NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (June 2019): Arrow have transferred Carol Reed's The Running Man to Blu-ray. It's on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. The image looks fine but has frequent speckles and some frame-specific damage (see capture samples at bottom.) The 1080P shows texture, depth, realistic colors and looks splendid in-motion.

NOTE: We have added 24 more large resolution Indicator Blu-ray captures for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Arrow use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original English language with some Spanish. Dialogue is audible and consistent and there is a subtle original score (also included as an isolated option) by William Alwyn (Green For Danger, So Evil My Love, Burn, Witch Burn, Odd Man Out, On Approval, A Night to Remember and The Fallen Idol) that runs beside the film heightening suspense. It was the composer's last film. Arrow offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

Arrow add an audio commentary by Peter William Evans, author of British Film-Makers: Carol Reed. It is informative, a bit dry but revealing in regards to the director and extraneous cast of The Running Man. On The Trail Of The Running Man is an all-new 25-minute featurette recent interviews with crew including Kits Browning, Maurice Landsberger and Tony Rimmington recalling the production, locations (Gibraltar, and Andalucía in Spain), Remick's 'bedroom eyes', cast conflicts etc. Also accessible if Lee Remick at the National Film Theatre, an audio recording of Lee Remick being interviewed about her career part of the John Player Lecture Series at the National Film Theatre, London, October 25th 1970. It has weak-ish sound quality is as per the original archive materials. It is courtesy of the British Film Institute. Arrow have included the score as an isolated option and the package has a reversible sleeve featuring original artwork. For the first-pressings there is an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw.

Carol Reed's The Running Man often reminded me of Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley with switched identities, the European Riviera-like locations, fraud etc.. It's a brilliantly developed thriller by Reed and the Blu-ray shows some beautiful sequences filmed by Robert Krasker (The Third Man, Brief Encounter, El Cid, Trapeze, Odd Man Out etc.) There is a ton of value here and we can strongly recommend!

Gary Tooze