Dogfight (1991)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Romance	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	89:36
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Nancy Savoca
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	River Phoenix Lili Taylor Richard Panebianco
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Mason Daring Sarah Class

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

        Before soldiers ship out, they often look for the same thing: a hot date with a pretty lady. The 'Four B's' have a similar quest...but with a twist. Birdlace, Buell, Benjamin and Berzin (the Four B's) are indeed on the lookout for dates, but hot or pretty are not on the agenda. The group have conceived the idea of a contest they call the 'Dogfight'. The idea is for everyone to put $50 into a pool. The members of the 'dogfight' have several hours to find themselves a suitable (that is, the ugliest they can find) date and return to the agreed meeting point for final judgement. The one deemed to have brought the ugliest date will be proclaimed the winner and will win the pool. The 'dogs' are to be treated with the utmost kindness and are under no circumstances are to be told of the real reason behind the dates. As the group is about to be shipped out to Okinawa en route to a little-known country called Vietnam to advise the South of the country on how to fend off the advances of the communist North, the Four B's embark on one last 'Dogfight' before they leave.

    Of all the Bs that are engaged in the 'Dogfight', it's Eddie Birdlace (the late River Phoenix in one of his last roles) that has the most reservations about the game. Still, these are reservations he can never reveal as he would lose the respect of his fellow soldiers, and so he sets out to find his 'dog'. Each go their separate ways in the port of San Francisco on the look-out for the perfect winning date, each with some success. Birdlace, however, finds it the hardest to get the perfect girl. Just when all hope seems lost, he stumbles into Rose's Diner where he finds the right sort of girl. Rose (Lili Taylor), the daughter of the diner's owner (Rose, of course) is just what the contest is about. A plain girl with little sense of hair or make-up fashion, Rose is a budding musician and fan of folk music. Striking up a conversation about music with the timid and somewhat awkward young girl, Eddie invites her to a party that he and his friends are having. At first unsure about going with a complete stranger to a party where she knows no one, Rose builds up the courage to go out as her fear is outweighed by the desire to socialize with others her age. Having second thoughts about the whole game, Eddie half-heartedly tries to talk Rose out of going to the 'party', but she is set on the idea and, as Eddie is committed to the game, he agrees to take her.

    Once at the Nitelite, the place of final judgement, each of the group's dates are judged on their appearance. In the light of a terrible and cruel abuse of his young and unknowing date Rose, Eddie Birdlace must face his own character and come to terms with the fact that his date may just be in reality the girl of his dreams. The only thing is - will she be able to forgive him when she learns the truth behind their 'date'?

      When the 'chick flicks' get dragged out, I'm usually the first one out. I really hate it when it's time to pick a film from the local video store and it's my wife's turn. You know what she'll pick. "Let's get Maid in Manhattan or Picture Perfect or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" or some other crap. She probably thinks the same thing when I pick out The Core, Reign of Fire, Resident Evil or Brotherhood of the Wolf, so I probably shouldn't complain. But sometimes she'll come up with some really good ones. Notting Hill wasn't bad, Bridget Jones's Diary was quite good and I didn't mind Erin Brockovich, either. But of all the 'chick flicks' that I've seen over the years, this one is probably my favourite. This is a great film and one that you guys should really sit down and watch. In fact, if you really want to impress your girl, and neither of you have seen it, pick it up at the local video store unprompted and really take her from left field. This'll earn you brownie points for sure, I promise.

    Directed by Nancy Savoca (The 24 Hour Woman, Murder One - TV, Third Watch - TV), this is a great film that takes a simple idea and with quality writing and fantastic acting performances brings the story to life. While you have the usual period clichés (like the killer soundtrack with the whole early 60s covered in songs of the era) and the hindsight look at the innocence of America pre-Vietnam, this film never relies on these and instead weaves its own web that draws the viewer into a tale of callousness, tenderness and ultimately, love. Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Ransom, Six Feet Under - TV) is great here with a performance that captures the eager and naive youthfulness of Rose. River Phoenix shows just how much the film-going world missed out on the future of a very gifted actor whose career (and life) were cut short way too soon. Well filmed with some good supporting performances, this film is one that any fan of quality cinema shouldn't miss. While it didn't do great things at the box office during its initial release, this is to sell the film way short as it has so much to offer for someone who'll give it the chance. It's been a couple of years since I first saw this great film, and it really has stood up well. I liked watching it again as much as I did when I saw it the first time around, and I can only hope that will be your experience, too. Most highly recommended.

