Broken Trail [Blu-ray]
(Walter Hill, 2006)
Review by Gary Tooze
Studio
Blu-ray: Touchstone / Disney
Transfer :
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78
Audio:
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
DUBs: French: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish:
Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby
Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English SDH, English, French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Chinese, Indonesian, Dutch,
Arabic
Supplements:
Featurette: 'Broken Trail - The
Making of a Legendary Western'
Trailers
Disc: 50GB Blu-ray Disc
DVD Release Date: June 10th, 2008
Product Description:
A top-rated miniseries! Set in 1897,
Print Ritter and his estranged nephew
Tom Harte become the reluctant guardians
of five abused and abandoned Chinese
girls. Ritter and Harte's attempts to
care for the girls are complicated by
their responsibility to deliver a herd
of horses while avoiding a group of
bitter rivals intent on kidnapping the
girls for their own purposes.
***
The Film:
Robert Duvall stars as "Print"
Ritter, an old cowhand who inherits
his sister's ranch. She left it to
him rather than to her own son, Tom
Harte (Thomas Haden Church). To make
things right again, Print decides to
buy a team of mustangs and transport
them across country to sell to the
British army; the money they'll earn
will be split evenly. Hence,
Broken Trail becomes a road
movie, complete with all the road
movie staples. They meet all kinds
of odd characters, from nasty
villains to friendly musicians, but
the key to Broken Trail is
that they also meet five Chinese
girls on their way to be sold into
sexual slavery (an unusual,
nostalgia-busting commentary on the
too-recent past). Our two cowboys
save the girls' lives and take them
along on their journey. The script
comes from novice scribe Alan
Geoffrion, a real-life cowboy and a
neighbor of Duvall's. His untrained
eye results in some delightful
passages, but also a great many plot
holes: characters disappear and
reappear without any mention, plot
devices are introduced and dropped,
etc. But veteran action director
Walter Hill (The
Warriors, Undisputed,
etc.) keeps these doggies rolling
along. Church turns in a fine,
deadpan Eastwood-like performance,
but Duvall does miraculous things
with layers of sadness, anger and
giddy amusement. (He was equally
good in Kevin Costner's Open
Range.) Someone ought to pass a
law requiring Duvall to make one
Western a year from now on.
Excerpt from Combustible Celluloid
located HERE
Image:
In a word - Magnificent.
This is one of the best Blu-ray (strike
that - 'DVD' period) images I have ever
seen.
Detail is absolutely pristine and colors
vibrant - if leaning a little to the
yellow-gold-green end of the spectrum.
Tack onto that the wonderful
cinematography by Lloyd Ahern and the
post-card-like grand vistas of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada and you have an image
that can leave one breathless. Contrast,
balance are all as superlative as I can
recall seeing in recent months.
I expect the SD-DVD looks marvelous but
can't possibly hold a candle to
Broken Trail in the glory of 1080P -
situated on a dual-layered Blu-ray disc.
I may be repeating myself from the
opening comments, but this DVD transfer
is impeccable - absolutely marvelous.
Audio & Music:
I
only noted minor separation moments in
the
Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track.
It sounded competent but although the
film has action sequences - they are at
the passive end of the western genre.
One specific moments of an accidental
gunshot did have the room riveted - so
it does have the ability to explode
dynamically but those moments are
somewhat limited (which is fine by me).
The original music by David Mansfield
and Van Dyke Parks gives a perfect
subtle aura to the film - almost an
homage to classic westerns of the past -
very fitting indeed. There are optional
subtitles and DUBs for those who
require.
Extras:
There is a 20+ minute featurette
entitled "The Making of a Western
Classic" in 480 resolution. It
includes interviews with the committed
cast - Duvall, Thomas Hayden Church
etc., and 65-year old director Walter
Hill. I enjoyed it and wished it was
longer... and I don't find the title of
the documentary pre-mature at all. Hill
is such an interesting figure in modern
cinema - I am going to examine his
oeuvre in more depth. After the
featurette there are some trailers and a
Blu-ray advert.
Bottom line:
This film, fittingly, has won a slew of
awards and this Blu-ray is gorgeous.
Western fans shouldn't think twice, but
beyond that this is simply a very strong
film (over 3 hours worth) divided into
two parts and is very enjoyable.
Really, I am extremely happy with this
DVD (appearance and content) and give it
a strong recommendation. Excellent value
here folks for less than $20.
Gary Tooze
May 30th, 2008
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