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Young Guns (1988)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Lionsgate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (28th March 2007). |
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The Film
 The American Old West has spawned many legends, but perhaps the best-known outlaw has always been William H. Bonney - AKA “Billy the Kid” (his real name was actually Henry McCarty). This young gunslinger also appeared in several movies, e.g. in the classic “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)” from Sam Peckinpah. Director/co-producer Christopher Cain visited the story in a fictional spirit, but still borrowing ingredients from the real historical events. “Young Guns (1988)” included fresh stars from the 1980s and followed loosely the events that “The Kid” went through in New Mexico during 1877-1878. During that time, The Kid was involved in the serious skirmish now called the “Lincoln County War”, where the wealthy ranchers and store owners fought for power in the area. British born rancher John Tunstall (Terence Stamp - e.g. “Billy Budd (1962)”, “The Hit (1984)”, and “The Limey (1999)”) arrived in Lincoln County to set up a business of his own and break the monopoly. He was also hiring young men to protect his cattle. In the film Tunstall is helping these men to turn another page in their lives, since most of them are petty thieves and loners with troubled past. Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez - the director/actor of “Bobby (2006)”) joins into the group that already has Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland - e.g. “24 (2001-)” TV-series), “Jose” Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips - e.g. “La Bamba (1987)” and “The Triangle (2005)”-TV-series), Richard “Dick” Brewer (Charlie Sheen - e.g. from “Platoon (1986)” and “Wall Street (1987)” to “Spin City (2000-2002)”, and “Two and a Half Men (2003-)”-TV-series), “Dirty” Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney - e.g. “Copycat (1995)” and “About Schmidt (2002)”), and Charles “Charley” Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko - e.g. “Stand by Me (1986)”). Later on, J. McCloskey (Geoffrey Blake) also joins in. The major trouble is starting to gather on the horizon when powerful landowner Murphy (Jack Palance - from e.g. “Batman (1989)” and the winner of “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” in “City Slickers (1991)”) wants to get rid of Tunstall altogether. When his threats don´t bring the desirable results, the next one is more severe; Tunstall is gunned down, while The Kid and the other “boys” are witnessing the event from the distance. With the help of Tunstall´s lawyer Alex McSween (Terry O'Quinn - e.g. “The Stepfather (1987)” and “Lost (2004)”-TV-series), the group will be deputised and their mission is to catch the killers and bring them to court. Now called “The Regulators”, they ride to bring justice. Things go wrong from the beginning, when the “inner killer” of Billy the Kid takes over and he´s shooting his targets rather than showing any arrest warrants. All of a sudden, The Regulators have turned into outlaws, hunted not only by Murphy´s men, but also the famous bounty hunter John Kinney and eventually even the US army is involved. Billy the Kid still convinces his posse to expose the dirty ring of Murphy and revenge the death of their mentor Tunstall, even if it would mean death to them also. “Young Guns” is one of those films that felt better when you first saw it several years ago (and also several years younger), but which now feels a bit flawed. Character development is rushed and the introduction scenes of the posse (at the beginning of the film) are just too superficial. It´s obvious that the filmmakers wanted to get quickly to the point where the shooting starts, so the film pretty much takes a pattern of “shoot-out” - “quiet moment where boys are thinking their next move” - “shoot-out” - “quiet moment”. Scenes like the (Mexican) Indian Chavez telling the moving story of his background are too far and few between, and the “drug taking”-scene feels a bit out of place. The action-scenes are usually pretty nicely done, but not always that convincing. Still, the shoot-out with Buckshot Roberts (Brian Keith - “The Yakuza (1974)”) is my favorite of the film, even when I don´t understand why Buckshot is going to that outhouse in the first place (which he didn´t in the real shoot-out). Actors are also capable and e.g. Emilio Estevez does a good job of bringing that crazy, partly naïve side out from his character and Kiefer Sutherland´s character is pretty much the “good guy” in the film (and a poet). Doc also has a minor romance with the Chinese girl Yen Sun (Alice Carter) - a very welcomed addition to the story, but not fully a successful one. Jack Palance gives a very stereotypical “Palance performance” and a bit surprisingly you don´t even really notice Charlie Sheen. Soundtrack is also something that probably divides the people and at least the “1980s rock and western fusion” didn´t fully work for me (although the opening theme is good). “Young Guns” is a predictable, but definitely a fun and less serious film, aimed for the “MTV generation”. It never feels bad, but fails to be a truly great western. An interesting anecdote is that you can find Tom Cruise from the film with a fake moustache during the last shoot-out (time: 99:21 minutes).
