The Fugitive

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Running Time	125 minutes	Commentary Tracks	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Other Extras	Cast/Crew Biographies
Region	4
Distributor	Warner Brothers
RRP	$29.95

    He is placed on a bus to be transferred to a maximum security prison to await his death sentence. However, the bus crashes onto some train tracks with a train coming, and in a spectacular action sequence, Dr Kimball manages to escape.

    The U.S. Marshals are called in to track him down, led by Deputy Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones).

    Dr Kimball finds his way into a hospital, tends to the wounds caused by the bus and train crash, and then steals an ambulance and attempts a getaway. He is cornered in a tunnel, but escapes into an underground storm water drain. A pivotal sequence occurs here between Dr Kimball and Sam Gerard, where they face each other, and Dr Kimball declares that "I didn't kill my wife" and Sam Gerard replies "I don't care". Dr Kimball, having nothing to lose, makes another spectacular escape.

    Dr Kimball returns to Chicago, and finds his way into his old hospital where he searches the records of the orthotics and prosthetics department (the department that makes artificial limbs). Based on his recollection of his wife's attacker, he narrows down his search to five people.

    One of these five people are in prison, and Dr Kimball visits him there, only to have another narrow escape from Deputy Gerard. He eventually finds the man who killed his wife and breaks into his apartment. Here, he discovers a connection with a pharmaceutical company that he was recently involved with. He gathers further information from the hospital, and discovers a multi-billion dollar fraud.

    He puts two and two together and comes up with Dr Charles Nichols (Jeroen Krabbe) who has an enormous amount to gain from the fraud. Dr Nichols is presenting at a cardiology conference, and Dr Kimball confronts him there. Several tense chase sequences follow before Dr Nichols is apprehended and Sam Gerard acknowledges Dr Kimball's innocence.

Video

    The movie was razor sharp at all times. Shadow detail was superb with clear shadow details and not a trace of noise. This is yet another movie with a lot of dark scenes - these movies really benefit from DVD's lack of low level noise.

    The colour is perfectly rendered throughout the transfer.

    One very large and very serious MPEG artefact was seen. This occurred at 80:22, where Dr Kimball is leaving the St Patrick's Day parade to escape Deputy Gerard. The bottom half of the screen completely breaks up into pixelization for approximately 1/2 second. It then returns to the usual pristine quality of the remainder of the transfer. This was not rectified by thoroughly cleaning the disc, nor was there any obvious physical defect visible on the disc to account for this error. This problem has been reported by at least one other person, so this appears to be a mastering fault rather than an isolated defective disc. This defect is not present in the Region 1 DVD, so it appears that this is a fault in the glass master used to create these DVDs. This is a real pity, as otherwise this disc is nearly flawless in the video quality.

    Film-to-video artefacts were few and far between, except for some minor shimmer and moiré effects seen in a few of the scenes involving venetian blinds (such as in one of the elevator scenes) and a few scenes involving cars. The opening titles were marginally wobbly, but not badly so. There was one significant film artefact noted, at 90:30, where a moderately large spot appears to the right side of the one-armed man's head momentarily.

Audio

    Dialogue was generally clear and intelligible, except for some difficulty in scenes with a lot of ambient noise.

    The music is suited to the movie, and oftentimes is mixed around all 5.1 channels creating a very enveloping effect. Split surrounds are used in the music mix with good effect at times. An excellent example of this is the opening credits where the music envelops you and quickly draws you into the movie.

     The surround channels were used frequently to create an ambient soundfield and as mentioned above to spread the music around the listener. They are also very effectively used during the effects sequences, with enveloping explosions and crashes.

    The .1 channel was used frequently and with good effect in this movie, helping to add significant slam and excitement to the action sequences.

    The video is reference quality except for the significant picture artefact mentioned above. This is most unfortunate, and it will be interesting to see if Warners Australia recall this disc and fix this glitch.

    The audio quality is excellent with an enveloping and involving soundtrack. Dialogue was occasionally hard to hear, but this was generally not a problem. The surrounds were used aggressively and well.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Michael Demtschyna
4th October 1998