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

ADDITION: Canadian International Pictures Blu-ray (February 2024): Canadian International Pictures have transferred Robin Spry's One Man to Blu-ray. It is cited as being "Scanned and restored in 2K from the 16mm interpositive by the National Film Board of Canada". It looks like it was 16mm - heavy, textured and soft-ish. Positively it is consistent with decent color and contrast balance, minor depth. I suspect that it can't look much better and we thank CPI for bringing this to digital let alone 1080P. 

NOTE: We have added 34 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Canadian International Pictures use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. One Man has few aggressive scenes and a score by Ben Low (The Heatwave Lasted Four Days, Keeping Track), sounding unremarkable but dialogue is audible  the lossless transfer. Canadian International Pictures offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Canadian International Pictures Blu-ray offer a commentary by filmmaker and historian Dr. Stephen Broomer (author of Codes for North: Foundations of the Canadian Avant-Garde Film.) He discusses many details of the film - the hand-held camerawork, the cinema vérité approach, ellipsis, the mise en scène, the NFB (National Film Board,) much of the cast; Len Cariou, Jayne Eastwood (sister-in-law of SCTV's Joe Flaherty), Carol Lazare, Barry Morse, Miguel Fernandes, August Schellenberg, Terry Haig, director Larry Kent's cameo etc., how Spry's own brother died from Cancer - caused by industrial pollution - making it very personal for the director - and plenty more information exported by Broomer. It was excellent - I thought he was informative and brilliantly paced. I hope CIP use him more in the future. There are two revealing interviews; One Sister is new running 10-minutes with Robin Spry’s sister Lib Spry and 1/4 hour for One Friend a new interview with Spry’s longtime collaborator Bob Presner. There are five short films directed by Spry (all NFB, I think): Miner from 1966 running 20-minutes, Change in the Maritimes also from that year running shy of 1/4 hour, Illegal Abortion from 1967 as was Ride for Your Life and Downhill from 1973 - about a middle aged Montréaler, Arthur Smith (Michael Kane,) who is taken to his local hospital after he suffers a heart attack while skiing and a love triangle - running 36-minutes. Wait there is more! The Dowry is 20-minutes from 1969, - a short film written and directed by One Man co-writer Peter Pearson. Cell 16 is 1/4 hour from 1972 - another short film written by Madden. Red Shoes is a 1986, short featuring One Man co-star Carol Lazare (who I love!) There is a 'bonus short' from 1972; Trafficopter. lastly are a theatrical trailer and the package has a 12-page booklet featuring a new interview with star Len Cariou and reversible cover artwork.  

Robin Spry's One Man has a documentary feel at times and may be describe as a poor-man's Erin Brockovich (Julie Roberts) or Todd Haynes' wonderful Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway and Tim Robbins - although those films dealt with the litigation of environmental chemical contamination. One Man is focused on the, fictional, intimidating trials of simply reporting it by one fearless television journalist. So, from that standpoint it could be considered ahead of its time in terms of conspiracy, social issues - from a Canadian film. The end credits list biochemical disasters revealed around the globe. While One Man won a slew of Canadian Film Awards - it has been largely forgotten - dismissed to a vault and I am thankful that Canadian International Pictures have brought it to Blu-ray with such an erudite commentary. As a thriller of this ilk it is admittedly badly dated but for Canadiana nostalgia it should be considered for fans. To each his own.

Gary Tooze