Fugitive, The (Blu-ray) (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Introduction-Andrew Davis (Director) Audio Commentary-Andrew Davis (Director) & Tommy Lee Jones (Actor) Featurette-Making Of-Derailed: Anatomy Of A Train Wreck Featurette-Making Of-On The Run Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	130:14
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Andrew Davis
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Harrison Ford Tommy Lee Jones Sela Ward Joe Pantoliano Andreas Katsulas Jeroen Krabbe
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$29.95	Music	James Newton Howard

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 French Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), a respected vascular surgeon, has everything he could want out of life; a supportive, loving wife, Helen (Sela Ward), and a successful career to boot. His life is turned upside down when he is unexpectedly called to the hospital late one evening, leaving his wife at home, alone. On his return he encounters an intruder in their home who escapes, and Richard finds his wife murdered in their bedroom. It turns out Richard is the sole beneficiary of his wife's substantial life insurance payout, which leads the police to point their finger squarely in his direction.

    Although Richard insists he fought off a one-armed intruder at the scene, the evidence against him is overwhelming, as he is swiftly sentenced to be put to death by lethal injection. Richard is resigned to his fate, but is amazingly freed in a security bungle while being transferred from custody to prison. U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) has to bring the escapee into custody, so he pursues Kimble with every resource he has access to; dogs, choppers, the works. At the same time, a very resourceful Kimble uses all of his talents, trying to find the elusive one-armed man, but his instinct to help others is nearly his undoing on several occasions. As the marshals trace Kimble's footsteps and draw ever closer, they begin to realise Kimble my be telling the truth about his wife's demise. Who is the one-armed man, and what's his agenda? Kimble will uncover facts about his wife's murder that reveal staggering corruption within industry and justice.

    This is a very tense, highly involving thriller, superbly directed by Andrew Davis. Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones are a stunning on-screen pair, who are in command of the screen during every scene. This is a classic of the genre, often imitated, that stands up to multiple viewings.

    The standard definition Special Edition DVD was reviewed by my colleague DarrenW here.

Video

    The 1080p transfer has been presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, very tight to the edges of the native 16x9 frame. I have no source for comparison, but I suspect the matte has been opened a little for this transfer, adding more image to the top and bottom of the original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect.

    Initially, I presumed the source for this transfer would have to be the remaster, released on DVD in 2001. That Special Edition transfer had been slightly manipulated to remove a stray crewmember from a shot after the major train crash. Strangely, the stray crewmember has returned in this transfer, which indicates to me we have an entirely new presentation of the film.

    Although it appears a little soft when compared to other transfers, I'm certain this presentation is superior to the standard definition DVD. The level of detail is good, visible in the character's hair at 24:20. Footage of the cityscape, such as at the film's opening, fares the worst in terms of detail. Having said that, there is plenty of depth in indoor scenes, evidenced by particularly nice example of perspective at 38:20. Blacks are deep and rich, with only the mildest degree of grain to be found. Shadow detail is quite realistic.

    The film's colour scheme is bold and realistic, without any oversaturation or rendering issues.

    The video stream has been compressed using the MPEG2 codec, with no dire compression issues to report. The only artefact I would attribute to compression can be found at 114:22, where a beam of light coming from the helicopter has noticeable stepping in the shades from light to dark. It's not an overly distracting issue, but if you're purposefully seeking out artefacts like me, its easy to see. Some film artefacts are present, but never extend beyond tiny specs of dust and dirt. I noted some minor telecine wobble in the film's opening scenes, but this is not likely to be a major issue to most viewers. There is no edge enhancement to be seen.

    Two English subtitle streams are available, and they appear to roughly follow the dialogue. I viewed a few scenes with the subtitles enabled and didn't notice any distracting problems with the text.

    The Blu-ray release has been authored on a single layered, BD-25 formatted disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are four soundtracks to choose from. The default soundtrack is a perfectly serviceable English Dolby Digital 5.1 effort. I also sampled the dubbed French and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround options. The fourth soundtrack is an audio commentary, also presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround.

    The English dialogue is always clear and succinct. There are no distracting ADR issues in the slightest. Audio sync is perfect.

    I didn't find the default English soundtrack particularly sharp, but there was enough depth to make the experience quite involving. The surround channels are utilised to carry the score and a few atmospheric effects in key scenes. The famous train crash sequence also uses the rear channels to great effect. Voices are generally confined to the front centre channel.

    The score by James Newton Howard has a contemporary orchestral feel, with some very nice percussive elements added to build tension. It's not the kind of theme you'll be humming in your head, but it does do an effective job.

    The subwoofer is used sparingly to add low frequency effects only where necessary, such as the loud crash at 16:30. This isn't the kind of film that demands a consistently rumbling bottom end, so I feel the right approach has been taken here.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    All of these extra features are standard definition only, ported from the old Special Edition DVD. Only the rather silly introduction is 16x9 enhanced.

Menu

Audio Commentary- Andrew Davis (Director) & Tommy Lee Jones (Actor)

    This is a decent commentary, certainly worth your time. Jones and Davis are in different locations, communicating via telephone. Davis explains some of the early character development and character building techniques that were used in the story, as well as his experiences working with the studio. The Director also discusses editing decisions he was forced to make, while pointing out some humorous continuity goofs. I was interested to learn that Jones spent time with actual U.S. Marshals when researching his role.

Featurette- Introduction with Davis, Ford and Jones (1:50)

    Filmed in 2001 for the Special Edition DVD, this weird piece doesn't seem to serve any real purpose.

Featurette- On The Run With the Fugitive (23:04)

    A decent look behind the scenes, as the Director, crew and several cast members discuss the early stages of production, the script, casting, and humorous happenings on set.

Featurette- Derailed: Anatomy of a Train Wreck (8:53)

    This piece dissects the train crash scene that, surprisingly, was achieved without miniatures or CG effects. At the end of this featurette, the producer explains an alteration he made to this transfer, digitally removing a stray crewmember from a shot. Strangely, the cut he mentions is completely untouched in the transfer on this disc.

Theatrical Trailer (1:59)

    A pretty conventional trailer that uses a few shots, camera angles and passages of dialogue not present in the final film.

    The overall transfer is good, but doesn't exactly push the format to its boundaries.

    The extras are brief, but insightful.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall