Wild Bill Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Wild Bill Blu-ray Movie Review

The wild, wild east.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 25, 2013

It’s a little disconcerting when it’s harder to understand those ostensibly speaking “your” native language than a foreigner speaking their language. True story: my family recently returned from a vacation to England and France, and before we trundled across the pond, we were most concerned about being understood in France, despite the fact that I used to speak the language quite fluently (used to being the operative term and cause of at least some of our concern). However, the times we found ourselves most discombobulated by people speaking to us were in England, believe it or not, when people with intensely thick Cockney accents spoke to us and we had absolutely no clue what they were saying. Now, I’m not just talking an incomprehensible word here or there, mind you; every last thing these people said to us sounded like absolute gibberish, combinations of weird vowel sounds we couldn’t easily define and equally incomprehensible combinations of consonants, all mushed together in a linguistic stew that easily could have been some alien tongue. The first time we encountered this phenomenon was when we landed in Heathrow and I asked a passing security guard what the best way to get into downtown London would be at that time of day. I’m sure he told me something, but I have absolutely no idea what it was. I nodded and thanked him. Later, at St. Pancras Station as we bought our “tube” tickets, there was an Underground worker standing outside of the ticket booth offering advice, and I asked him about weekly passes. Again, I’m absolutely positive he passed on some salient information, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. So with that in mind, you might want to have an East London native at your beck and call as you watch Wild Bill, for this film is absolutely stuffed to the gills with putative English speakers whose thick (to our ears, anyway) accents make them at the very least hard to understand if not downright incomprehensible. East London is a working class neighborhood with undeniably tough, street smart folks who may not speak the “Queen’s English” (to say the least), but who can get their meaning across quite easily with their fists, when push comes to shove. Wild Bill is a surprisingly gentle minded film of a parolee father coming to terms with his two resentful sons, kids he hasn’t seen for almost a decade. The language barrier may be unavoidable, but the intent of Wild Bill couldn’t be clearer.

Bill Hayward (Charlie Creed-Miles) may indeed have been wild back in the day and therefore earned the nickname that serves as this film’s title, but after a fairly long spell in prison, he simply wants to make a quick exit to Scotland and start anew. He drops by the apartment where he thinks his wife and kids still are but doesn’t get an answer at the door and ends up at a nearby pub, where he’s quickly accosted by some of his former ne’er-do-well friends. Meanwhile, we’ve already become aware of the fact that Bill’s two sons Dean (Will Poulter), 15, and Jimmy (Sammy Williams), 11, have been living on their own. They were in fact home when their father came knocking, but did not answer the door. Dean and Jimmy live in a tenement high rise that could have come directly out of the recent thriller Tower Block, a low rent haven for immigrants and other down on their luck sorts, a category for which the two boys certainly qualify. It turns out their mother, Bill’s wife, had simply taken off to Spain nine months previously, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. Dean has taken on the father’s role, going to work at a construction sight and making sure that Jimmy gets to school every day.

Bill of course does eventually reenter the lads’ lives, but it’s not an easy transition. Dean is full of anger and resentment and refuses to accept Bill as the new father figure. Jimmy is somewhat more malleable and in fact fairly quickly becomes rather fond of his newfound father, but he’s also unfortunately involved with some of Bill’s former drug running gang, leading to some near tragic consequences. Wild Bill toes a fine line between kind of syrupy melancholy bordering on the treacly at times, and rougher, more rowdy, humor, as the rough and tumble Bill tries to get his kids to “just behave”. If Michael Keaton was the long ago Mr. Mom, Bill might be thought of as Mr. Con. Bill is walking a tightrope since social services will turn his kids over to foster care if he doesn’t navigate these uncharted waters of parenthood well enough.

While co-writer and director Dexter Fletcher may be best remembered by American audiences for his acting role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, film trivia buffs will know that he was actually a child actor, co-starring with Jodie Foster in the long ago Paul Williams musical Bugsy Malone. Fletcher obviously has a lifetime of experience around the camera which makes this directorial debut more than a bit self-assured, especially when it comes to pacing and especially performances. Creed-Miles and Poulter are simply top rate as the feuding father and son who slowly, surely come to understand each other and forge a halting but burgeoning relationship. The supporting cast, including Andy Serkis in a glorified cameo as a mob boss, is also outstanding, lending a lot of color and spark to the proceedings.

There’s nothing truly unexpected that crops up during Wild Bill, but that’s not the detriment it might be in a leas fully realized character piece. Bill and his sons, as well as the hangers-on who surround them, are all such compelling characters that even if the story is ultimately a bit hackneyed, it’s a joy to experience it with them. You may indeed not understand a lot of what’s being said, but there’s little doubt the message of how important family is still gets through quite clearly.

Wild Bill Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wild Bill is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Though the film was shot digitally, it's not quite as crisp or sharp as one might expect, perhaps due to some variable contrast. The film's exteriors are often a bit on the bland side, without a lot of pop or vividness. Interiors tend to fare quite a bit better, especially with regard to close-ups, where fine detail is excellent. Colors are accurate looking and decently saturated, but the film favors a kind of "working class drab" appearance where nothing is overly vivid.

Wild Bill Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wild Bill's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix features bursts of good immersion, as in some of the urban sequences where a busy cityscape comes admirably to life, but the bulk of this film is fairly resolutely anchored in the front channels, which is where all of the dialogue resides. There's some fitful use of source cues, some of which have a thumping bass which permeates the subwoofer. Fidelity is excellent, though this is one film where subtitles really could have come in handy due to the sometimes impenetrably thick accents.

Wild Bill Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:58)


• Making Of (1080p; 29:47) is a fairly in depth though standard EPK featuring interviews, behind the scenes footage and snippets from the finished film. Dexter Fletcher is rather interesting in some of his comments about what kind of film he was trying to make.


• Favorite Films (1080p; 1:39) has various cast and crew telling us what their favorite films are.


• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 12:22)

Wild Bill Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Perhaps Professor Henry Higgins could drop by the Hayward household and give a few elocution lessons to these well meaning but sometimes hard to understand characters. Despite the somewhat ironic language barrier, Wild Bill is a really ingratiating film, one which relies on the dubious charm of a haggard main character, as well as the angst ridden teen who wants a father figure—just not this one. The film tugs at the heart strings so relentlessly that cynics may well be rolling their eyes after a while, but there's such a genuine sweetness and at times bawdy humor that the film exploits that it overcomes its own overly saccharine tendencies. This Blu-ray offers excellent video and audio and comes Recommended.