Soldier Blue (1970)

"A Real Horror Western"

Ralph Nelson's controversial and brutal revisionist western gets a brand new restoration, now out on UHD, Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal.

Colorado Territory, 1877. A patrol of US cavalry officers are escorting Cresta Lee (Candice Bergen) to meet her fiancé who is the right hand man of Colonel Iverson (John Anderson). The Cheyenne waylay the patrol and massacre nearly everyone, with the only survivors being Cresta and Private Honus Grant (Peter Straus) who then have to make the four day journey on foot to Fort Reunion, dealing with hunger, native Americans and Donald Pleasence along the way. When they finally get to their destination, they end up involved in an horrific massacre of the defenceless Cheyenne in revenge for the attack on the patrol.

The climax of SOLDIER BLUE is based on the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, one of the most infamous and horrific incidents in the history of the American frontier. The film itself was part of a short burst of savagely brutal westerns including Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, Michael Winner's CHATO'S LAND and Don Medford's THE HUNTING PARTY. SOLDIER BLUE, however, may well be the most extreme and affecting of the lot, so those of a more delicate disposition may well need to think twice before letting themselves in for the lengthy, brutal, mutilation and rape-filled final twenty minutes in which genuine amputees were recruited from Mexico City to add to the authenticity.

A massive hit in the UK and everywhere around the world except, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the US, SOLDIER BLUE has been called one of the most radical films in the history of American cinema, and belongs to a sub-genre of western that arose very much in reaction to the Vietnam war and, according to director Nelson in this case, the My Lai massacre in particular. 

Studio Canal's new 4K scan has undergone picture and sound restoration using the original 35mm picture and sound negatives and the landscape here looks just fabulous. According to the BBFC site the film has undergone minor cuts mainly for trip-wired horse falls and this is likely the fullest version the UK is going to get. The disc comes with a 12 minute interview with Bergen where she talks about her dog and giggles quite a bit, and a commentary track from Steve Mitchel and Howard S Berger recorded during lockdown.

Ralph Nelson's SOLDIER BLUE is out on UHD, Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal on Monday 15th July 2024

It will be available on the Studio Canal Presents streaming channel (available on Apple TV and Prime Video) from Saturday 1st November 2025 

Ghosts of the Ozarks (2022)

"A Weird Western?"

And there just aren't enough of those, are there? So it's nice to see GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS getting a UK Digital release from Signature. 

We're in Arkansas just after the American Civil War. James (Thomas Hobson) is a medical man who has been invited by his uncle Matthew (Phil Morris) to come to the remote, isolated village of Norfork where a doctor is badly needed, the previous one having left under mysterious circumstances.

One evening James is beset in the forest by a man who tries to rob him of precious gems he doesn't have. Escaping he encounters a red smoke that seems to contain monsters, after which he almost immediately finds himself at the walled town of Norfork.

It's an odd place. David Arquette keeps trying to sell James hats. The bartender is blind and his wife (genre favourite Angela Bettis) plays the piano in a bar displaying paintings of people dancing in a ring and watched over by horned demons  Pretty soon James comes to realise that there's a lot that's weirder and more sinister going on in Norfork than just eccentric behaviour.

GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS isn't bad at all. The central idea is sound and the acting is fine. The problem lies with the direction and photography, both of which are flat and uninspired, giving the endeavour a 1970s TV episode look but without the graininess. As a result it's very difficult to think you're looking at anything other than actors on a set or a backlot. And that's a shame because with a bit more style and panache GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS could have been something with a very pleasingly weird atmosphere indeed. 

Better music would also have been an immense help, especially at the climax and I cannot help but point the finger and Director of Photography, Composer and Co-Director Matt Glass who may have just taken on a bit more than was strictly a good idea. One suspects budgetary constraints made it a necessity, because for all the professionalism on the acting front GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS still feels less a production by experienced film-makers and more a super ambitious student project. You can't fault them for trying, though, and despite what I've said above I actually found GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS well worth a watch, both for its ideas and the extent of its ambitions. Here's the trailer:

GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS is out on Digital from Signature on 23rd May 2022

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

"Uniquely Entertaining Horror Comedy Western"

The film director Anthony Hickox made between his 1988 debut WAXWORK and its sequel, WAXWORK II: LOST IN TIME (1992) gets an extras-packed Blu-ray release as part of the Vestron collection.

The town of Purgatory (which from the nicely shot locations appears to be in Monument Valley) is home to a community of vampires, led by Count Mardulak (David Carradine). They've been trying to perfect a blood substitute but something has gone wrong withe process, so they call in inventor David Halloran (Jim Metzler) to help his old university rival Shane (Maxwell Caulfield) sort out the process. Unfortunately plans are afoot by Jefferson (John Ireland) for a vampire rebellion. Add in the arrival of the last of the Van Helsings (Bruce Campbell) who falls for local girl Sandy (Deborah Foreman) and the scene is set for a ridiculous over the top vampire gunfight finale.

Back when SUNDOWN was being made Anthony Hickox said he purposely didn't want an opening title sequence so as not to spoil the surprise of all the familiar exploitation faces who appear in the film. It's certainly fun spotting all the above as well as M Emmet Walsh, Dana Ashbrook, Morgan Brittany and others. The sharp-eyed will spot a poster for THEATRE OF BLOOD, the movie directed by Hickox's father Douglas (apparently at his son's insistence), at the beginning of the film.

But is SUNDOWN any good? There's certainly nothing else quite like it. It's not as quirkily entertaining as the original WAXWORK and not as full-on horror as Hickox's later HELLRAISER III, but it's still a great deal of fun.

