WATERSHIP DOWN (1978) (Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray Review)

WATERSHIP DOWN (1978) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: PG
Duration: 92 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Martin Rosen
Cast: Denholm Elliott, John Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne, Richard Briers

Screenwriter/director Martin Rosen's (The Plague Dogs) adaptation of the Richard Adams source novel is a film that was sort of traumatic for me when I saw it as a kid still in my single digits. It was an animated film with much darker and heavier themes than I had been exposed to previously, a dystopian tale of a warren rabbits who become displaced by the intrusion of land developers, and the perilous journey they embark upon in search of a safe home. 

The film begins with a stylized genesis story of the sun-god called Frith who created all life, initially making all of the animals of the world vegetarians, living peacefully together and feeding on the plants and grasses. However, it came to be that the rabbits of the world began to eat more than their fair share of the grasses, and hunger set in. To fix that Frith then created flesh eating predators who would prey on the rabbits, keeping their numbers in check, but he also gave rabbits the advantage of long-legs and cunning instinct, and the ability to flee quickly and burrow beneath the ground. 

After this prologue were introduced to a rabbit named Fiver, who is plagued by nightmarish visions of blood sweeping through the warren, a premonition of doom. Fiver tells his older brother Hazel about his vision, and the pair decide to approach the warren's leader, but he dismisses the rabbit's worries outright, instructing the warren's law enforcer Captain Holly to prevent any rabbits from leaving the warren. 

Ignoring the will of their leader Fiver and Hazel manage to escape the warren along with a handful of like-minded rabbits, fleeing to the unknown English countryside, making their way towards Fiver's vision of a new, idyllic home, which he has also glimpsed in a vision. Along the way they encounter a friendly gull, hostile warrens of rabbits, and predatory cats and dogs. Danger seems to be lurking just beyond every hill, they even lose the only doe rabbit among them to a bird of prey, which sets them on a path to free doe rabbits from a neighboring farm and a militaristic warren of rabbits ruled by tyrannical General Woundwart.

As a young kid it exposed me to the heady themes of war, death and religion that at that point, still in the single digits, I had never had never really thought about, and to be quite frank I found very troubling, and I suffered strange Orwellian rabbit nightmares for days after seeing it. There's definitely no shortage of disturbing images,with numerous bloodied bunnies being savaged by one another and by predators, or being shot, suffocated and choked out by snare traps, it's really kind of devastating. 

The is an animated film that elevates the format, an artisenal blend of illustrated

animation and simple yet superb watercolor backgrounds, with a gorgeous score from Angela Morley that also pushes the emotional depth of everything. The voice cast is also rather good, including John Hurt (Alien) as Hazel, Ralph Richardson 

(Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes) as Chief Rabbit, Richard Briers (Cockneys vs Zombies) as Fiver, Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the Lost Ark)as Cowslip, and John Bennett (The House That Dripped Blood) as Holly, among many other well-known British actors who all give wonderful emotive nuance to their furry animated counterparts.

Audio/Video: Watership Down (19178) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. The image is solid, I own the Criterion Blu-ray so I was keen to put compare one another, there is a slight framing difference but it negligible, with Umbrella's 1.78:1 slightly losing a sliver of information along the left and right. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track that delivers dialogue and the score from Angela Morley 

without issue, there are no subtitles on this disc of any sort, nor any extras, this is a bare-bones release, there's not even a start-up menu, it goes right into the film when you drop the disc in the player.

Watership Down (1978) is a wonderful, but dark, animated film, the type of movie that lures young kids in with the magic of  animation and the promise of anthropomorphic rabbits, and then it turns around and sucker punches you right in the gut with the sort of allegorical kinder-trauma that you'll carry around with you well into adulthood. Umbrella Entertainment's Blu-ray offers an A/V presentation that is absolutely on par with Criterion's release, but it is a no-frills presentation with no extras or subtitles. While it lacks the extras this is a cool, budget-minded and region-free alternative for those who don't want to splurge on the Criterion release, which is region-A locked as I recall. 

Blu-ray Review: DEAD MAN (1995)

DEAD MAN (1995)

Label: Echo Bridge Entertainment
Region Code: Region A
Rating: R
Duration: 121 mins
Video: 1080p 16x9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Johhny Depp, Gary Framer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Euegen Byrd, Mili Aviatal, Crispin Glover, Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, Jared Harris, Gabriel Byrne, Robert Mitchum, John Hurt, Alfred Molina

In Jim Jarmucsh's black and white acid-western DEAD MAN Johnny Depp (THE NINTH GATE) portrays William Blake, a young accountant from Cleveland who packs his bags and embarks on a journey to start life anew in the Western frontier town of Machine where he has been offered a job at the Dickinson Metal Works. On the train ride from to Machine the soft-handed city rube sticks out like a sore thumb among the Western frontier folk and rugged buffalo hunters who shoot buffalo from the train. The ride gets weirder when the trains soot covered coal shoveler (Crispin Glover, RIVER'S EDGE) enters the car and sits across from Blake offering a cryptic foretelling of doom.

