6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
After a traumatic near-death experience, Mark, a war photographer, returns home from Kurdistan without his friend and colleague David. As time goes on, it becomes clear that Mark holds the key to the truth of David’s disappearance.
Starring: Colin Farrell, Paz Vega, Christopher Lee, Kelly Reilly, Jamie SivesDrama | 100% |
War | 61% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
“There is no pattern to who lives or dies in war. . .In war people die because they do. There is nothing more to it than that.”
Triage is a horrifying procedure, one which probably wasn’t known to many people outside of the medical and battle communities until it got a bit of tangential PR when the Vietnam War started making the nightly news airwaves, and then, a bit later, when such series as M*A*S*H dealt with it, however cursorily. Separating the treatable from the hopeless is an emotionally devastating process and one that puts the separator into the unenviable position of playing God. Who’s to say who might survive, despite the seriousness of their wounds? (In a somewhat comic sidebar, I once had triage applied unsuccessfully to me. I had broken my ankle and my wife dropped me off at the nearest emergency room, which, as it turned out, was the regional distribution center for Methadone. I sat idly by for hours in my wheelchair as a string of heroin addicts simply walked up and got their medication—they were deemed a higher priority than I was. I asked for an aspirin to help with the pain. “No,” said the curt ER admitting nurse, “not until a doctor has seen you.” “When will a doctor be able to see me?” I queried, by now about three hours into my painful ordeal. “It could be quite some time,” she brusquely responded, at which point I decided I’d try greener pastures at another ER. I called my wife, asked her to come pick me up, and informed the ER nurse I was leaving. As I hobbled out of the ER, she screamed after me, “OK, but I’m noting on your file that you’ve eloped triage!!” Eloped triage. The horror.) Triage the film takes an of course much grimmer look at this aspect of what might only charitably be called medical care, at least in the context of this film, which posits Colin Farrell as a late-80’s photojournalist caught up in the nightmare world of Kurdistan under attack from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The hapless patients there could probably only pray they were able to elope triage. While the film depicts the brutal insanity of a Kurdish field doctor without medicine or even really any basic tools of his trade, and the resultant horrors of the decisions he must make, the actual focus of the film is on Farrell’s character Mark Walsh, who is mysteriously wounded and returns to England in the throes of both a physical and mental breakdown.
Colin Farrell stars as physically and emotionally wounded photojournalist Mark Walsh.
Triage arrives on Blu-ray with a very good AVC encoded 1080p image in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This is a gritty, dusty and somewhat blanched looking film, by design. That said, the image quality here is for the most part very sharp and detailed, with only some minor digital noise in some desert scenes (and one very brief moment of aliasing on a wall radiator, of all things) as the sole artifacts to contend with. Colors, though often drab and tilted toward the yellow-brown side of things (at least in the dusty desert segments), are accurate and depth of field in the location footage is quite astounding at times. Contrast and black levels are very good throughout, and once the film returns to an urban setting, there's excellent detail even in the often drably lit scenes.
There are at least two moments in Triage when the astoundingly robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is going to astound, if not outright shock, the listener. I don't want to spoil either of these moments for you, but suffice it to say, if you're anything like me, you're going to jump more than a little bit with an acute startle reflex and your adrenalin will begin pumping rather dramatically. These are two perfect sonic moments which bring the horror of battle literally inside the viewer, as the sound waves penetrate seemingly to the soul. Otherwise, Triage offers a good, often subtly immersive, experience, with dialogue crisp and clear, despite the Irish accents of Farrell and Sives, and the Spanish ones (faux or otherwise) of Vega and Lee. (Despite the one user review of this title uploaded at the time I'm reviewing this, there are indeed English subtitles on this release, though the user is correct that none of the Kurdish dialogue is translated, even in the subtitles). The best moments of this mix are in the Kurdish sequences, when the arid ambience of the desert is caught avidly in such subtle sounds as dust blowing through the soundfield. But even the intimate dialogue sequences are delivered with good fidelity here. Just watch out for those two moments of sonic shock and awe.
Several above average (SD) supplements are included on Triage:
As a psychological portrait of wounded soul, Triage may fall a bit short in the logic department. As a blistering indictment of the emotional havoc war can wreak on individuals, it's a powerful and compelling film, well directed and superbly performed. Triage is certainly not an easy film to sit through, but it delivers an emotional wallop that makes it easily highly recommended.
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