Subtitles:

English (SDH), None

Extras:

 

 

Excerpt from The GlobeandMail located HERE

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

Firstly, from Wikipedia - "The film is based on a 2006 Texas Monthly article by Pamela Colloff, "96 Minutes." Maitland originated from New Jersey and attended UT Austin. Maitland read the article in 2006 and asked Colloff to have lunch with him. He suggested making a film about the incident during the meeting. Colloff became one of the executive producers of the film. Various University of Texas students worked on the film as interns.

To finance the film the creators opened an Indiegogo, generating almost $70,000 from over 330 people in six weeks. In the final few days alumni of UT offered up a matching grant.

Early on Maitland realized that he and his team likely would not be able to film reenactments on the University campus and so they decided to opt for an animated aesthetic " to show the geography of the campus." Footage was mostly shot in Maitland's backyard and then animated by production company Minnow Mountain who was aided by pictures Maitland had shot around campus. Over 100 people were interviewed including at-the-time media members, police, students, and faculty, who had witnessed the events, but a few selective interviews were used."

The dual-layered Kino Lorber Blu-ray of Tower with a very high bitrate looks perfect in 1080P. There isn't much to go wrong with the transfer of digital-to-digital and the 1.78:1 appears pristine with bright colors, inventive effects and older live-action footage that can look damaged, grainy and intentionally less-crisp as an artistic foil to the animation. There are also modern interviews that look excellent, presumably shot in HD. The film was made using Rotoscoping (often abbreviated as "roto") - a tool for visual animated effects incorporating live-action. Wikipedia states: "By tracing an object, the moviemaker creates a silhouette (called a matte) that can be used to extract that object from a scene for use on a different background. While blue and green screen techniques have made the process of layering subjects in scenes easier, rotoscoping still plays a large role in the production of visual effects imagery. Rotoscoping in the digital domain is often aided by motion tracking and onion-skinning software." The resulting HD image quality is flawless. It is probably as close as theatrical as one could anticipate.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kino Lorber give the optional of two DTS-HD Master tracks; a 5.1 surround at 3461 kbps or a 2.0 channel track at 2011 kbps, both 24-bit, in the original English language. There are, obviously, gun (rifle etc.) effects in the film - and the surround separation is excellent - crisp, tight and with rich depth - piercing around your home theatre. Dialogue was always clean and clear. The effects are juxtaposed by the film's use of classical music - notably Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" which has a strange, serene, separating characteristic to the onscreen activity - supporting the disbelief by the characters of what what happening on that day. There is also popular songs of 1966 (ex. The Mamas & the Papas Monday, Monday) used and original music by Osei Essed. It all sounds excellent via the robust lossless rendering. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles offered and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

Extras :

Kino add some supplements. There is a ten-minute piece "After the Screener Q+A" which includes the director, Keith Maitland, and cast/crew being asked a few questions. I really enjoyed the Behind-the-Scenes Animation that shows the live-action - often in split-screen with the roto'ed animation effect. It's about 6-minutes worth of specific scenes/characters and I found it interesting. Then there are 10 character profiles running about 26-minutes in total with modern interviews with the characters present at the event and portrayed in the documentary. We can see how they look now an hear more details in their own words. It's quite impacting. Lastly, there is a 5-minuite piece on a 'Memorial Dedication' and a trailer.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
I was anxious to see Tower. I had heard nothing but positives. There was a TV movie about the incident made with Kurt Russell entitled The Deadly Tower - made in 1975. I found this new documentary far more affecting. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. The use of the Rotoscoping works so well in presenting the events of that day and the characters involved - humanizing the event since the circumstances seemed so real in recreation. I was floored - Tower stuns you as the film rolls along. The creativity involved with the production adds distinctively to the viewing experience. Wow - I can't wait to show friends and family. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray does an efficient job of delivering the theatrical presentation to your home theatre and I was also highly keen on the supplemental interviews and 'roto'-to-real-life comparisons.  NOTE: At the writing of this review it is 36% OFF at Amazon. Very strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze

March 5th, 2017