Lone Star

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 1.78:1 16x9 DD 2.0
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1995	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	129:57 minutes	Other Extras	Main Menu Audio
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (61:58)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	John Sayles
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Ron Canada Chris Cooper Clifton James Kris Kristofferson Matthew McConaughey Frances McDormand Joe Morton Elizabeth Pena
Case	Transparent Amaray
RPI	$36.95	Music	Mason Daring

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	2.0
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mildly
		Action In or After Credits	No

    A 40-year-old skeleton is discovered in the desert, and Sam Deeds rapidly becomes convinced that the skeleton is none other than Sheriff Charlie Wade, and he sets about finding out the truth about what happened to Wade all those years ago.

    Of itself, this is not nearly enough material to last the distance, but writer/director John Sayles adds many layers of complexity to this story, told elegantly by way of periodic flashbacks. This movie could easily have descended to the depths of a pedestrian whodunit, but it easily does not because of the intricate way in which this story has been fleshed out with complex and intriguing characters, and complex back story. There are no flashy gun battles here, nor any thrilling chase sequences, but merely well-written, well-acted and well-directed drama, something that we don't often see in film these days.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is very sharp indeed, with enormous amounts of fine detail visible throughout, including in the backgrounds of shots. At times, some minor edge enhancement rears its ugly head, with black outlines around some of the foreground objects and the occasional white halo visible, but this is not too distracting. Shadow detail is immaculate, with plenty of detail visible within the shadows of this frequently-dark movie. No low-level noise mars the image.

    The colours were accurately rendered, with deep and rich colours the order of the day.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing was generally absent except for a number of scenes involving venetian blinds which shimmered moderately. Film artefacts were generally absent, however, they did appear periodically in bursts, particularly at around the 99 minute mark of the movie.

    This disc is an RSDL DVD, with the moderately lengthy layer change placed at 61:58.
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue was easy to understand most of the time, but there were significant sections of dialogue that were all but unintelligible, requiring a lot of concentration to understand. This was partly the result of the quite thick accents on offer during this film, partly the result of some mumbling on the part of some of the actors, and partly the result of the often extreme levels of hiss evident in this soundtrack. Clearly all of the dialogue in this movie was captured on location, with the resultant lack of quality that this often entails. Audio sync was not a problem.

    The score by Mason Daring was limited in scope to some ambient cues, with most of the music for this movie being comprised of Mexican and 50s Rock 'n' Roll tunes. The music suited the film's themes and purposes nicely, without being particularly stand-out.

    The surround channel was fundamentally silent, only contributing the occasional echo or reverberation. The only time there was any significant surround presence was during the drive-in sequence, where car horns were placed in the rear channel. Otherwise, this was pretty much strictly a front hemispheric mix.

    The .1 channel had limited use only.
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Distortion/Dropouts/Hiss
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Main Menu Audio

Theatrical Trailer

    The video is of excellent quality.

    The audio quality is of poor quality.

    The extras are basic and limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
11th August 2000