{"id":18494,"date":"2019-06-14T16:24:42","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T23:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18494"},"modified":"2019-06-14T16:24:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T23:24:42","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-running-man-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18494","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE RUNNING MAN (1963)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Blu-ray from Arrow Academy\u00a0will be available for purchase (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/) on June 18th.
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When you spend most of your days and nights watching features, it eventually becomes difficult to pick out your absolute favorites. Still, for this reviewer the work of British director Carol Reed ranks among the very finest and his 1949 title The Third Man <\/em>would definitely be on my list of all-time favorites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Arrow Academy are giving a high definition upgrade to The Running Man<\/em>, another and perhaps lesser known thriller from the director. Admittedly, it doesn’t quite reach the heights of what many (myself included) consider Reed’s greatest film, but it does provide plenty of intrigue for fans of the movie maker. As a result, this Blu-ray release certainly earns my recommendation. The disc is well worth a look and the bonuses included will most assuredly please both fans of the feature as well as those who happen to be checking it out for the very first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story follows Rex (Laurence Harvey), a pilot frustrated\nby his insurance provider, Excelsior, who use a technicality to avoid paying a\nclaim for his aircraft after it goes down in a storm. Furious, he concocts a\nscheme with his wife Stella (Lee Remick) to fake his own death in another plane\ncrash and collect an enormous settlement. Stella endures a grilling from Excelsior\ninvestigator Stephen (Alan Bates), but the plan works and she receives a\nsizable fortune. Stella then heads off to M\u00e1laga,\n Spain to meet up with Rex\nand move the fortune out of England.\nIn the meantime, Rex steals a new identity, that of an Australian sheep farmer\nnamed Jim Jerome. As the couple reunite and plot their next scam, they are\nshocked to bump into Stephen, who says he is traveling in the area. The\nparanoid Stella and “Jim” must keep up the act of being vacationing\nstrangers and determine whether Stephen knows their secrets or is simply being a\nfriendly tourist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This film’s best feature is its duplicitous characters.\nYou’re never quite sure whose side each of them are on, or what their ulterior\nmotives are for their actions. The now wealthy Rex takes on several new traits\nafter taking on his new persona, including berating small town folk and\nbecoming far more bold and reckless. This frustrates his wife, who begins to\nwonder if she’s ever getting the man she loves back. And of course, Stephen\nkeeps his emotions close to his chest, asking questions that raise suspicion on\nthe part of the couple. They are in constant debate as to whether the visitor\nhas figured out the truth. Rex also pushes Stella into trying to use her charm\nto coax more information out of the insurance agent, which not only annoys her\nbut leads to a mutual attraction between herself and Stephen. There’s a lot of\ninteresting interplay as the characters carefully choose their words and try to\nfigure out what to do next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The screenplay keeps the characters and tension between the\nplayers at an interesting simmer, although one minor flaw with the movie may be\nthat things fail to boil over. The characters are a little reserved, the\napproach to the material is low-key, and as such it takes a long time for the\ncriminal pair to even consider taking drastic measures. Still, the climactic\nconfrontation and chase through Gibraltar that\neventually follows is well shot, intriguing and engaging, even if it’s not\nquite as intense, exaggerated or exciting as one might hope for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, the movie benefits greatly from its\nphotography and the beautiful locations captured in both M\u00e1laga and Gibraltar.\nAs a travelogue, it’s pretty gorgeous to watch and the towns boast colorful and\nscenic backdrops to the drama. The cast are also fine, with Remick effective as\na lovely femme fatale who harbors some misgivings about what she’s being asked\nto do. Bates also stands out as the nice-guy insurance agent with an eye for\nStella who may or may not fully understand the mortal danger he is in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another big plus is the nice upgrade the film has been given. The disc’s image boasts a variety of primary colors that pop off of the screen. There is some grain visible, which is expected for a 45-year-old title, but many of the exteriors in Southern Spain featured look incredibly sharp and pretty. Seeing this disc present the film with crisper colors and a sharper image easily makes one understand why the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) honored it with a nomination for Best Cinematography. The HD transfer master comes from the restored original film elements and the title looks better here than it ever has before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This excellent Blu-ray also comes\nwith an excellent selection of bonus material. There’s an informative film\nhistorian commentary track featuring an expert on director Carol Reed. The\nexpert notes how the movie uses several elements seen in The Third Man<\/em>\nand the filmmaker’s other work. This includes the downcast ending, as well as the\nrelationship between the central crook and his wife’s seemingly complete\ndevotion to him. He also notes the color coding and how Rex’s and Stella’s\nclothing change to bolder, darker hues as the story progresses. This marks a\ncontrast to Stephen, who eventually wears a simple white shirt, alluding to his\nmore heroic qualities. There’s also an analysis of the use of planes and\nbullfighting imagery and how it fits in with the Rex character and the themes. The\ninformation presented is very interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perhaps the best bonus feature is\nOn the Trial of The Running Man<\/em>, an all-new featurette with crew member\ninterviews that include the likes of script supervisor Angela Allen and\nassistant director Kits Browning. They both go over their experiences working\nwith Carol Reed and the challenges faced on the production. To be fair, they\nactually admit to not thinking of this particular film as one of the director’s\nbest. Allen notes that she wasn’t thrilled by the novel upon which the movie\nwas based and didn’t quite think the adaptation made up for all of the source\nmaterial issues. Viewers will also learn that some of the crew found co-star Harvey\ndifficult and thought his put-on Australian accent was too over-the-top. Still,\nthe participants also note the positives about the film and other curious\naspects about the production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, there’s an archived\naudio interview from 1970 with Lee Remick about her career and her early acting\nwork. It doesn’t include a whole lot of detail about this particular movie, but\nit does provide insight into her process and experiences with various directors\nlike Otto Preminger, Blake Edwards and Elia Kazan. There’s also an impressive\nimage gallery containing stills, lobby cards and posters for the film. Finally,\nthe release comes with a detailed essay on the adaptation process, the production\nitself, and a fascinating article written by one of the film’s camera operators\nwho was nearly killed in a plane crash while shooting aerial footage for the\nmovie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Running Man<\/em> isn’t\nquite as grand as The Third Man<\/em> (but then again, that title is one of\nthe best films ever made), but it is an entertaining thriller with plenty of\ntension and some incredibly beautiful locations. Once again, Arrow\n Academy have done a stellar job\nbringing this feature to Blu-ray and reintroducing it to the world. The disc is\nmost assuredly recommended to fans of the director as well as classic film\nenthusiasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Blu-ray from Arrow Academy\u00a0will be available for purchase (www.arrowvideo.com \u2013 www.facebook.com\/ArrowVideo\/) on June 18th. When you spend most of your days and nights watching features, it eventually becomes difficult to pick out your absolute favorites. Still, for this reviewer the work of British director Carol Reed ranks among the very finest and his 1949 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[93,912,1834,2928,3929,12158,12215,18788,19420,22113,22397,22825],"class_list":["post-18494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-93","tag-alan-bates","tag-arrow-academy","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-carol-reed","tag-laurence-harvey","tag-lee-remick","tag-spain","tag-suspense","tag-the-running-man","tag-the-third-man","tag-thriller"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}