Young Guns (Blu-ray) (1988)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	Trivia Featurette-The Real Billy The Kid Trailer-Ultimate Avengers 2
Rating
Year Of Production	1988
Running Time	106:43
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Christopher Cain
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Emilio Estevez Kiefer Sutherland Lou Diamond Phillips Charlie Sheen Dermot Mulroney Casey Siemaszko Terence Stamp Jack Palance Terry O'Quinn
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Brian Banks Anthony Marinelli

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	No Audio Data available for this title
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    But historical accuracy is a bad basis on which to write off the entire film, or any entire film for that matter. The real question here is "is it entertaining?". Well, that also depends on which angle you look at it from. Like any good Western, it has some gorgeous imagery, and the chemistry between the members of the ensemble varies from slightly jarring to downright beautiful (Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland in particular), but the real focus here is on the acting. Emilio Estevez's portrayal of Billy The Kid, as dominated by the myths and fabrications as it is, is probably one of the most memorable. The film follows a loose chronology from the time Antrim meets Tunstall to the time Murphy's thugs gun Tunstall down to the siege at the McSween property. Estevez aside, the heroes of the piece are portrayed by Keifer Sutherland, Dermot Mulroney, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Philips, and Casey Siemaszko. Of this small group, Sutherland and Siemaszko come off the best. Mulroney also puts in a good performance. But make no mistake about it, this is the Emilio Estevez show, through and through.

    I would normally exert myself to write in more detail about the plot of the film, after all, it is an okay piece of entertainment despite all I have been saying. But I have said elsewhere a number of times that the quality of a presentation can have a dramatic effect on how one perceives the content. For a good case study in that, read on...

Video

    In a nutshell, this transfer is bad. No, allow me to repeat this with the proper emphasis: this transfer is BAD. The executive summary is that jagged edges and background pixelisation is all over this transfer to an extent that can only be explained by compression gone horribly wrong.

    The transfer is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 within a 1920 by 1080 window. Whether it is actually progressive or not is also up for debate. As is whether this transfer is not merely an inferior source chucked up to BD.

    When objects are close to the camera, the transfer is acceptably sharp. Not nearly to the extent one expects of Blu-ray, but acceptably sharp. The backgrounds, on the other hand, are so diffuse and harsh that they really warrant a section of their own to list the problems. Low-level noise does not appear to be an issue.

    The colours in the transfer are muted and drab, but this is consistent with the look that was apparently intended by the filmmakers. Browns and greys dominate the palette. One of the few virtues of this transfer is that there is no bleeding or misregistration. Skin tones are quite variable, with actors looking sunburned in one shot and yellow in the next.

    MPEG artefacts are frequently noticed in backgrounds. During the sequence in which we learn that Billy is quite literate, for example, Billy himself is a messy spiral of pixels. And this is by no means an isolated example. A really nasty occurrence at 24:00 robs what is meant to be a pivotal scene of its power. Film-to-video artefacts are also present in the form of aliasing, which was spotted on the opening credits as Tunstall and Skurloc ride into town. Film artefacts were present in small amounts, but well within acceptable limits considering the age of the film, at least where frequency is concerned. A thin vertical line is present at 76:16.

    Subtitles are available in English. They truncate the spoken dialogue somewhat at times.

    Edit, September 18, 2017: In response to some comments made on the review of the Emma BD, I believe that Young Guns is a serious contender for the worst Blu-ray Disc available in this country. I welcome the opportunity to sit with another reviewer and do some A-B comparisons between these two discs, because both fall far, far short of what one should expect as a minimum from the Blu-ray Disc video format. Needless to say, this version of Young Guns should be in the fabled Hall Of Shame.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    A choice of two soundtracks is offered with this BD, both of which are variations on the original English dialogue.

    The first, and default, is a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX soundtrack. The second choice is a DTS HD 6.1 soundtrack. Neither of these soundtracks are lossless, but the DTS option has so much more clarity and separation of the elements that it becomes a non-contest.

    The dialogue is clearer and easier to understand than has been the case in any other medium. The occasional word gets lost here and there, but this is far less of a problem than on previous media. Audio sync does appear to wander at times.

    The score music is by Brian Banks and Anthony Marinelli. It has a certain rustic, country feel that is appropriate to the setting.

    The surround channels are occasionally active to support the gunfights and such directional effects as Chavez's thrown knives. Split surround effects are not heard.

    The subwoofer makes a thud every now and then, usually when one of the larger guns is fired, or the score music really gets going.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Trivia

Featurette - The Real Billy The Kid

    A thirty minute, fifty-seven second featurette. Beginning with the words "legend says that he murdered one man for each of the twenty-one years that he lived", this documentary wastes no time in announcing its intention to be complete b******, pardon my language. It appears to have been similarly upchucked to 1080 resolution, and features Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Trailer - Ultimate Avengers 2

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 1080P, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Total running time one minute and forty seconds.

     Young Guns has been summarised as The Brat Pack In The Wild West. And that really says it all. Under the direction of someone like Clint Eastwood or Sergio Leone, we could have had the definitive biography of Billy The Kid. Regardless of what you think of this film, however, it most certainly deserves a better presentation than this.

    The video transfer is poor. It is poor by DVD standards, and completely unacceptable on BD.

    The audio transfer is acceptable.

    The extras are minimal and unworthy of being spat on in one particular case.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall