6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A washed up, alcoholic actress who is prone to blackouts wakes up next to a murdered man. Did she kill him and, if not, is she in danger?
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Jane Fonda, Raul Juliá, Diane Salinger, Kathleen WilhoiteThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
As Jane Fonda was preparing for her role in The Morning After (1986), she considered the fact that she had not played a drunk before. She wanted to show audiences that she could stretch her acting range. As Fonda related to a press corps in New York while promoting the film, she immersed herself in the research for the part, consulting doctors and even attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She wanted to feel like it was to be inebriated so she literally became drunk before the picture started shooting. Screenwriter James Cresson, who used the pen name James Hicks when he wrote the script for The Morning After, apparently wrote the movie's main role with Fonda in mind. Joan Bunke, the longtime film critic for The Des Moines (IA) Register, probably made an uncredited reference to the press kit's production notes when she stated that Hicks (i.e., Cresson) told Fonda that he modeled her character of Alexandra Sternbergen after Gail Russell, a short-lived actress who succumbed to alcoholism after appearing in several films for Paramount in the 1940s.
Alex Sternbergen (Jane Fonda) has awoken on a bed in an unfamiliar setting. She's startled when she turns and finds a man laying next to her who's drenched in blood. She's even more shocked when she sees a kitchen knife lodged in his chest. A hungover Alex roams around the loft where she was staying in Los Angeles. She can't recall events of the previous evening. She pours herself a drink and tries to wash the blood off her hands. Not knowing what to do next, she telephones her estranged husband Joaquin "Jacky" Manero (Raul Julia), a Bel Air hairdresser she's still cordial with. He picks up Alex's call on his car phone and advises her to call the police. Although Alex considers herself a good person, she ponders whether she suffered a blackout and could have stabbed the man before she passed out. She knows that all evidence would link her to the homicide so she heads to her Hollywood home, packs her bags, and drives to Los Angeles International Airport. Alex wants to book a flight to San Francisco but because it's the Thanksgiving holiday, all flights are book. After an ill-fated attempt to coax the airport supervisor to get her on a red eye (as well as a flight to Vegas), she gets in a minor accident while trying to exit the airport. As she's pursued, she finds a man fixing a beat-up 1956 Chevrolet convertible. He's just seen his daughter off and gladly lets Alex hitch a ride. It turns out that this Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges) is an ex-cop who retired early with a disability pension. He now works as an appliance repairman. Alex desperately could use him to repair her problems. (He's a recovered alcoholic himself.) While Turner is warm and good-natured, he's also something of a racist and bigot, which Alex is not. Alex and Turner each could use the other and that's also where the romantic sparks fly.
Shout! Factory's recent release of The Morning After arrives on an MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (feature size: 28.3 GB). The boutique label advertises this transfer as deriving from a "new 2023 2K scan of the interpositive." The film appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of 1.85:1. This is practically a flawless restoration with a pleasing grain structure. The grain becomes coarse early in the picture when Alex sidles across the photographer's studio (see Screenshot #20). You can see a thick layer of it in the medium close-up of Alex (#19). Grain is also heavily prevalent in extreme long shots of exteriors (frame grabs 21-22). The swimming pool creates a nice reflection off the characters (see screen capture #s 5 and 12-13) Cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak shot in pastels throughout Los Angeles. The colors are well-saturated on buildings in the city's warehouse district. Print reviews at the time of the film's theatrical run confirm its color schemes as represented on this Blu-ray. For example, George Williams of The Sacramento Bee wrote: "This film seems to exaggerate the blue skies, the green lawns and unusual colors of today's L.A., the royal blues, salmon pinks, terracottas, turquoises and reds." The walls of Jacky's salon have a peachy pink to them. Carole Kass of the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch also observed: "Some houses were painted pink, others blue. A warehouse was sprayed rust and ocher." The Philadelphia Inquirer's Desmond Ryan lauded Lumet for created a different look for LA: "Dozens of films are made in LA every year, but the city has never looked like this. Lumet has caught the blinding blue skies, the garish colors of buildings and interiors, and creates shots of lonely figures caught against and and anonymous cityscapes. He evokes a haunting sense of loneliness and aimlessness." Shout! has encoded the feature at an average bitrate of 34.00 Mbps, with an overall bit rate of 39.50 Mbps.
Shout! has created twelve chapter breaks for the 103-minute film.
Shout! has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1639 kbps, 24-bit) as the sole sound track. This is a very good master with no audible hiss. All sounds are relegated to the front speakers. It helps to have the sound a little above normal listening levels to comprehend all spoken words (including noises from the TV at the very beginning). When having the volume turned up a bit, I also could clearly and distinctly hear the bass and synths from Paul Chihara's score.
Optional English SDH are available for the feature.
Shout! has ported over a commentary track with Sidney Lumet which the director recorded for the 2005 Warner DVD. The studio reissued the disc in 2016 under the Warner Archive Collection banner. Shout! has also recorded two new interviews.
The Morning After works best as a character study of the Fonda and Bridges characters. It's considerably less effective as a melodrama and whodunit. The narrative would have benefited from earlier introductions to some of the secondary characters and the addition of more characters to the plot. Shout! Factory delivers an outstanding transfer from a recent 2K restoration. Grain is most visible in daylight interiors (especially when there are whites) and sunny exteriors. There are fluctuations to the amount of grain, but when plainly visible, the grain structure is stable. Shout! has retained the fine feature-length audio commentary with Lumet. The two recent interviews are relatively brief but still informative. DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED to fans of Fonda, Bridges, and Lumet!
Arrow Academy
1946
Limited Edition
1980
Warner Archive Collection
1946
1942
Warner Archive Collection
1950
Warner Archive Collection
1936
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1946
Fox Studio Classics
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2005
1946
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Warner Archive Collection
1982