Video

    This film is presented in 1.78:1, near what appears to be the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. There is the expected (nay, demanded) 16x9 enhancement, despite the cover stating that this film is presented with a 16x9 full frame transfer (whatever that is meant to mean).

    The image sharpness here is quite good throughout and although slightly softened by a modicum of film grain, it is still quite good for a film of its age and budget. Shadow detail is adequate and presents the film in a good light with enough dark level fine detail visible to not pose any real problems. I had no issues with low level noise.

    Colour's use during this feature is quite natural and does not lean toward any exaggeration. I found the colours slightly muted, but this could have been due to the film stock used or the look intended by the director. Colour's commitment to this disc is quite good and there seem to be no problems with the transfer to DVD in that respect.

    This disc is formatted as a single layer with the compression rate running at around the 5.50 Mb/s mark. As is the case with many Warner Home Video single layer offerings, the bitrate is quite stable throughout and while not in any Superbit range, still remains able to commit the image to screen without any MPEG macroblocking or pixelization. There is the slightest bit of telecine wobble visible during the credits, but this isn't any sort of issue during the feature. The print used to transfer this film to DVD is quite good with a clean and clear image available throughout. There is only the very occasional nick and fleck visible, and only from time to time.

    There are only two subtitle options here, both plain English as well as English for the Hearing Impaired. I watched most of the film with the plain English subtitles enabled. For the most part, the subtitles were reasonable and matched the spoken word well, but they were not word for word.

    This disc is formatted single layer, and as such, there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio option here, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mix.

    This film is very much dialogue oriented, and it is quite important that the spoken word is covered well. It's a relief that there are no real problems with the audio transfer here in regards to dialogue and the spoken word is quite understandable throughout the programme.

    For the most part, audio sync was very good. The one place that I noticed it to be out was a section at 55:27 were there is some fairly obvious ADR on one of the background characters. His voice is quite audible for several seconds and it becomes obvious that the dialogue has been dubbed in post production. I found this to be an isolated case and for the most part sync seemed quite good.

    Music for this feature come from Mason Daring and Sarah Class. People might recognize Mason's name from such pictures as Eight Men Out, Passion Fish, The Secret of Roan Inish and The Opposite of Sex. Sarah Class's scores primarily are for television productions. The musical score for the film, while not overly memorable, is quite appropriate and suits the material well. There are also a fair number of songs from the early and mid 60s that accompany the film to good effect. These include such artists as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger.

    This audio mix here is a very simple English Dolby Digital 2.0 mix running at a bare minimum 192 Kb/s. Your surround processor might be able to derive some basic atmospheric surround sound, but it won't be anything that sets the world on fire. That's okay, though, as what we do get serves the film well.

    As is the case with the surrounds, so it is with the LFE channel and only the occasional musical passage (very occasional) troubled my subwoofer during the film.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

• Play Movie
• Jump To A Scene (chapter #s and titles but no images. 28 chapters)
• Languages (English Dolby Digital 2.0 only with English subtitles in normal and Hearing Impaired)

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Audio Commentary by Director Nancy Savoca and Producer Richard Guay
• Theatrical Trailer
• Cast & Crew Film Highlights
• French Dolby Digital 2.0 dub
• Spanish and French subtitles

• Amaray Secure Clip case (Region 1 gets the old Snapper case)

    The video is reasonable with a mostly trouble free 16x9 enhanced transfer.

    The audio is a simple 2.0 mix that serves the film well without a lot of frills.

    Unlike the Region 1 version, this disc is devoid of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall