6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
A drifter becomes entangled with a femme fatale and her husband after his car breaks down in their small Southwest town.
Starring: Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Voight, Nick NolteThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | 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 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
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'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.
- 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.
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.
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