Villa Rides Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Villa Rides Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 4, 2016

Buzz Kulik's "Villa Rides" (1968) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. There are no supplemental features on the disc. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Hey, Gringo!

Buzz Kulik’s Villa Rides aims to be two things at once: a big western that mimics the raw glitz of the classic Italian spaghetti westerns and an authentic period drama with a few meaningful things to say about a polarizing historical figure. Opinions will vary, but it is probably easier to argue that it is more effective as the former than as the latter.

The American arms trader Lee Arnold (Robert Mitchum) lands in rural Mexico to finalize a deal that will make him very rich but accidentally damages his plane. He seeks help in a small village whose residents are frequently targeted by the Colorados because of their support for Pancho Villa (Yul Brynner). While in the village, the gringo falls madly in love with a beautiful young woman (Maria Grazia Buccella) whose father is hanged by the Colorados together with a group of other mostly clueless peasants. When later on Pancho Villa’s men drive away the Colorados, the gringo is arrested for selling arms to their opponents but offered a fair chance to redeem himself. If he helps Pancho Villa’s men take over a crucial stronghold his life will be spared and he will be allowed to fly back to the United States. If he refuses, he will get a big shiny bullet in his head.

Kulik obviously had a decent budget to work with because many of the mass scenes where the revolutionaries clash with their opponents look quite impressive. There are also some fantastic aerial shots which suggest that specific locations were carefully chosen to add to the film as much of that big epic vibe that truly big-budget period films from the same period are known for.

The balance between comedy and drama, however, is rather awkward. To be perfectly clear, there are very abrupt shifts between sequences where people are unceremoniously executed for silly reasons and sequences where it literally feels like some of the heroes and their opponents are trying very hard to impress as comedians. There are also some fairly lengthy discussions about the big picture in Mexico whose purpose is actually to convince the viewer that there is process underway that is transforming the country and all these people that step in front of the camera have an important role in it even though some, like Lee Arnold, do not fully realize it. So there is a pretty obvious disconnect between different segments of the film, as well as some difficult to rationalize character transformations that very clearly have an impact on its authenticity.

There is a rather decent fix for these inconsistencies. In order to minimize their significance the viewer simply needs to temporarily forget that Pancho Villa is a historical figure and that the film is recreating some true events. The end result is still far from perfect, but now the graphic violence, the wacky humor, and the flashy cinematography begin to make some sense. Now, in a way it almost feels as if the whole thing was scripted for Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill, though they pulled out at the last minute and Kulik, screenwriters Sam Peckinpah and Robert Towne, and producer Ted Richmond did whatever they could to save the project with all the other stars that had already committed to it.

Villa Rides Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Buzz Kulik's Villa Rides arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

A lot of the close-ups and mid-range shots look quite good. Sharpness and clarity are not optimal, but for the most part detail is rather pleasing (see screencaptures #3 and 5). During the larger panoramic shots, however, it is easy to see that depth isn't optimal. Ideally, the visuals should have a much better balanced appearance, with clarity and sharpness substantially helping the type of depth that should be present there. I think that the major limitations are inherited, but at some point when the master was prepared grain also appears to have been toned down a bit. The good news here is that while the age of the master certainly shows there are no distracting digital anomalies, and as it is usually the case this does make a difference when one views the film on a larger screen. In fact, I projected the disc and while the film could look a tad soft at times it still has an overall quite pleasing appearance. The most noticeable drops in density are during the big battle footage, but the rest of the film looks just fine in high-definition. A few tiny flecks pop up here and there but never become distracting. Image stability is good. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Villa Rides Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Clarity is quite good. During the big battles dynamic activity is also in the common range one would expect for a period western from the era. Some minor fluctuations are present in the mid/high register that a full remastering job will almost certainly address, but they never become distracting. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report.

Villa Rides Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray release.

Villa Rides Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Buzz Kulik's film Villa Rides has a mighty impressive cast -- Robert Mitchum, Charles Bronson, Yul Brynner, Herbert Lom, Fernando Rey -- but as odd as it may sound it almost feels as if it was a project meant for a different group of stars that pulled out of it at the last minute. There is something missing in this film. It is fairly entertaining and there are some pretty spectacular battle scenes, but it definitely isn't the authentic period drama that its creators apparently wanted it to be. The film can look better in high-definition, but the current presentation is fine. RECOMMENDED.