Harry Tracy (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	102:25
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	William A. Graham
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Bruce Dern Helen Shaver Michael C. Gwynne Gordon Lightfoot Jacques Hubert Daphne Goldrick Lynne Kolber Alex Willows Frank C. Turner Fred Diehl Charles Siegel Jack Ackroyd Suzie Payne
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Micky Erbe Maribeth Solomon

    This Canadian film stars Bruce Dern as real-life American criminal Harry Tracy, who escaped from prison in Oregon in 1902, killing three guards and a fellow inmate in the process, sparking one of the biggest manhunts in American history to that time. He evaded capture for a couple of months, eventually making his way to Seattle.

    This is a low-key, somewhat elegiac film about this outlaw which seems to be fictionalised for the screen. While the basic facts of his escape are true, there is a female character who appears in none of the accounts of this event that I have read. The film is not particularly good, with some dull stretches and not much drama or suspense. Dern gives a very good performance as the title character, but I am not sure how true to the original his portrayal is.

    The portrayal of the Old West of the turn of last century looks quite realistic, as the production is mostly outdoors and has a grimy, dirty look to it. The clothes of the characters look lived in and their behaviour is mostly idiomatic, unlike westerns of the 1950s and earlier. This film might play better if the transfer was not problematic.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This is a pan and scan transfer of the original, but I have not been able to ascertain the original ratio.

    This is a pretty dismal transfer. It looks like it was taken from a video master, and is not very sharp. There is a distinct graininess to the image which is distracting. It looks like it was filmed through gauze at times. The colour is also poor. It looks quite washed out, and the special effects blood looks more like satay sauce.

    The transfer has a considerable amount of telecine wobble, most noticeable in the opening credits. There is a severe example of overmodulation at 5:40 at the top of the screen, on the prison bars. There is also an amount of dirt and white flecks visible on the film throughout.

    This is a single layered disc with no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The sole audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0.

    This is a badly flawed audio transfer. The sound is muffled and indistinct, and dialogue is not always easy to understand. This film was a chore to listen to as a result. There is a high level of hiss present throughout the film.

    The music score is by Micky Erbe and Maribeth Solomon. This score is very dated sounding, as if it was written for a 1970s TV series, and while it is generally appropriate for this film I found it slightly distracting as it draws attention to itself more than complementing the action.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    No extras of any substance are provided.

Main Menu Audio

    The menu has some music from the film.

    This film does not seem to have been released on DVD in any other region.

    A fairly dull film, this isn't really worth watching unless you are a Bruce Dern completist.

    The video quality is very poor.

    The audio quality is abysmal.

    There are no extras to speak of.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall