Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

U Turn Blu-ray Movie Review

Bobby and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 10, 2015

Style over substance has been one of those epigrams that has been used repeatedly to try to describe flashy filmmakers who perhaps don’t have a lot to say, but who say it winningly anyway. Oliver Stone has never really been accused of being an empty hat, so to speak, and in fact has been accused of perhaps donning a tin foil headpiece at times, and so that epigram might be slightly modified in his case to provide a more accurate descriptor of at least some of his films. Instead of the preposition separating the two nouns, Stone’s work might be better seen as style vs. substance. The “substance” of many of Stone’s films is often deliberately controversial (e.g., JFK), but it’s inarguably there. Some may argue that Stone’s lesser remembered 1997 opus U Turn is light on the substance angle and overstuffed on the style side of things, but there’s still a rather piquant dialectic between the two that reveals a masterful filmmaker attempting to deal in genre tropes while at the same time investing them with a supposedly innovative ambience. In his at times hilarious commentary included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, Stone is not shy about confessing how “tired” he was at the time of U Turn, and how he ached in a way for an “easy shoot,” something that U Turn most definitely did not provide. Stone is also not shy about trumpeting what he sees as his achievements in the film, and as with that “substance” element alluded to above, it’s hard to argue with some of the director’s points that he in fact created a quasi-hallucinatory dreamscape that creeps into a surprisingly wide array of cinematic niches, including film noir, thriller and (if you peek beneath some of the florid surface) even slaptstick comedy.

A seemingly intoxicated guy drives a bright red convertible through the wide open expanses of the American Southwest and then puts any doubts as to his sobriety aside by popping a bunch of drugs as his car veers wildly through a tumbleweed strewn highway. Wait a minute—is this U Turn or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ? In a way, that’s something of a trick question, for U Turn is arguably Oliver Stone’s most “Gilliam-esque” film, one rife with odd framings, bizarre drug fueled “POV” shots, and a carnival like atmosphere where characters seem to be just this “real life” side of some arcane Chuck Jones cartoon.

The guy driving the car is small time grifter Bobby (Sean Penn), and while it’s not immediately clear why he’s driving down the largely abandoned highway, it’s clear he’s a man on a mission. A broken radiator hose on his Mustang takes him on a precarious detour to a hole in the wall known as Superior, Arizona, a place where Bobby has somewhat tortured interchanges first with a mechanic named Darrell (an almost unrecognizable Billy Bob Thornton) and, later, a crusty Native American (a completely unrecognizable Jon Voight) before noticing a gorgeous woman in a peach red dress walking down the street. That turns out to be Grace McKenna (Jennifer Lopez), a femme fatale if ever there were one (albeit a brunette), and one who comes complete with the requisite rickety marriage, to a blustery guy named Jake (Nick Nolte).

Bobby’s “colorful” past is revealed when Grace invites him back to her place to freshen up, and while taking a shower the reason for his heavily bandaged hand is offered courtesy of a montage of sometimes disturbing imagery. Bobby owes a lot of money to the sort of people you don’t want to be owing money to, and he’s two fingers shy of where he started out as a result. That doesn’t stop him from putting the moves on Grace, something she initially demurs, a demurral which is not forceful enough to keep Jake from bursting in just as Grace and Bobby are kissing.

U Turn has already put Bobby through his paces with the car issue, and now with Jake’s fist happy “solution” to finding his wife with another man, but that’s just the beginning of the indignities that John Ridley’s screenplay throws at the hapless character. If anything can go wrong it most certainly does in Bobby’s world as he attempts to navigate the roiling waters of Superior and the bizarre marriage of Jake and Grace, where each spouse approaches Bobby separately to ask him to murder the other one. Even the increasingly convoluted labyrinth that Bobby enters due to this state of affairs doesn't keep other calamities from befalling him, as if karma decided to just reach out and bitch slap him relentlessly for whatever reason.

Interestingly, Ridley adapted his own novel, originally titled Stray Dogs, but in his commentary Stone mentions that none other than Akira Kurosawa prevented that title from being used since it was similar to his 1949 film Stray Dog. (I frankly don’t understand the logic, for it’s always been my understanding that titles can’t be copyrighted, and furthermore this particular outing dealt in plurals, not singulars, but I digress.) Some cineastes may instead think less of Kurosawa and more of John Dahl and the 1993 Red Rock West, for it, too, posits a lone drifter wandering into an isolated western burg, only to become ensconced in competing murder attempts by two spouses. While the subject matter is somewhat similar, the presentation styles couldn’t be more different. Stone plays with film stock like a kid with a new toy, as well as evincing fairly florid performances from everyone, grafting an undeniably cartoonish ambience onto a gritty, quasi-noir foundation. U Turn may in fact be something of a detour for the legendary director, but those with a certain ken for off the beaten track viewing experiences may find the supremely odd denizens of Superior, Arizona worth spending a couple of hours with.

U Turn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

U Turn is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As Stone discusses in his commentary, roughly 2/3 to 3/4 of the film was shot on reversal stock, something that gives U Turn a totally unique appearance. The palette is splayed in unexpected directions throughout the film, with sepias, browns and beiges looming paramount over still robust blues, reds and oranges. (For just one example of how the palette is unusually altered, Stone refers to the dress Grace is wearing as "red," where it actually shows up more as a peachy orange color. Maybe this can be a new internet meme.) Grain is much more prevalent than usual with this shooting technique, offering an almost palpable roughness to much of the imagery. This intentional choice by Stone and cinematographer Robert Richardson may keep traditional "sharpness" at bay, but it offers an unusually textural, satisfyingly deep, appearance that is incredibly distinctive looking throughout this transfer. It's hard to describe colors as "accurate" in this context, but they're certainly nicely saturated and widely variant. Close-ups reveal abundant amounts of fine detail and some of the exterior footage boasts impressive depth of field. There are some minor age related issues with the elements, but nothing that should offer much if any of a distraction. There are no problems with image instability and no signs of over aggressive digital tweaking of the image harvest.

U Turn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

U Turn's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix offers consistent if sometimes rather subtle surround activity, especially with regard to ambient environmental effects, with Stone sometimes playing with aural positioning the same way he flaunts odd framings with his camera. Ennio Morricone's somewhat anachronistic score resides rather nicely throughout the surrounds, and dialogue is presented very cleanly and clearly. Fidelity is excellent and there are no problems of any kind to cause concern.

U Turn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentaries:

  Oliver Stone offers an at times rambunctious, at times slightly rambling, commentary where he invents new genres like "film soleil" and offers his side of things with regard to skirmishes he encountered with the likes of Ennio Morricone. For those particularly attuned to Stone's sometimes odd world view, this commentary is probably worth the price of admission alone.

  Mike Medavoy, a production executive Stone actually praises rather lavishly in his commentary, is on hand here with Twilight Time's Nick Redman in a somewhat broader discussion of the film industry in general.

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0.


• Oliver Stone Introduces U Turn (1080p; 2:47)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 2:34)

U Turn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Oliver Stone is often intentionally provocative, but he sound like he was perhaps a little surprised by how controversial U Turn turned out to be with some critics. It certainly is an odd film, one filled with bizarre characters and a pitch black sense of humor that at times collides a bit uneasily with the smarmier citizens of Superior. Performances are a bit on the hyperbolic side as well, meaning this is probably even more of an acquired taste than some of Stone's other pieces. I have personally loved U Turn while at the same time understanding how almost deliberately off putting it has seemed to a lot of viewers. It's not a perfect film by any stretch, nor is it Stone's best, but it is so peculiar and off the wall that those with a certain off kilter sensibility should find more than enough to warrant a watch. Technical merits are first rate, and Stone's commentary is a hoot. Recommended.