Class Action (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	105:04
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (40:01)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Michael Apted
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Gene Hackman Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Colin Friels Joanna Merlin Laurence Fishburne Donald Moffat Jan Rubes Matt Clark Fred Dalton Thompson Jonathan Silverman Joan McMurtrey Anne Ramsay David Byron
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	James Horner Diane Warren

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 4.0 L-C-R-S (448Kb/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)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Bulgarian Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish French German Greek Italian Portuguese Spanish Swedish Turkish French Titling German Titling Italian Titling Spanish Titling	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Courtroom dramas have long been a staple of Hollywood, from the 1930s with I Stand Accused through Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremburg, To Kill a Mockingbird, 12 Angry Men and many many more. I generally enjoy the genre, especially when there is more to the story than just the court case, which is certainly true of this film.

    Class Action is a well made courtroom drama which also has important plotlines about the relationship between a father and a daughter, the tensions caused by the generation gap, infidelity in marriage, the different meanings of 'doing the right thing' and ultimately redemption. The main characters are Jed Ward (Gene Hackman), a curmudgeonly legend of the law, who has made a name for himself by being a defender of the weak and his daughter Maggie Ward (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a successful corporate lawyer for a large law firm. Their relationship is strained due to his previous infidelity and domineering ways. Jed is representing a group of complainants against Argo Motors, who are accused of manufacturing a car which they knew to be faulty and liable to explode. Maggie is trying to get promoted to partner in her law firm and accordingly asks for the case to be assigned to her, as her firm represents Argo. This sets up a courtroom showdown. Other characters of note include Maggie's boss & lover, Michael Grazier (Colin Friels with a very bad American accent) and Jed's associate in his small law firm, Nick Holbrook (Lawrence 'Larry' Fishburne).

    The best thing about this film is the interplay between Hackman and Mastrantonio, both of who put in excellent performances. There are some dated elements here including cultural references and some 'power suits', however, these don't really affect the dramatic tension. The film is directed by Michael Apted of 7-up and The World is Not Enough fame and his direction obviously elicited great performances from his cast.

    If you like a good courtroom or relationship drama, or you are a fan of one of the leading players, this film is certainly worth a look.

Video

    The video quality is good but not spectacular.

    The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is most likely the original aspect ratio (although I have no information proving it).

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp, with no evidence of low level noise, although it was a bit soft and included some light grain. Many scenes had quite a smoky background but this may have been an artistic choice. Shadow detail was nothing special.

    The colour was generally pretty good and well saturated although not vibrant.

    There were very few artefacts with only one spot of minor aliasing on some Venetians at 69:01 and some minor specks here and there.

    There are subtitles in 12 languages including English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read. There are also titles for the foreign language soundtracks.

    The layer change occurs at 40:01 and is extremely well hidden.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains five audio options, an English Dolby Digital 4.0 (L-C-R-S) soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks in German, French, Spanish & Italian. Despite the surround channel, the soundtrack was very front and centre focussed as you would expect from a dialogue driven film.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by James Horner does not really stand out due to the nature of the film.

    The surround speakers had very minimal use, just adding some atmosphere.

    The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Nothing, nada, zip, zero.

Menu

    The menu was still, silent and gave access to scene selection and audio/subtitle options.

    This film has not yet been released in Region 1 and is available in exactly the same form in Region 2. Let's call it a draw.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall