Joe Kidd (1972) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Western |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1972 | ||
Running Time | 83:54 (Case: 85) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Subtitle Select Then Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | John Sturges |
Studio
Distributor |
Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Clint Eastwood Robert Duvall John Saxon |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $19.95 | Music | Lalo Schifrin |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English French German Italian Spanish Portuguese Dutch Swedish Danish Finnish Norwegian Hebrew Arabic Russian Turkish Greek |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is a retired bounty hunter living on a small ranch. The area in which he is living is subject to a number of land rights claims by Mexican ranchers. Their claims are opposed by wealthy land baron Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall). Harlan hires Kidd to track down Luis Chama (John Saxon), the leader of the Mexican ranchers. During the ensuing chase, Kidd realises he is on the wrong side and that Harlan and his hired guns must be stopped. Together, Kidd and Chama take on Harlan's gang.
With the exception of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood is the consummate Western Hero. Eastwood has spent the last 40 years bringing the Western epic to the silver screen, with films such as: A Fistful Of Dollars; For A Few Dollars More; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly; Hang em High; High Plains Drifter; Two Mules For Sister Sarah; The Outlaw Josey Wales; Pale Rider; and Unforgiven dotting his resume. In the cases of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Josey Wales and Unforgiven, he has made unquestionably three of the greatest Westerns of all time.
It is a shame then that Joe Kidd is such a mediocre experience. There is nothing particularly wrong with the film, it just doesn't have the class or panache of those listed above. The direction is pedestrian and lacking in pace. The cinematography doesn't capture the panoramic vistas so prevalent in Eastwood's other Western outings, and the characters are not all that interesting. With the notable exception of Sergio Leone, no other director has been able to capture Clint Eastwood to best effect in a Western film other than Eastwood himself. This is never more obvious than in Joe Kidd. I get the feeling that if Clint had done double duty as Star/Director as he usually does with the genre, the film would have improved ten-fold. However, for all its faults, Joe Kidd is still enjoyable and deserving of a look.
Joe Kidd is presented in an aspect ratio of 2:35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
Sharpness levels were fairly strong, but I did notice minor edge enhancement throughout the transfer. This was more noticeable during the daylight sequences. The shadow detail was left wanting, with the picture losing depth and background detail in some areas. There was occasional grain on the transfer, but nothing obtrusive. The transfer had no low level noise issues.
Colours were natural, if somewhat washed out, but as the film is 30 years old this was acceptable.
The transfer had occasional film artefacts, but mostly of the dark variety so they did not stand out too much. The only exception to this was at the 8 minute mark where a vertical line appears to the right of centre and remains in place for about 2 minutes. Thankfully, the line is wafer thin.
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Overall |
There are five 2.0 Dolby Digital audio tracks on this disc. They are English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The English is the preferred choice.
Dialogue is always clear and there are no audio sync problems.
The film's music is by Lalo Schifrin, a favourite of Eastwood's. The score accompanies the film well and is not intrusive.
There was very little evidence of surround channel usage. The majority of the sound was directed to the centre speaker with the exception of the score which could be heard on either side. The film's nature did not really warrant a dynamic mix and this was not missed.
The subwoofer does what little it can but was hardly noticeable.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
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Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The R1 misses out on a 16x9 enhanced transfer, making the Region 4 version of this DVD clearly the version of choice.
Joe Kidd is a moderately entertaining film. The disc has a decent audio / visual presentation with no extras.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | LG 76cm Widescreen Flatron Television. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Sony HT-K215. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Sony HT-K215 |
Speakers | fronts-paradigm titans, centre &rear Sony - radio parts subbie |