Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Tunes of Glory Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 12, 2020

Ronald Neame's "Tunes of Glory" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include a vintage trailer for the film and archival interviews with the director, John Mills, John Mills, and Alec Guinness. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by Robert Murphy and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

All of the glowing reviews that have been written about Ronald Neame’s film Tunes of Glory are entirely justified. Its two stars, Alex Guinness and John Mills, are magnificent together, and there are plenty of other actors around them playing secondary characters that are just as good. This film is a genuine classic that will never sink into oblivion.

Scotland, sometime after the end of WWII. At an isolated training base, Major Jock Sinclair (Guinness) is informed that his replacement, Lt. Col. Basil Barrow (Mills), has arrived earlier than expected. Sinclair immediately pauses the large party he has staged to mark what he considers to be the end of an era and then, slightly inebriated, proceeds to welcome Barrow. The impromptu encounter immediately makes the two men realize that they would have a difficult time coexisting.

On the following day, Sinclair officially passes the baton to Barrow and he gradually initiates a wide range of changes that reinstate many old rules and regulations. When Sinclair indirectly questions the need to run the base by the book, Barrow chooses a defense strategy that targets his legacy and eventually personality. While pretending that they are defending two completely different management styles the two men then proceed to publicly discredit each other, and the harder they try, the more they begin to lose control of their emotions.

The narrative is essentially a large collection of powerplays where the characters Guinness and Mills play use different pretexts to outmaneuver each other. Because they both have big egos, the clashes overflow with rather remarkable intensity.

But this film impresses in a number of different ways. Indeed, the drama is multi-layered and allows different segments to channel plenty of light humor that produces very attractive contrasts. Also, once the overlapping of the drama and humor is initiated the film provides the viewer with many legit reasons to doubt the sincerity of its leads. Interestingly enough, it is not long before it becomes crystal clear that they both operate with drastically different prejudices which distort their perception of reality, so choosing the morally superior winner becomes a very, very tricky business.

An emotionally reserved character played by Dennis Price is supposed to be the balancing piece that ought to help clear the confusion, but instead his passivity raises the question whether the ‘proper order’ that is needed in the base is actually fundamentally flawed. Indeed, given the nature of the drama Price’s character emerges as the most rational one, but he is also the only one that wastes a number of legit opportunities to prevent the tragic resolution of the dispute between his superiors. (It is incredibly easy to conclude that he is a cynic and a coward, but it is awfully difficult to argue that he isn’t behaving as he is required). So, in addition to terrific acting, the film offers plenty of food for thought as well.

The film’s visual style greatly enhances the drama. Cinematographer Arthur Ibbetson carefully positions the camera to capture as much of the constantly evolving emotions of the two leads and the people around them, which makes the sudden shifts in tone very effective. The mass party footage, in particular, is masterfully staged and lensed.

Oscar-winning composed Malcom Arnold’s soundtrack blends traditional Scottish folk tunes with classic harmonies that are perfect for the period atmosphere.

*Criterion’s Blu-ray release of Tunes of Glory is sourced from a new 4K restoration that was undertaken by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation in collaboration with Janus Films and the Museum of Modern Art.

Tunes of Glory Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tunes of Glory arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet that is provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new 4K restoration was undertaken by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation in collaboration with Janus Films and the Museum of Modern Art. Restoration funding was provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation. A new digital transfer was created on a DFT Scanty film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. The original monaural soundtrack was restored from an optical soundtrack print by John Polito at Audio Mechanics in Burbank, California.

Restoration supervision: Academy Film Archive.
Film scanning: FotoKem, Burbank, CA.
Colorist: David Cole/FotoKem."

A few transitions reveal very light unevenness that introduces small density and color fluctuations, but these are inherited limitations. Also, there are similar fluctuations in terms of depth, but they will most likely remain unnoticed by casual viewers. Grain exposure is very good, with a degree of stability that immediately makes it easy to tell that the film has undergone a proper makeover. I like the color grading job as well. There are a few areas where I think that a few nuances could have been managed slightly better, but the overall temperature of the color scheme I think is very convincing. There are no traces of problematic digital adjustments, such as sharpening or contrast boosting. Lastly, the entire film has been carefully cleaned up. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Tunes of Glory Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

There is a lot of music throughout the film that sounds great. In fact, in the upper register, where usually older films with prominent soundtracks show weaknesses, there are absolutely no traces of age-related anomalies. The dialog is equally clean, very clear, and easy to follow. There are no encoding anomalies to report either.

Tunes of Glory Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Tunes of Glory. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Ronald Neame - in this archival video interview, Ronald Neame recalls how he was offered to direct Tunes of Glory and what it was like to work with its stars. There are also some very interesting observations about the nature of the conflict that is documented in the film as well as Alec Guinness' transformation during the production process. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Los Angeles in 2003. In English, not subtitled. (24 min, 1080i).

• John Mills - in this archival audio interview, John Mills explains what convinced him to play the character of Lt. Col. Basil Barrow in Tunes of Glory and discusses the blending of drama and comedy the gives the film its identity. The interview was conducted by documentary filmmaker Nigel Algar in April 2002, on behalf of Criterion. In English, not subtitled. (15 min, 1080p).

• Alec Guinness - in this archival interview, Alec Guinness discusses the evolution of his acting career. The interview originally aired on the BBC program Film Extra in 1973. In English, not subtitled. (16 min, 1080i).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring Robert Murphy's essay "Ranks Divided" as well as technical credits.

Tunes of Glory Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tunes of Glory deserves all of the glowing reviews it has received over the years because it really is that brilliant of a film. Yes, it has magnificent stars doing some very special things before the camera, but its large supporting cast is just as impressive. Also, there are plenty of themes in its narrative that can very easily be analyzed through the prism of current socio-cultural events, which I find rather extraordinary. Criterion's release is sourced from a solid recent 4K restoration and features a very nice selection of archival bonus features. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.