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Read my review of GET LOW

Sony’s MPEG-4 AVC 1080p transfer of Aaron Schneider’s folksy tale is about as good as it gets. The detail that is brought out in the picture, while retaining a film look is impressive. From the lines on faces to the depth of the woods everything pops in the crystal clear way that makes own sense depth in the frame. The range of color is captured naturally fitting the film’s rustic tone. Blacks are inky and the few flashes of color really look brilliant.

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack is solid as well. The only real issue is sometimes the clarity of the dialogue is too quiet or bassy. But it was very fleeting. The balance between the music, sound effects and dialogue is nicely done. The film relies on its front speakers mainly, but outdoor scenes with the sounds of the woods and gunshots whizzing from front to back or left to right utilize the soundscape to create ambience.

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Check Out the Trailer

Every neighborhood has their own hermitic legend. As a kid we had Pappy Kratzer. Kids told tales of him firing shotguns off to scare away anyone who got too close to his house. He’d sit on his porch and ridicule kids as they went by about how things were different in his day. But I never knew Mr. Kratzer. Not even his first name. I wish I would have. I’m sure he had a story to tell.

The same can be said of the protagonist in Aaron Schneider’s nostalgic drama. Felix Bush (Robert Duvall, THE ROAD) sports a long straggly gray beard and tattered clothes. He lives in a small cabin in the woods, where kids dare each other to pass the sign warning people not to come onto his land. He rarely comes into town and when he does it becomes all the chatter. The rumors say he killed a man once.

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Read my review of KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL

This public domain title arrives in an AVC encoded 1080p edition from Film Chest. It was sourced from a good 35mm print. The restoration process has left the image clean of dirt and damage, while retaining a fairly consistent sharp picture. The black levels are like ink and contrast is balanced well.

The sound comes in Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 options. The non-lossless 5.1 track is not immersive, because the original sound design was in mono. The 2.0 soundtrack is much closer to the original. That said, the dialogue heavy film has all its elements balanced cleanly. The track source is pretty much free of pops or damage and the hiss is not overbearing. The only real noticeable problem would be the highs and lows don’t have the perfect range.

A good way of looking at the quality of this release is to cop are it to a similar release. I recently reviewed Film Chest’s Blu-ray release of Orson Welles’ THE STRANGER. The restoration process equally cleaned up the picture, but left it far softer than this crime tale. The white balance    and gray scale range are much better here too. As for the soundtrack, KCC certainly came from a better source. As I said about that release, this might not be the absolute best you could get, but for the price it’s certainly worth it.

The special features are minimum. There is the theatrical trailer and a restoration demo.