7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A father travels from the US to France to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling "El Camino de Santiago" from France to Santiago de Compostela (Spain).
Starring: Martin Sheen, Yorick van Wageningen, Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt, Emilio EstevezDrama | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | 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 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The Way is Emilio Estevez' fifth theatrical film as a director, and it's his most personal to date. This isn't the first time Estevez has cast himself and his famous parent, Martin Sheen, as father and son—they previously appeared as such in 1996's The War at Home—but it's the first time Estevez created a role specifically for his father. Then he stepped out of the way and let Sheen carry the film. Meanwhile, Estevez orchestrated a small, mostly Spanish crew (many of whom cut their teeth working with Pedro Almodóvar) to capture memorable, often surprisingly intimate work from Sheen and an international supporting cast. Estevez himself appears only briefly in The Way, primarily in remembrance, because his character's death is the catalyst for the story. The Way depicts a journey along El Camino de Santiago, also known as the "Way of St. James", which stretches from the south of France through the Pyrenees Mountains in northern Spain to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where the remains of the Apostle James are supposedly buried. Depending on where one begins, the journey can extend 500 miles. A few years before filming The Way, Sheen made the trip by car with his grandson, Taylor (Estevez' son). Their experience prompted Estevez to begin developing a story about the Camino de Santiago, using various sources, including author Jack Hitt's book Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route. (Hitt receives story credit on the film.) The result was The Way, which, except for a few establishing shots at the beginning and a brief conclusion, was made entirely in Spain. (Even the scenes set in California were filmed in Spanish locations, thereby reversing the usual moviemaking "cheat" where SoCal doubles for everything else.)
The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from ARC Entertainment will disappoint many viewers. Despite the fact that the film was shot in locations with breathtaking scenery, the disc offers little in the way of eye candy. However, this is not the result of technical flaws in the Blu-ray, which was sourced from a digital intermediate, a process that effectively eliminates the possibility of transfer problems, since the same digital files are used to create both release prints and the Blu-ray. The look of the film and Blu-ray results from a decision by director Estevez and producer David Alexanian to forgo hi-def video (which would have produced spectacular travelogue footage) and shoot the movie on 16mm film, specifically Super16. They wanted this look for The Way, because, as Estevez says in the commentary:
I also love how we kind of throw away these landscapes. . . . I mean, it's positively extraordinary and gorgeous. And yet it's not about that. It's about what's going on emotionally with the characters.In addition to shooting in Super16, the crew traveled with almost no lighting rigs, using available light—which was often no more than candles or bonfires—for most shots. The result is a soft image that's distinct but often lacking in fine detail and shows a considerable degree of obvious film grain. Shadow detail is frequently weak, with the image fading into indistinctness as it moves away from sources of light within the frame. (Estevez specifically points this out in the commentary.) Blacks are rarely deep or inky, but generally tend toward dark shades of gray. Colors are muted and natural, and there has been no attempt to re-tint or alter the palette at the DI stage. Indeed, digital manipulations of any kind appear to have been minimal, leaving us with what the filmmakers shot in their chosen format. It may not be to everyone's taste, and I can already hear protests of "botched transfer!" or "no better than DVD!" being tapped out on keyboards. But a Blu-ray can't be blamed for accurately reproducing its source, and this one appears to have done just that. My only criticism is a touch of video noise here and there, which was probably caused by overcompression due to the use of a BD-25. I have read claims that any two-hour film can be compressed into 25Gb, but with an unusually grainy film, the risks accompanying such compression increase dramatically. Here, I think that line may have been crossed.
The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track effectively places natural sounds of the Camino de Santiago around and behind the listener, especially the ever-present wind and occasional wildlife. Otherwise, it's a relatively restrained track with clearly intelligible dialogue in the front, accompanied by the basic sounds of the pilgrims and their activities. The excellent score is by Tyler Bates (Watchmen), with an unexpected assortment of songs by James Taylor, Coldplay and Alanis Morissette, among others.
Because of the Catholic history of the Camino de Santiago, and because Martin Sheen has spoken of his own personal return to Catholicism, some viewers have seen a Catholic agenda in The Way, but that requires projecting one's own views onto the film. Tom Avery, Sheen's character, is a lapsed Catholic by his own admission, and he overtly violates church doctrine by scattering his son's remains along the Camino. The more obvious and repeating theme in the film is the complex bond between parents and children. Captain Henri and a gypsy named Ishmael (Antonio Gil) are just two of the people who speak movingly to Tom on this topic during his travels. In a film written and directed by a son for his father (and dedicated to his grandfather), the connection should be obvious. Highly recommended.
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