force and good directionality. Quite a bit of the film plays out in tamer sonic environments, and in these sequences surround activity tends to be limited to ambient environmental effects and Mark Isham's evocative score. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range very wide for a "romantic drama."

The Longest Ride Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted and Extended Scenes (1080p; 19:13) feature optional commentary by George Tillman, Jr. and Oona Chaplin.


• A Writer's Journey: A Day in the Life of Nicholas Sparks (1080p; 4:44) is a pretty short day at less than five minutes.


• Beyond the Ride (1080p; 4:14) is a short EPK featuring interviews with the cast and crew.


• Bringing it to Life (1080p; 4:33) features an amiable chat between Sparks and Alda.


• Meet the Real Bull Riders (1080p; 6:08) is a fun featurette profiling some honest to goodness cowboy types.


• Luke's Bull Riding School (1080p; 4:59) documents Eastwood's training regimen.


• Audio Commentary by George Tillman, Jr. and Oona Chaplin is agreeable but fairly anecdotal, with the two talking about the location shoot and elements of the story.


• Gallery (1080p; 2:10) offers both an Auto Advance and Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:26)

The Longest Ride Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lovers of Nicholas Sparks will probably get exactly what they're expecting in this film, but that's part and parcel of what will probably be problematic for everyone else. The Longest Ride revisits so many (too many) Sparksian tropes that it fails to develop an identity of its own. Alda and Chaplin take the acting honors here (though Lolita Davidovich does quite well in an underwritten role as Luke's mom). The film is certainly scenic, but the story would have been more focused and effective had it centered solely on the more touching story of Ira and Ruth. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.