The Ottoman Lieutenant Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Ottoman Lieutenant Blu-ray Movie Review

The Ottoman Promise

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 1, 2017

Twin films, films that play to the same basic story lines and themes, often release in close proximity, but a little more rare is the case of twin films releasing under the same studio banner. The Ottoman Lieutenant released a month prior to The Promise, that film a flop at the box office and this one barely making a sound through its stay. Both release to Blu-ray under the Universal banner, each within two weeks of one another. Flop though it may have, The Promise delivered a somewhat stale and hackneyed but elegantly assembled and strongly performed story of forbidden love and jealousy in the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. The Ottoman Lieutenant delivers a stale and hackneyed but poorly performed and plodding story of forbidden love and jealousy in the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. If you're only going to watch one stale and hackneyed story of forbidden love and jealousy in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, make it The Promise.

Lillie Rowe (Hera Hilmar) dreams of making a difference in the world. She's a nurse by trade with a heart made of gold who has yet to find her true calling in Philadelphia's hospital system. When she's introduced to the opportunities to medically serve abroad in the Middle East, she packs her bags for the Ottoman Empire. A skilled American doctor, Jude Gresham (Josh Hartnett), aids her journey, which includes transporting an old family vehicle that's been stored away in a barn, to further help cause. The pair find themselves imperiled soon after arrival, losing the truck to bandits. Lillie's medical skills are called into question by the head physician at her new hospital, Dr. Garrett Woodruff (Sir Ben Kingsley), whose gruff demeanor stems from tragic personal loss. Lillie also meets a dashing young Ottoman Lieutenant named Ismail (Michiel Huisman). He and Lillie grow a forbidden bond of attraction and romance, he a Muslim, she a Christian, which catches a jealous Gresham off guard and promises heated confrontations when the men share the same space and vie for Lillie's attention and affection.

Criticisms over the film's failure to directly address Armenian genocide may be found all over the Internet, but the film is much more deeply flawed than its gauzy historical credentials. The film plays out at a plodding pace and deals in manufactured crises and character arcs to spin its yarn of forbidden love on one hand and unrequited love on the other. Its core story, which deals in removing otherwise artificial barriers in the name of true love and attraction, fails to differentiate itself either in terms of plot development or character presentation. The triangle that forms between Lillie, Ismail, and Jude is as basic as they come, developed and explored only through the prisms of rigid genre structure with a tired background of wartime drama, exacerbated here, and mildly intriguingly so, as a clash between killer and healer, essentially, or a man who spills blood and the man tasked with cleaning it up, as Jude puts it during one of the mens' confrontations. Lillie's place in the hospital seems to add little to her perspective. She's swept off her feet by Ismail's allure and intrigue and good looks but the romance stalls and plays out as if by genre rote rather than flowing with any creativity behind it.

The film does capture a convincingly detailed and intricate depiction of its era. Costumes, sets, and environments ooze authenticity. Action scenes are rather well done, whether a robbery near film's start or a small-scale military clash later in the film. But the film's superficialities cannot save it. Beyond the stale story and tired plot mechanics is a particularly dismal lead performance from Hera Hilmar, whose portrayal of the idealistic Lillie is stiff and passionless, lines delivered as if by rote rather than by the heart. Would-be intensive moments, such as when her character angrily and pointedly confronts Ismail on a train as the relationship is in its early stages and in which she attempts to show her assertiveness, play almost comically. The performance never improves for the duration. She's fortunate to be surrounded by three quality actors in Hartnett, Kingsley, and Huisman who carry the film but often seem dragged down closer to Hilmar's level if for no other reason than the film's script, one in dire need of help to exorcise its reliance on genre cliché and empty narrative advances.

The Ottoman Lieutenant Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Ottoman Lieutenant's 1080p transfer comes sourced from the film's digital photography. The image is impressively filmic, offering a firm, well defined picture that leaves behind the familiar digital sheen. Object texturing is terrific, particularly the film's many rough stone, worn wood, and earthy terrain elements that abound throughout. Facial features are impressively complex, revealing pores and hair with fine-point clarity. Clothing of several varieties, including sharp military dress, showcases impressive complexity in close-up. Colors are rather neutral, influenced by the many bright locations but never pushing unusually hot. Balance and saturation are fine. Black levels are deep and skin tones accurate. Noise is minimal and other source or encode anomalies are very few and very far between. If nothing else, the movie is a pleasure to watch on Blu-ray.

The Ottoman Lieutenant Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Ottoman Lieutenant's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack occasionally struggles to find its legs. While detail and definition are fine, raw volume leaves a bit to be desired, particularly early on when dialogue plays shallow at reference volume and effects follow suit. Things improve a bit as the film moves along, but never is the track particularly well pronounced at reference. Even would-be immersive and aggressive elements like pelting rain, a packed street, or a rumbling train deliver a base sound element but the track cannot do much with any of it, holding back rather than letting loose and fully immersing the listener in the place or the moment. Music is well spaced along the front. Surround usage is mostly complimentary and light. Clarity is pleasant, though again it's lacking that last little push. Action scenes and gunfire aren't notably aggressive, but element detail and spacing, again mostly along the front, are fine. Dialogue, beyond the shallowness, presents fine from its natural front-center position.

The Ottoman Lieutenant Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Ottoman Lieutenant contains no supplemental content. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase.

The Ottoman Lieutenant Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Promise may suffer from some of the same core deficiencies as The Ottoman Lieutenant, but the former at least has its act together, knows its characters and story, and benefits from stable filmmaking, scriptwriting, and acting. The Ottoman Lieutenant, however, suffers through a number of plot contrivances, wooden acting, and poor pacing. A few quality moments and excellent production design ease the burden, but the end result is still the same: a dull film that cannot match, never mind surpass, the competition. Universal's featureless Blu-ray does deliver fantastic video. Audio could use a slight boost, but it's generally fine. Skip it.