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

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (April 2024): Criterion have transferred Nancy Savoca's Dogfight to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Nancy Savoca". It looks decent if not stellar. Colors seem true with depth, there is texture - th 1080P is rarely crisp which may be a function of the production. There is depth and the night scenes are rendered with pleasing contrast. 

NOTE: We have added 44 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a DTS-HD Master stereo track (24-bit) in the original English language. Dogfight has a few battle scene in Chu Lai, South Vietnam later and a lot of bar/club noise... that come through boisterously. The, often romantic and fun, score was by Mason Daring (Lonestar, Matewan, Eight Men Out, Prefontaine) sounding supportive in the lossless transfer. There are samplings of early 60s music including The Oogum Boogum Song, Turkey Trot, Twist, Twist Señora, Night Train, What Have They Done to the Rain, Hey Liley, Liley Lo (Married Man Gonna Keep Your Secret,) Sugar Shack etc. by performers like Muddy Waters, The Weavers, Van Morrison, Elizabeth Cotten, Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds. It all sounds flawless. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' / 'B' Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray offers a commentary by Nancy Savoca and producer Richard Guay. They discuss how Bob Comfort's script resonated with them, directing 'a bunch of guys', how most of the cast wasn't even born in 1963 - when the film is set, the San Francisco setting, River looking at the dailies, casting director Marion Dougherty, and much more regarding the production, cast and crew. Criterion include a new 1/2 hour interview with Savoca and actor Lili Taylor conducted by Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter Mary Harron. They have worked together on a few films - ex. Lili Taylor was cast in Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol because she saw her in Dogfight. I thought it was a revealing conversation about Dogfight, script reading, Taylor's gentle 'Rose' character and much more. Excellent. There are also new interviews, running 1/2 hour, a quasi-reunion with cinematographer Bobby Bukowski, production designer Lester W. Cohen, script supervisor Mary Cybulski, music supervisor Jeffrey Kimball, supervising sound editor Tim Squyres, and editor John Tintori. Lastly is a trailer and the package has liner notes with an essay by film critic Christina Newland.    

Nancy Savoca's Dogfight is very honest with plenty of politically incorrect dialogue and situations including less-comfortable cruelty. The romance evolution is fairly subtle and doesn't go 'full cloying'. I also liked the 60's milieu - confident but oblivious teenagers going to war, kudos to Lili Taylor's 'Rose' character's self esteem. Taylor is considered one of the key figures of 1990s independent cinema and I feel as if Dogfight has been forgotten and never was a part of the conversation when it actually developed a cult-following and they also made a musical of it! So a cool, if odd, choice for Criterion to bring to their Blu-ray catalogue. Definitely a 'rewatchable'. You will be surprised how much you like Dogfight.

Gary Tooze