Gloria Blu-ray - Gena Rowlands

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

USA 1980

Indie godfather John Cassavetes transforms Gena Rowlands into his own little Pam Grier in this oddly sweet-and-sour, PG-rated mob melodrama with, naturally, a cute orphan kid. The ingredients ensure that the overall mixture is far from colloidal, but Gloria's most salient feature is Rowlands' extraordinarily well-rounded embodiment of the titular role: an extremely classy ex-mob dame with a hair-trigger temper and a tongue of fire. When Mafia accountant Jack Dawn (Buck Henry) accidentally lets it slip to his bosses that he's been jotting all their dirty little secrets in a little black book, they come by and waste him and his surrogate family, but not before he drops off the little moppet Phil with Gloria Swenson. Whether she's lackadaisically serving Phil milk or fending off his incessant (and creepy) suggestions that she's both his mother as well as his girlfriend, Rowlands fills her somewhat sketchy role with blowsy good humor and an honest sense of hollowed-out emotional vacancy that the film around her doesn't quite merit. It's no surprise that her supporting cast pales in comparison to her, with the possible exception of a string of NYC taxi cab driver archetypes (one looks and sounds eerily like Pat Ast of Paul Morrissey's Heat).

Excerpt from Eric Henderson's review at slant magazine located HERE

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Theatrical Release: October 1st, 1980

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Comparison:

Columbia Tri-Star - Region 1, 3, 4 - NTSC vs. Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray

1) Sony - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC LEFT

2) Twilight Times - Region FREE - Blu-ray RIGHT

Box Cover
Distribution	Columbia Tri-Star Home Video - Region 1, 3, 4 - NTSC	Twilight Time Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	2:01:24	2:01:33.327
Video	1.81:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 34,143,855,724 bytes Feature: 32,577,392,640 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate: Blu-ray
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1908 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1908 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Isolated Score: DTS-HD Master Audio English 1767 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1767 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish, Korean, None	English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Columbia Tri-Star Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.81:1 Edition Details: • Trailers of 'Little Nikita' and 'The Odessa File' • one-page liner notes with photo artwork DVD Release Date: February 25th, 2003 Keep Case Chapters: 28	Release Information: Studio: Twilight Time 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 34,143,855,724 bytes Feature: 32,577,392,640 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Trailer 1 (3:08) Blu-ray Release Date: August, 2018 Transparent BlD case Chapters 24

Comments:

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

ADDITION: Twilight Times Blu-ray - August 2018: Twilight Time's new 1080P transfer is excellent - especially in comparison to the darker DVD from 15-years ago. The higher resolution produces a brighter, more details, image with more information in the frame, more depth, richer colors and more grain support. It looks sweet in-motion.

The film is presented in another Linear PCM 2.0 mono track (24-bit)track. It sounds authentically flat and tight. The score is by Bill Conti (The Seduction of Joe Tynan, Neighbors, The Right Stuff, Rocky, Harry and Tonto, For Your Eyes Only) and is well supported via the lossless transfer and offered as an isolated option. There are optional English subtitles on this Blu-ray.

Only the aforementioned isolated score (which is a great option) and two trailers for the film. There are some liner notes included.

This is one of my favorite Cassavetes films (and that alone is saying a bunch) - a desperate neo-noir with Rowlands in another grand performance. Magnificent. Our highest recommendation!

Gary Tooze

ON THE DVD: Nothing exceptional about this transfer - it is competent, looks a little glossy, no digital manipulations - the darks are as Cass intended - VERY dark. The frame has a slim black border around it, limiting horizontal resolution, but the image is anamorphic and progressive. There are no real extras, but at least it is available as this is the type of film that might have been buried except for some very infrequent television viewing. The region coding has it set for additional marketing in Korea (R3 NTSC) and South America (R4 NTSC).

Gary W. Tooze

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Twilight Times - Region FREE - Blu-ray