Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Revengers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 13, 2014

Daniel Mann's "The Revengers" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Swiss label Explosive Media. The supplemental features on the disc include promotional materials and original trailers for other releases from the label's catalog. In English or German, with optional German subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

"I need five men..."

William Holden plays an aging horse trader named John Benedict whose entire family is massacred by Indians shortly after he agrees to let his son go to West Point. Devastated, Benedict vows to track down the killers and their leader, a white man with a cloudy eye named Tarp (Warren Vanders).

Soon after, Benedict ends up in a prison camp somewhere in Mexico, where he strikes a deal with a corrupt captain -- for a proper fee, the captain allows him to select five prisoners that would ride with him and help him find the killers. The prisoners have little in common. Hoop (Ernest Borgnine, Convoy) is an aging Yankee who loves to talk, Chamaco (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, The Professionals, The Magnificent Seven) is a dimwitted Mexican, Job (Woody Strode, Once Upon a Time in the West) is black and a former slave, Zweig (Reinhard Kolldehoff, The Damned) is a big and tough German, and Quiberon (Roger Hanin, Breathless) is a perpetually suspicious Frenchman.

After they leave the prison camp a few of Benedict’s men try to rob him, but later on return and promise to help him finish what he has started. Chamaco even warms up to Benedict and attempts to convince him that after they find and kill the Indians he could become his stepson. When Benedict angrily states that he could never replace his son, Chamaco shoots him in the heart.

But somehow Benedict survives. A lonely nurse (Susan Hayward, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, I Married a Witch) then takes the horse trader in her remote home and while his wounds heal the two fall madly in love. Eventually Benedict recovers and much to the nurse disappointment heads back west. While looking for the killers, Benedict is captured by the corrupt captain’s soldiers and sent to the prison camp. When the news reaches Hoop, Chamaco, Zweig, and Quiberon, they decide to free him and do what they were contracted to do.

Daniel Mann’s The Revengers does not break any new boundaries, but its stars manage to create and sustain an atmosphere that makes Benedict’s quest for revenge very quite enjoyable. After the horse trader hires the prisoners, the film essentially shifts gears and begins imitating the style and tone of the great spaghetti westerns from the early ‘70s. (Giulio Petroni’s Tepepa, which was completed a few years before The Revengers, immediately comes to mind).

There are a few surprising and somewhat unconvincing character transformations – Chamako, in particular, looks like a completely different man after he attempts to kill Benedict – but the fact that there are no painful moral lessons in the film makes them rather easy to tolerate. Hoop’s hilarious antics also make the film look genuinely fresh.

The Deadly Trackers / Man in the Wilderness) shot the film on location in Mexico. Unsurprisingly, the outdoor footage is often quite spectacular. There is a particularly good looking sequence at the end of the film in which Benedict, his men and a group of soldiers clash with Tarp’s bandits.

Heyward, the legendary actress who won an Oscar Award for her performance in Robert Wise’s I Want to Live!, has a small cameo in The Revengers. She looks beautiful but also very tired. This was her final film. A few years later, she died of cancer at the age of 57.

The Revengers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Daniel Mann's The Revengers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Swiss label Explosive Media.

The high-definition transfer has been struck from a pre-existing master, but the basics we typically scrutinize in our reviews are solid. Detail and clarity are very good. The daylight footage, in particular, looks great -- most close-ups boast pleasing depth while the larger panoramic shots convey wonderful fluidity (see screencaptures #1 and 3). Contrast levels remain stable throughout the entire film. Colors are also stable and always looking natural -- no attempts have been made to boost/enhance them with powerful digital tools. The best news, however, is that there are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening corrections. There are select areas where some minor grain fluctuations are noticeable, but from start to finish the film has a solid and quite pleasing organic look. There are no stability issues. (I noticed only one shaky transition early into the film). Lastly, there are no large cuts, debris, stains, or damage marks, but a couple of flecks pop up here and there. All in all, even though there is some room for minor improvements, the overall quality of the technical presentation is indeed very good. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

The Revengers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0 and German LPCM 2.0. For the record, explosive Media have provided optional German subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

Italian composer Pino Calvi's soundtrack has primarily a supporting role, but the music is always lush and well rounded. Depth and clarity are very good. During the shootouts there is also some decent dynamic movement, though you should not expect to be impressed. The dialog is clean, stable, and easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, problematic background hiss, or distortions to report in this review.

The Revengers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Bildergalerie - a collection of promotions materials (poster art, promo stills, production stills, and lobby cards). With music. (2 min, 1080p).

• Western von Explosive Media - a collection of trailers for different releases from Explosive Media's catalog.

The Revengers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Daniel Mann's The Revengers is a perfect film to see very late at night. It does not break any new boundaries, but it has a tremendous cast and the atmosphere throughout the film is excellent. The film is released on Blu-ray by Swiss label Explosive Media, whose catalog releases this year are some of my favorite. (I strongly recommend adding to your collections William A. Fraker's Monte Walsh and Michael Ritchie's Prime Cut). RECOMMENDED.