They Came to Cordura Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

They Came to Cordura Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 3, 2020

Note: 'They Came to Cordura' is currently only available in a two-disc, two-film double feature from Mill Creek with 'The Man from the Alamo.'

On the night of Match 8, 1916, Poncho Villa’s men crossed over into New Mexico and attacked American civilians and soldiers. Resultantly, the United States sent an expedition into Mexico to capture Villa and disperse his forces. Within that group is Colonel Rogers (Robert Keith), an aging officer who hopes to be promoted to general before retirement. An accommodation would certainly do the trick, and Major Thomas Thorn (Gary Cooper) is assigned the task of selecting men to be recognized for heroism. Unfortunately, the task does not prove easy and ultimately reveals the truth about several men in the outfit.

They Came to Cordura Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

They Came to Cordura's 1080p transfer has its good points and its bad points. The picture is rough, but not ragged. It shows a number of stray speckles and splotches and vertical lines, betraying its age and the obvious fact that it has not undergone any kind of thorough clean-up. However, it is also pleasantly filmic, maintaining a good basic grain structure that shows the picture's natural filmic roots. There's no evidence of unwarranted scrubbing. Details hold impressively sharp and accurate, showcasing both skin and terrain textures with abundant intricacy. Likewise, the military uniforms are crisp and show good fabric texture and support element definition. Colors are largely brown and beige -- earthy -- in nature, and there's not a lot of variance from that. Some civilian clothes offer a reprieve, but between the brown army uniforms and the brown terrain, there's simply not much tonal output of note. Colors are adequately saturated as they are. Also, black levels and skin tones appear rather good.

They Came to Cordura Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

They Came to Cordura features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. It's rather pedestrian but effective in delivering the baseline content. Action scenes offer quasi-identifiable din: gunfire, battle cries, horses neighing and stampeding through the stage, and the like. The first big shoot-out heard around the 18-minute mark is a good example of the noisy, essentially detailed but hardly lifelike presentation. Music joins the fray in the 19-minute mark and struggles to find perfect clarity but does present with commendable front end spacing. A few adequately placed and effectively detailed environmental effects help carry some quieter scenes. Dialogue is clear enough and focuses to the front-center stage area. There are some lip sync problems throughout. It's very noticeable during a dialogue scene at the 19-minute mark.

They Came to Cordura Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of They Came to Cordura contains no supplemental content.

They Came to Cordura Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

They Came to Cordura is a rather slow film but does hold some dramatic value for its depictions of courage, cowardice, and that which exists in between. Mill Creek's featureless Blu-ray delivers passable but flawed video and audio. It at least looks and sound a bit better than its double feature mate, The Man from the Alamo.