6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 2.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
A series of cross-jurisdictional murders forces a San Francisco police detective and his former Army commander to overcome their differences and work together. The biggest difference of all: the cop is dating the commander's daughter.
Starring: Sean Connery, Mark Harmon, Meg Ryan, Jack Warden, Mark BlumThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Presidio reunited director Peter Hyams and star Sean Connery after their successful pairing seven years earlier on Outland. Neither was the initial choice to make the original script by writer Larry Ferguson, who would shortly pen the effective adaptation of The Hunt for Red October. Lee Marvin was first cast as the spit-and-polish base commander, Col. Caldwell, but ill health forced him to drop out, and the project was put on hold. (Marvin died in 1987.) Tony Scott was attached as director but was eventually replaced by Hyams (whether by choice or involuntarily is unknown). Meanwhile, an array of possibilities came and went to play the brash police detective who formerly served under the colonel. When Marvin was cast, Jeff Bridges was his co-star. After Bridges dropped out, Don Johnson and then Kevin Costner were slotted as replacements. (Connery was reported to be sorely disappointed when Costner did not take the part, as he was eager to reunite with his Untouchables colleague, having just won an Oscar for the film.) Eventually the role went to Mark Harmon, foreshadowing his later role in television's NCIS as a former military policeman now working in civilian law enforcement. Meg Ryan played Caldwell's daughter, and her casting may be a vestige of Tony Scott's involvement, since he had just worked with Ryan in Top Gun . The Presidio was one of the last films Ryan made before When Harry Met Sally . . . initiated her typecasting as a rom-com poster girl. In The Presidio, she brings memorable flash to a role that would otherwise be functional and forgettable, and her performance is a reminder of what range Ryan could have shown, if her career had taken a different path.
Paramount's first DVD of The Presidio in 1999 recycled an undistinguished laserdisc transfer into an even less distinguished, non-anamorphic DVD. In 2009, the company released a second DVD that is listed as anamorphic, but I have not seen it. In any case, this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, released by Warner as part of its licensing arrangement with Paramount, sports a recent transfer of excellent quality. Director Hyams also served as cinematographer, but he had not yet embraced the stygian darkness that would characterize such later work as The Relic. Many of The Presidio's night scenes have a sheen and glow to them that give the film an old-fashioned Hollywood polish. Warner/Paramount's Blu-ray image has been taken from pristine source material and features excellent detail, superior blacks, proper contrast levels and a finely differentiated color palette that gets the right shade of green for the Army uniforms but also picks up all the different shades that decorate Chinatown, as Austin pursues a fleeing suspect through and across it, and captures the bright red of Donna's sport car. The film's grain texture is fine but visible if you're looking for it, and there is no evidence of artificial sharpening or other untoward digital manipulation. With no extras and limited soundtrack options, the 97-minute feature compresses onto a BD-25 with an average bitrate of 23.95 Mbps, which is enough to handle the various chase and fight sequences without motion artifacts or compression-related anomalies.
According to IMDb, The Presidio received a 70-mm release with a 6-track sound mix, although the standard mix was Dolby Stereo Surround. Whatever source was used to create it, a 5.1 mix has appeared on all home video versions since Paramount's 1999 DVD, and that mix is presented here as lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1. Like most surround tracks from this era, the mix is generally front-oriented with the rear speakers used to create a general sense of ambiance, the effect of which is most pronounced in major action sequences like the opening auto pursuit and the elaborate shootout that occurs near the film's end. The track's dynamic range is quite good, so that sounds like gunfire and explosions register with force (though no one would use them to show off their new speakers or subwoofer). The dialogue is clear—a few added lines of dialogue explain why Connery's American colonel speaks with the accent of Scotland—and the score by Bruce Broughton (Silverado) is distinctive and memorable.
Other than the theatrical trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 2:45), the disc has no extras. Neither of Paramount's previous DVDs from 1999 or 2009 had extras.
The Presidio is by far the lesser of the two films that Hyams and Connery made together. It's an apt demonstration of the limits that a weak script imposes on otherwise superior craftsmanship, because the film's acting, cinematography, editing, production design, etc. have been assembled with care and professionalism. They just don't add up to much. Still, I remain fond of the The Presidio, because it reminds me of how San Francisco looked at a certain time, and because I always enjoyed driving through the area occupied by the Presidio, which was beautiful even before it became a national park. As a blind buy, I would not recommend the film, but if you're already a fan, the Blu-ray will not disappoint.
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