Video
“Young Guns” is my first HD-review and it shows that not every release will look “great” in High Definition. It´s true, that HD will basically look better than standard DVD in most cases (at least if the source material is even), alone from the fact that DVD has significantly less resolution and capacity than Blu-ray or HD DVD and DVD always has to be upscaled (which brings certain artifacts on its own) for the HD-screens. “Young Guns” is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen (1080p 24fps) and is using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The transfer is very clean, but the first thing that I noticed was that a certain amount of softness is present. Black levels and colours are fairly good, but not always that consistent (darker scenes don´t fare that well). If you look closer, the compression is not spot-on; the fine details have some noticeable “edginess” on the borders and the whole image is a bit shaky. The bitrate seems to be around 15-20 Mbps (sometimes more and sometimes less). Some grain is also visible. In the world of HD-releases, “Young Guns” is not at the top of the list picture wise, but it´s still a decent effort. The film runs 106:43 minutes and is using the “BD-25”-disc. There are 24 chapters. Menu system is powered by “Metamenu” technology and it looks pretty good. Note that the disc is confirmed to be "R0" (packaging states disc is "Region 1”). Review equipment: Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 LCD (1080p) + Playstation 3, via HDMI cable.
Audio
The disc includes 3 audio tracks (2.0-track is not listed in the menu, nor on the back cover); English DTS-HD High Resolution 6.1 ES discrete, English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (at 640 kbps) and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (at 192 kbps). I chose the DTS-HD track, which was downconverted (the HD tracks are backwards compatible) to 1.5 Mbps DTS (equal to “full bitrate” DTS from the selected standard DVDs). At this point my receiver can´t support the full DTS-HD-audio. My receiver also indicated that the track was “ES discrete”. The track can be divided to two categories; action and dialogue. Action-scenes with gunfire are very aggressive and punchy, while the dialogue is lacking some depth. Music is also loud and powerful. Rear channels offer some gunshots and other sound effects - along with music, but some scenes are quite “front heavy”. I have no real complaints with the DTS-HD track, which is very active in the action scenes and pleasant enough in others. English and Spanish subtitles are also included (there are no English HoH subtitles). So far “Lionsgate” have been using “DTS-HD High Resolution” (not Master).
Extras
Most of the extras are ported from the R1 SE DVD, but sadly the Audio commentary is not included. There are no “HD exclusive” extra features and no subtitles for the extras. -“Out of the Blu” advanced -trivia track works within a subtitle stream, bringing pop-up trivia onto the screen throughout the movie. Instead of regular subtitles, the small “box” appears from time to time. Some information about the production and locations (with a small map) is included, but mainly the trivia is taken from the history and there are also some “quotes” from Billy the Kid. Sometimes the vintage words used in the film are explained and sometimes there is “weapons”-trivia. A few actors are also pointed out during the film (e.g. the sons of John Wayne and Jack Palance, and Tom Cruise´s appearance). You also have a “body count” counter and a total of 27 men end up dead in the film. I have to be frank, I doubt that many casual viewers will watch this feature, which would work best while listening to the Audio commentary supporting it. Since the commentary is not included here, this trivia track is not that interesting. Some good info is still included from the historical-point of view. Some info just arrives and disappears way too quick, which can be a bit annoying. -“Billy the Kid - The True Story” -documentary from 2002 runs 30:57 minutes and is presented in 480p standard definition. This quite interesting documentary tells the history (as it´s known) of the real Billy the Kid, told by the historians and researchers. It tells how the cattle rustling petty criminal - fond of saloons and card games - shot a man during a fight and eventually joined an outlaw gang. It was the real John Tunstall who took him under his wings and gave him his first real job. When Tunstall was shot in 1878, The Kid and the other “Regulators” eventually turned into outlaws and in progress The Kid was caught, only to escape again. The end came in 1881, when the famous sheriff Pat Garrett shot The Kid in the dark room, who hesitated to draw his gun. Some fine looking paintings and drawings are included. -Some bonus trailers are included (in 1080p); “Ultimate Avengers II (2006)” (1:40 min), “Crank (2006)” (1:59 min), and the “Lionsgate Blu-ray promo” (2:18 min). The first two also run before the “Main menu” (they can be skipped). This disc is packaged in a standard “blue” case.
Overall
“Young Guns” is not a great western by any means, but still enjoyable and recommended entertainment. Blu-ray-release leaves something to be desired, but is still a fairly decent disc with a good DTS-HD track. For more info, please visit the homepage of Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
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