THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH (1974)
Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG
Duration: 84 Minutes 13 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Martin Davidson
Cast: Perry King, Henry Winkler, Sylvester Stallone, Susan Blakely
The Lords of Flatbush (1974), directed by Stephen F.
Verona (Boardwalk) and Martin Davidson (Eddie and the Cruisers) a coming-of-age tale about four teens growing up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn in the late-50s who dress in greaser attire, black leather jackets, and call themselves The Lords of Flatbush. Out four main characters are ,Stanley (Sylvester Stallone, Rocky), Butchey (Henry Winkler, Happy Days), Chico (Perry King, The Possession of Joel Delaney) and Wimpy (Paul Mace, The Panic in Needle Park), who are all high school classmates and sort of wannabe tough guys, but who at the end of the day are just bored teenagers looking for a bit of fun, and along the way having to grow-up a bit. Stanley (Stallone) and Chico (King ) get the meatiest of the stories, with Stallone knocking up Frannie (Maria Smith, The Incredible Shrinking Woman) and having to get a job and get married, while being roped into buying her a $1600 dollar engagement ring, and Chico, whose sole mission in life seems to be to go all the way with as many teen girls as possible, including the all-to-easy Annie (Renee Paris, Bad) and the harder-to-get new girl Jane Susan Blakely (My Mom's A Werewolf). The film is a pretty loose collection of happenings with no real throughline, the shiftless teens boost a car, cause a ruckus in the classroom, hang out at a pool hall, and get into a gang rivalries. The film is most notable for starring a pre-Rocky Stallone and a pre-Happy Days Winkler, and being parts of the 1970's wave of greaser nostalgia that included Grease, Happy Days, The Wanderers and Sha Na Na. The standout here is Stallone, looking like a young Robert Mitchum (The Night of the Hunter) wrapped up in greaser attire, forced into maturity by the unplanned pregnancy.
The flick is pretty rough looking, shot on what appears to be quite a low-budget, 1970's Brooklyn doesn't quite look late-50's period authentic but they do decent work attempting it. Lighting of often pretty poor, and the soundtrack is pretty terrible, the songs often playing too loud over scene, drowning out dialogue. If you're a fan of 50's greaser revivals like Grease, The Wanderers, American Graffiti or even Streets of Fire, you'll probably get a decent kick out of this one, but it's much lower tier than any of those, and is more interesting for it's young cast than anything story or production related.
Audio/Video: The Lords of Flatbush arrives on region-free Blu-ray for it's 50th Anniversary from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. The image looks solid, grain is course but filmic, colors are well saturated, black levels are decent, there's some speckling and a green lean in the color-grade, but otherwise a solid presentation that looks authentic to the film's scrappy low-budget production. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Like the video the audio is true to the scrappy low-budget production, some of the film's dialogue scenes was not captured all that well, seemingly mic'd in a way that it is often muffled or acoustically odd, but that goes back to the source elements and is no fault of the transfer. The same can be said of the songs used on the soundtrack, which often drown out moments of dialogue as the songs play, this seems authentic tot he original intent of the filmmakers. With those shortcomings I still found it it a serviceable track, but perfection it is not.
The sole extra on the disc is a dingy looking fullframe 55-second Trailer. The lack of new extras is rather disappointing considering this is touted as 50th Anniversary Edition, but is basically a barebones release, this is certainly a missed opportunity. On the plus side I do believe this is the first official U.S. Blu-ray release of the flick, and I am pleased that Sony continue to mine their back catalog with physical media releases. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster.
Special Features:
- Trailer (0:55)
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