Arriving in Machine young Blake walks into the metal works where he is informed by the business manager (John Hurt, ALIEN) that he's a month late and the position is no longer available. Blake demands to talk with the Mr.  Dickinson (Robert Mitchum, CAPE FEAR) who promptly drives him off the property at the business end of a double-barrel shotgun. With no job prospects and dwindling funds Blake wanders the grim streets of Machine until he comes to a saloon where he makes the acquaintance of young prostitute named Thel (Mili Avital) who take him home to her bed where her jealous ex-lover Charlie (Gabriel Byrne, MILLER'S CROSSING) bursts into the room and fires upon Blake but Thel throws herself in front of the bullet which kills her and strikes Blake in the chest. Blake grabs the woman's gun and kills Charlie, wounded and dazed he escapes through a window and leaves town on the back of a stolen pony. As it turns out Charlie was the son of Mr. Dickinson and the wealthy factory owner places a large bounty on the head of Blake for the murder of his son and even lays the death of Thel on him, too. Three cold-blooded killers are hired to hunt down Blake; Conway Twill (Michael Wincott, CURTAINS) and Johnny "The Kid" Pickett (Eugene Byrd, TV's BONES) and a cannibalistic psychopath named Cole Wilson (Lance Henriksen, ALIENS).

Blake awakens the next day to the sight of an American Indian calling himself Nobody (Gary Farmer, GHOST DOG) performing surgery on his chest wound but he tells Blake that the bullet is too close to his heart and that death is a certainty. Nobody believes that Blake is the reincarnation of the poet William Blake and that he will accompany him to the Pacific Ocean so that he can return his spirit to it's proper place in the spirit world. The Native American outcast acts as Blake's guide to the cleansing waters of the West. The duo amass quite a bodycount in their wake as they encounter many would-be bounty hunters and scoundrels on their path.

The film is certainly a strange beast and has a surreal disconnect that lends an existential quality to Blake's doomed journey through what I would call  purgatory. The setting is pure authentic Western and evokes the scent of sawdust and woodsmoke. The film boasts a stellar supporting actors that includes screen legend Robert Mitchum in his final performance plus a cast of gristle-faced characters whose craggy features drink up Robby Muller's (TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., REPO MAN)  black and white cinematography. There are also notable appearance from rocker Iggy Pop (HARDWARE) as the deranged bible-thumping transvestite leader of a trio of fur traders that includes a pre-SLING BLADE Billy Bob Thornton, and speaking of craggy faces there's also a came from Gibby Haines of the Butthole Surfers, it's quite a cast of characters we have here.

The film operates on several levels ranging from the existential to referential, particularly the the poems of William Blake in much the same way that the Coen Brother's O, BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? mined Ulysses' The Odyssey but I really just enjoy it as a trippy western that tends to defy expectations at every turn. I tend not to read too much into it I just enjoy it but the subtext is there for those of who looking for something deeper.The film was a major disappointment at the box office in '95 when it was released, returning only a ninth of it's budget, apparently 1995 wasn't a great time for a black and white western revival but this is a film that a lot of folks missed the first time around and I say it's well worth a watch whether you be a fan of Depp, Jarmusch or just really awesome Westerns.   

Blu-ray: Echo Bridge's 16x9 enhanced 1.78:1 widescreen AVC encoded HD transfer does the film proper justice. The black and white imagery looks great in 1080p with a nice retention of the film's natural grain structure without the disservice of DNR scrubbing, it looks pretty great. The transfer offers good contrast, decent black levels and fine detail; facial hair, clothing and other textures are nicely resolved. A definite improvement over the previous DVD edition. The DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 sounds quite good, too. Dialogue is crisp and there are no distortions that I could discern plus Neil Young's amazing score soars throughout the film. I will say that a more atmospheric 5.1 surround mix could have gone a long way but what we have here is very nice. Special features are few but are at least present, the previous Miramax titles from Echo Bridge have been mostly bereft of bonus content and this is a most welcome exception. What we get are a selection of standard definition letterboxed deleted scenes and a Neil Young music video featuring in-studio footage of him performing the song with a montage of clips from the film overlayed with Johnny Depp narrating William Blake's poetry. I believe that the only feature not carried over from the previous Miramax edition is a theatrical trailer.

Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes (15:54)
- Neil Young Music Video (3:31)

Verdict: DEAD MAN is a film just not mentioned enough when discussing the careers of Johnny Depp, Jim Jarmusch or just kick ass Westerns in general. The mid-nineties weren't exactly a golden age of cinema so don't let this one sink into obscurity, if you haven't seen it you are missing out on what I would call a must-see, strange and offbeat western that stands aside GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI as one of my favorite Jim Jarmusch films.