Wrong Is Right (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-Dr. Strangelove, Finding Forrester, First Knight
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	112:44
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Richard Brooks
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Sean Connery George Grizzard Robert Conrad Katharine Ross John Saxon Henry Silva Hardy Krüger Toby Hughes G.D. Spradlin Leslie Nielsen Paul Lambert Robert Webber Jennifer Jason Leigh
Case	?
RPI	$9.95	Music	Artie Kane

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish 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 German Spanish Dutch Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hindi Hungarian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Now, here's a odd little film. Made in 1982 and starring Sean Connery, this is a strange combination of satirical black comedy and thriller which seems rather confused about what it is trying to be. The film which it reminds me of most, without being vaguely in the same class, is Dr Strangelove. I think this is the sort of film they set out to make, but unfortunately the writing is just not up to that standard. One thing that really jumps out at you about this film, though, is that so much of what goes on in the film reminds you of events of recent years, such as bombs on the Twin Towers, suicide bombers, Islamic fundamentalism, the power of the media and other similar themes.

    Wrong is Right is set in an imaginary future world (at least for 1982) when a TV journalist, Patrick Hale (Sean Connery) has incredible access to world leaders and the US Vice President, whom in this film is a black woman. Hale is sent for by his old friend, King Awad from Hagreb in North Africa. Hale goes out see him but along the way runs into American reporter Sally Blake, and rescues an arms dealer in the desert, Helmut Unger. When the reporter gets killed by a bomber, Hale contacts the local CIA operative Homer Hubbard (John Saxon). He finds out that King Awad has been meeting with a terrorist called Rafeeq, and that Unger has two atomic bombs to sell to the highest bidder. The US presidential race is also going on at the same time, between the incumbent President Lockwood and ex-president, Senator Mallory (Leslie Nielson). When Rafeeq makes threats against the United States, Hale uses it as an opportunity to get better TV coverage and both of the candidates try to make political mileage out of it. Meanwhile, Joint Chief of Staff General Wombat (he, he, he) wants to bomb anyone who could be hiding terrorists (spooky). If this plot synopsis sounds a bit confusing, that's because the film is.

    I cannot really overly recommend this film, however I did find it interesting to see. As a comedy it is not funny enough, and as a thriller it is just too confusing. The special effects are diabolical with shots of satellites from space obviously being drawings and explosions looking like firecrackers. The film was written and directed by 8 time Oscar nominated writer and director Richard Brooks, the man responsible for films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This film is based upon a very interesting premise, and it is a great shame that it did not come together in the end product.

    If you enjoy political satire or are a Sean Connery completist, then this may be worth a look. The price tag is certainly cheap enough.

Video

    The video quality is pretty good for a film of this age but not without issues.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and 16x9 enhanced, which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow Detail was fine but not spectacular. There was light grain present throughout but it was not distracting.

    The colour was fine with no major issues. As you would expect with a film of this vintage it was a little dull compared to more recent films.

    With regard to film artefacts, I noticed some occasional black specks, however generally this was a nice clean print. In film-to-video artefacts I noticed some mild edge enhancement and some spots of aliasing, such as on a grill at 15:12 and some venetians at 52:50.

    There are subtitles in 16 languages including English. The English subtitles were clear, easy to read and virtually exact to the spoken word.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is fine but mono.

    This DVD contains three audio options, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s and the same in German and Spanish.

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

    The score of this film by Artie Kane is pretty much stolen from many other films including Lawrence of Arabia.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu was very simple, still and silent. It allowed for access to scenes, audio and subtitle options.

Trailers

   Trailers are included for Dr Strangelove, Finding Forrester and First Knight.

    This film has been released in Region 1 is basically the same format except that the Region 1 disc has only an English soundtrack and a smaller selection of subtitles. May as well call it a tie.

    A strange and confused political satire/thriller.

    The video quality is pretty good.

    The audio quality is fine.

    No extras of note.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall