Yardie Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Yardie Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 22, 2019

Idris Elba's "Yardie" (2018) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include deleted scenes; featurettesl; and cast and crew interviews. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Brothers

The Jamaica that Idris Elba’s directorial debut, Yardie, reveals has nothing in common with the exotic paradise that tourist brochures typically promote. It is a battleground, like the favelas from Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, where life is cheaper than a joint.

The 1970s. In a dangerous corner of Kingston, D (Aml Ameen) sees his older brother, Jerry Dread (Everaldo Crearyshot), shot and killed during a quickly organized event to promote peace. Shortly after, one of the area’s two big crime bosses, King Fox (Sheldon Shepherd), takes the boy under his wing and he becomes one of his most loyal assistants. King Fox’s music company then grows so big that eventually he crosses paths with former rivals who are also trying to go legit, which is when D meets a man who he believes played a part in his brother’s murder. After he confronts him and jeopardizes King Fox’s business interests, he is told that the best thing for him would be to relocate to London and establish contact with an ambitious pusher operating out of a night club in Hackney.

The early 1980s. D lands in London with more than a pound of coke attached to his leg and immediately begins looking for King Fox’s guy, Rico (Stephen Graham), who turns out to be a psychotic ‘businessman’ that has absolutely no intentions of working with his Jamaican partner. D evades his henchmen and reconnects with his former girlfriend, Yvonne (Shantol Jackson), who is raising their daughter while working as a nurse. D then promises Yvonne that he is going to move away from his violent past, but Rico’s henchmen reappear and this time he is forced to protect the entire family.

In the midst of all the drama, King Fox lands in London and heads straight to Rico’s club to find out why his representative has failed his mission. When sparks begin to fly, with D present, the past suddenly overlaps the present.

In an exclusive interview included on this release, Elba suggests that many Afro-Caribbeans view Victor Headley’s novel, Yardie, as their Godfather because the journeys the two chronicle are very similar. Well, this comparison is only partially legit. Indeed, the place that D emerges from and the place the he discovers in Hackney do have some similarities with the violent environment in which the young Michael Corleone begins rising to the top, but their philosophies of life are very different. In Yardie, D is constantly forced to trust his instincts just to stay alive and does not have the time to strategize. He is essentially a loner surrounded by wolves in a place that sees and treats him as an outsider. Michael Corleone also trusts his instincts, but even in the original film he is as much of a shrewd gangster as he is a builder -- he has a vision of an empire that especially in the latter stages of his life effectively replaces the Corleone family, which ultimately is why he suffers so much.

The greatest strength of Elba’s film is its sincerity. It does not attempt to downplay or excuse the ugly, which is why all of its situations look entirely legit. The acting, however, is a very different matter. The effort is certainly there, but whether it is because of Elba’s inexperience or the emotions most of the actors bring to their parts, it routinely looks as if they are in fact acting instead of being the characters. (The worst of the bunch is Graham whose performance is so over-the-top and even grotesque that it is painful to watch).

The music adds a lot of proper flavor to the film, with the footage from Kingston looking especially impressive.

*The key sequence where D’s brother is killed was shot in a really tough area of Kingston where just like in the film the turf is divided by two rivaling gangs. According to Elba, before he and his crew went to work a cease-fire was negotiated and the people from the two sides participated in the big party.

Yardie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Idris Elba's Yardie arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

The film looks gorgeous in high-definition. The visuals boast outstanding depth and clarity, while fluidity is as good as a 1080p transfer can deliver. The color scheme plays with different fonts and nuances and they are beautifully reproduced. Image stability is excellent. There are no encoding anomalies to report. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Yardie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I had to turn on the subtitles because I could not understand what was being said, but I think that this is to be expected. because the film goes for authenticity. This being said, the lossless 5.1 track is excellent. Clarity, depth, and dynamic intensity are terrific. Also, there is plenty of music in the film and balance is handled very well.

Yardie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes - a collection of deleted scenes. In English, not subtitled. (6 min, 1080p).

• Featurettes - director Idris Elba and cast members discuss different aspects of the production process as well as some of the key conflicts in the film and the specific atmosphere in which their emerge.
  
  1. D's Journey (3 min).
  2. Idris Elba's Dirctorial Debut (2 min).
  3. Idris Elba in Conversation with Aml Ameen (14 min).

• Cast and Crew Interviews - additional interviews with comments about the production history of the film and the story it tells.
  
  1. Idris Elba (8 min).
  2. Aml Ameen (9 min).
  3. Shantol Jackson (7 min).
  4. Idris Elbla in Conversation with Blacker Dread (13 min).

Yardie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Idris Elba's directorial debut, Yardie, tells a familiar story with a sincerity that in my opinion is its greatest strength. Where the film stutters a bit is its acceptance of a wide range of over-the-top emotions, which ultimately hurt its credibility. I still think that it is worth seeing, but Elba's best days as a director are ahead of him. StudioCanal's technical presentation of Yardie is outstanding. RECOMMENDED.