This review comes from the pen of Shawn Francis who this time looks at the film EXTREME PREJUDICE, Walter Hill's 1987 action thriller starring Nick Nolte and Powers Booth that is about to receive it's first ever Blu-Ray release courtesy of Dutch label Soul Media. Walter Hill is one of my favorite directors out there and with his latest action extravaganza, Bullet To The Head, out in cinema's now, this review couldn't have come at a better time, Check out Shawn's words's after the jump...
Written By Shawn Francis
I
have seen my share of director, Walter Hill’s movies, but there are
only three I like well enough to add to my ever growing library of
DVDs and blu-rays—SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981), which I did a
review on (for this very site) for Second Sight’s UK blu-ray,
EXTREME PREJUDICE (1987) and RED HEAT (1988).
I
don’t have a solid memory of seeing RED HEAT, but I do have
them for those other two movies, especially with EXTREME
PREJUDICE. I was eighteen then and about a month away from
graduating from high school. Back then I loved action movies more
than I do now, and the commercial of this flick enticed me instantly.
My best friend, Gerry Lee, accompanied me that weekend afternoon, and
the memory that has always stood out occurred right after we left the
theater as we waited outside for my mother pick us up. Right in the
middle of our conversation about the movie, Gerry stopped, looked at
the poster hanging next to the front doors and said, “Oh, its
Extreme Pre-justice,” and he said it in a tone that said,
‘I-knew-it-wasn’t-prejudice.’ I looked at the poster and said,
“What?! No, it isn’t,’ and then sounded the word out for him,
pointing at each syllable, ‘pre-ju-dice.’ Gerry gave me that
‘D’oh’-yeah-okay-you-were-right-after-all’ look, and we went
back to joking around. Funny, how such a trivial memories gets
burned into your brain.
Nick
Nolte (48 HOURS) plays devoted Texas Ranger, Jack Benteen, and
Powers Boothe (SOUTHERN COMFORT) plays, drug cartel leader,
Cash Bailey. Jack and Cash grew up together and were best friends,
now they’re on opposite sides of the law and have been butting
heads for years, until an explosion in the city brings the two men
face-to-face again. It’s clear during the meeting that on some
level they are still friends, and it’s also painfully
obvious life, law and crime have stuck an irreparable wedge between
them, so much so that Cash predicts the next time they meet one of
them is going to end up dead.
On a
seemingly unrelated front, ex Major Paul Hackett (Micheal Ironside in
another memorable role) blows into town with a covert team of men set
on fucking with Cash Bailey’s money supply. Familiar faces here are
William Forsythe (RAISING ARIZONA) as Buck Atwater, Clancy
Brown (HIGHLANDER) as Larry McRose, and Larry B Scott (various
movie and TV appearances) as Charles Biddle.
Maria
Conchita Alonso (PREDATOR 2) plays love interest, Sarita,
which was also Cash’s before hooking up with Jack; a triangle that
only adds another wedge between their deteriorating friendship.
And
John Dennis Johnston shows up in a small supporting role as Cash’s
quirky “accountant,” Merv. For me, he’ll always be remembered
as the abusive father, Horace Platt, in Philippe Mora’s horror
film, THE BEAST WITHIN (1982).
Eventually, Hackett
and Benteen collide with the “explanation” that Hackett is in
Texas to retrieve some documents Bailey is in possession of. Bailey
used to be an informant for the DEA, their only one down in Mexico,
but several years later he “turned to the dark side” and set up
his own cartel.
Things
come to a head when Bailey kidnaps Sarita and takes her to his
stronghold in Mexico. Benteen is forced to tag along with Hackett and
his men, to see if he can reason with his old friend one final time.
Hackett’s real objective, however, is very different, termination
with extreme prejudice of Bailey, his goons—and Benteen!
At
the time this movie came out I remember being aghast at the level of
violence Hackett’s “kamikaze mission” kicks off during the last
half of the film. Up to that point I don’t think I had seen such a
resonating downbeat finale, especially with characters I actually
liked. Walter Hill makes gunplay very attractive in this movie with
Benteen’s automatic making a hell of an impact in the sound
department. The action scenes in general are very well executed, and
this is one of those movies where the heat and humidity of Texas and
Mexico is accurately portrayed. Sweaty faces and the bad attitudes
such weather can bring about dominate the proceedings throughout. I
love those kinds of “weather palpable” films. BATS (1999)
and Carpenter’s THE THING (1982) are just two others where
the on screen weather conditions have a tendency to seep under your
skin and into your bones as you watch.
Of
the three movies I mentioned at the start of the review only RED
HEAT is available on blu-ray here in the states. SOUTHERN
COMFORT has only been available here in standard DVD form, but
has been out of print for some years now and EXTREME PREJUDICE
is only available as a standard DVD. It is still in circulation but
only in a full frame aspect ratio.
Denmark’s
Soul Media is the only distributor in the world, I think, that has
transferred this fine flick onto blu-ray. It’s available from them
(http://www.soulmedia.dk/) and from Amazon UK in a Blu-Ray/DVD Combo.
Compared to the standard DVD included, the 1.85:1 anamorphic 1080i
transfer is an improvement. However, it’s obvious this movie could
still use a good remastering. It’s not the best, but, compared to
what we have here in the US I would certainly recommend it. Actually,
for anyone overseas, I’d recommend it, too.
My
only real complaint, and it is a minor one, is the audio. The
Dolby Digital Stereo is good, but that’s not the problem. The
voices are a tad higher pitched than they should be. This is
noticeable only because Nick Nolte is known for having a deep gravely
tone, not to mention Ironside, too, and I noticed the octave
difference the longer the movie went on. It’s not so high where it
becomes unwatchable, but in heated arguments you will notice it a
little bit. Though, if you’re not familiar with these actors, or
this movie, you might not even notice it at all.
There
are no extra features, not even a trailer, and the main menu for the
standard DVD is different than the blu-ray. Blown up portions of the
cover art is used for the DVD and it’s second menu when you need to
activate the subtitles, but a profiled photo of the keepcase is used
for the blu-ray’s. I find the blown up portions of the artwork on
the standard DVD more attractive.
Last
but not least subtitles are included: Swedish, Danish and Finnish.
All
in all, until Lionsgate decides to grace us all with a new remastered
transfer and a special edition, I recommend Soul Media’s version.
Horribly under-rated flick, more people should look this movie up. Hoping Shout Factory puts out a new edition in the U.S., since they recently put out a new edition of Southern Comfort.
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