Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Rounders Blu-ray Movie Review

Trying to Ride the Roan

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 23, 2017

The Rounders is an easygoing Western "buddy comedy" that cruises along amiably on the chemistry of stars Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford. Written and directed by Burt Kennedy (The Train Robbers), the film did better than expected for MGM, which released it in March 1965 as the bottom half of a double bill topped by a now-forgotten musical. A TV series adaptation appeared on ABC the following year, but it was short-lived. The film is the latest addition to the Warner Archive Collection's growing library of Westerns on Blu-ray.

Modern-day cowboys Ben Jones (Ford) and Howdy Lewis (Fonda) dream of retiring to paradise in Tahiti, but they never manage to save up enough money to realize their ambition. A potential payday beckons when rancher Jim Ed Love (Chill Wills) offers them a winter-long gig rounding up stray cattle in the Arizona mountains. When not roping cows or breaking horses, Ben and Howdy argue, daydream and occasionally flirt with various women who cross their path, including the two daughters (Kathleen Freeman and Joan Freeman) of a local moonshiner (Edgar Buchanan) and a pair of dim Las Vegas strippers (Sue Ane Langdon and Hope Holiday) whose car has broken down on the highway. An extended gag involves the cowboys taking the strippers on a skinny-dipping adventure in the state fish hatchery, from which they have to make a hurried departure when a game warden arrives unexpectedly.

The film has a third main character, and it's a roan horse that gets almost as much screen time as the two human stars and leaves an equally strong impression. A savvy, stubborn creature owned by Ed Love, the roan has resisted being tamed by any rider. Ben and Howdy are equally unsuccessful, and Ben in particular becomes obsessed with the horse's obstinacy, after Ed Love lets them keep the beast as kind of bonus. Skirmishes between the roan and his new owners continue throughout the film until its conclusion, which involves a scheme by Ben and Howdy to sponsor a rodeo event challenging riders to match their skills against the untameable mount, with the pair taking bets on their failure. Like all of the buddies' ventures, it doesn't work out as planned.

The Rounders has the loose, casual feel of a road movie, even though Ben and Howdy don't actually go anywhere. The setting may be contemporary—the "New" West, as the film's trailer emphasized—but writer/director Kennedy repeatedly invokes familiar tropes and imagery of the Old West, with scenes of horses crossing a river (led by a truck instead of a covered wagon), cowboys drinking around a campfire (except that it's an underground still), rustlers staging a sneak attack (except that they don't want the cattle), and even a classic barroom brawl (which Ben and Howdy start on purpose). These episodes are interspersed with memorable exchanges like Ben's recurrent fantasies of revenge against the roan and Howdy's explanation of how he got his name, which he changed from "Marion" because no one would take a cowboy with that name seriously. Howdy was probably inspired by another famous cowboy who was saddled with the same unfortunate monicker and changed it to something more rugged, replacing "Marion Robert Morrison" with "John Wayne".

The Rounders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Rounders was shot in anamorphic widescreen and Metrocolor by Paul Vogel, who had previously won an Oscar for the black-and-white images of Battleground. Despite being filmed in such scenic locations as Arizona's Coconino National Forest, The Rounders doesn't present its expansive landscapes with the grandeur of a John Ford Western. The colors are dialed down, and the framing is less majestic. As scenic as these environs may be, they are familiar territory to Ben and Howdy, for whom they long ago lost their novelty (which is why the two cowboys' fondest hope is to relocate somewhere completely different).

For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, a recently manufactured interpositive was scanned at 2K by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility, followed by necessary color-correction and cleanup. The resulting image is appealing but low-key, much like the film's two protagonists. Sharpness and detail are excellent in closeups and medium shots, but they fall off slightly in many long shots, which probably reflects limitations of the source. The palette contrasts rich (but not too rich) earth tones with a bright blue (but not too blue) sky. Blacks are solid, and the film's grain patterns are well-resolved and free of untoward digital manipulation. WAC has mastered The Rounders with an average bitrate of 31.99 Mbps, which is slightly lower than their usual average but allows the 84-minute to fit comfortably on a BD-25.

The Rounders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Rounders' mono soundtrack has been taken from the original magnetic master, cleaned of any age-related interference or distortion and encoded on Blu-ray as lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. It's a modest, serviceable audio mix for a film that, despite being a Western, is short on action. A few guns are fired, but their sonic impact is minimal. The emphasis is on dialogue, which is clearly rendered, and on the jaunty score by Jeff Alexander (Jailhouse Rock), which plays with good fidelity and acceptable dynamic range.

The Rounders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The sole extra is the film's trailer (1080p, 2.35:1; 2:43), which has been remastered in 1080p and plays up the film's setting in "the New West". WAC's 2009 DVD of The Rounders was similarly bare.

The Rounders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Rounders isn't a grand adventure in the style of Ford, Hawks or Sturges, but it makes for agreeable viewing, especially if you're a fan of its two leading men (and if you're not, what's wrong with you?). WAC's Blu-ray provides the first native 1080p rendition of this sleeper hit, and it's a solid presentation that is highly recommended.