One of the undisputed highlights of the film is the lush, sweeping, Western pastiche-style orchestral score by Richard Stone and so it's a delight to have a feature-length commentary all about it (and tying it into the sequencing of tracks on the soundtrack album) from acknowledged movie music expert Randall D Larson (composer Stone is sadly no longer with us). There's also a more traditional commentary track with director Hickox and Director of Photography Levie Isaacks.

Other extras include Wild Weird West - a new 16 minute interview with the director; Bloodsuckers From Purgatory -  a new 14 minutes with special effects creator Tony Gardner; and archival interviews from 2008 with Bruce Campbell (12 minutes), David Carradine (13 minutes) and M Emmet Walsh (11 minutes), plus the usual trailer and stills gallery. Nice package. Now I'm off to buy the soundtrack CD.

Anthony Hickox's SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT is out on Blu-ray as part of the Vestron Collection through Lionsgate on Monday 15th November 2021

Breakheart Pass (1975)

"Throw Bronson From the Train"

Eureka are bringing out this Charles Bronson-starring 1975 western adapted from the Alistair MacLean novel.

We're in the frontier era. A train loaded with supplies sets off for isolated Fort Humbolt in Nevada, where apparently there has been an outbreak of Diphtheria. On the train are a couple of carriages full of soldiers; a moustache-twirling, could-he-possibly-be-up-to-no-good Governor (Richard Crenna); his rather unemotive ladyfriend (Jill Ireland); a liberal sprinkling of character actors (Ed Lauter, Charles Durning, Ben Johnson, David Huddleston); and prisoner-but-actually-the-good-guy-unsurprisingly Charles Bronson.

Off they go! Choo choo! But pretty soon it's choke choke, bang bang and various other methods of despatch as passengers start to get bumped off by an unseen killer. Is the train actually loaded with medical supplies? Is the no-good Governor there for reasons other than altruism? Does Charles Bronson have a fantastic fight on top of a moving train just like in the poster?

The biggest problem with BREAKHEART PASS is that, while the action sequences are terrific (and likely all directed by prominently credited second unit legend Yakima Canutt) the stuff in between, and especially during the first act, is all rather uninvolving. 

In fact, these bits are a good example of the difference a good director can make to a script (written by MacLean himself). We don't see the murders (that plus perhaps some black-gloved hands would have been good) and Bronson is given nothing to do for the first half an hour, with the film floundering with no POV character. During all of this I have to say I did find myself wondering what someone like Sergio Martino or even Michael Winner (yes Michael Winner) might have done with this material instead of actual director Tom Gries, and I suspect we would have ended up with something a bit livelier, more interesting and better paced.

Once it gets going BREAKHEART PASS isn't bad, but everyone here either had done or would do better. Surprisingly bloodless for a 1970s Western (it gets a PG certificate here) and without the inherent nihilism and bleakness of most of the decade's best pictures in the genre, it's still a decent timewaster if you fancy a bit of adventure and trains crashing.

The only extra is a talking head piece from Kim Newman, which lasts nearly half an hour, and in which he talks at length about the MacLean properties that were adapted for the screen in the 1960s and 1970s (I had forgotten there were quite so many). He even shows us some of his MacLean paperbacks, but not the tie-in edition of BREAKHEART PASS which I remember seeing everywhere at the time and which must have been prominently positioned in every WHSmith's and Woolworths throughout the land.

Alistair MacLean's BREAKHEART PASS is out from Eureka on dual format Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 14th May 2018

The Man From Laramie (1955)

“Shakespeare Rides Again”

Well, not exactly, but Anthony Mann’s final collaboration with James Stewart has been described as ‘a psychological revenge drama of Shakespearean proportions’ and there’s certainly a touch of King Lear about it. It’s getting a sparkling new dual format DVD & Blu-ray release from Eureka that’s definitely worth a look.

       Will Lockhart (James Stewart) arrives in town looking for the man who murdered his brother. He gets into trouble with local cattle baron Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp), who is losing his sight and is plagued by dreams of a lean figure murdering his sadistic son Dave (Alex Nicol). Ranch foreman Vic (Arthur Kennedy) has been promised half of Waggoman’s estate when he dies but Waggoman is notorious for changing his mind. Meanwhile, someone is selling rifles to the local Apache population who perform regular raids on US cavalrymen, burning them alive.

       More a melodrama played out against the landscape of New Mexico than what one might consider a typical Western of goodies against baddies with a shoot out at the end, THE MAN FROM LARAMIE boasts a well thought out script and an excellent, measured central performance from James Stewart ably assisted by Arthur Kennedy. The other star here is Anthony Mann, who really knows how to use the Cinemascope frame (2.55:1) to show off the landscape to its best advantage, as well as composing shots that would have been completely ruined in TV pan and scan showings. 

Eureka’s disc contains a new, specially recorded commentary track by film critic Adrian Martin and an informative talking head piece by Kim Newman. You also get 2.0 and 5.1 sound options (the 5.1 is just fine) and a booklet on the film with new writing and an Anthony Mann interview. 

There’s a tendency these days to dismiss Westerns of the 1950s and earlier and instead concentrate on the works of Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah and the movies that came after theirs. It’s understandable because those directors have been so lauded, often at the expense of their predecessors. To do so, however, is to render the works of Anthony Mann and others a serious disservice. If, like me, you are such an offender then there is no better place to begin making amends than with Eureka’s THE MAN FROM LARAMIE Blu-ray. 

Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE is out in a dual format Blu-ray and DVD edition from Eureka from Monday 5th December 2016