Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Gallery-Photo Trailer-Eagle Entertainment trailers x 6, but none for this film
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	95:35
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Curt A. Sindelar
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Christopher Serrone Michael Conner Humphreys Philip De Lorenzo Jon Ashley Hall Daniel Limb Billy Reynolds
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$29.95	Music	Chris Hurn Philip Delorenzo Lolli Turner & Steve Averill

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers is “based upon the untold true story”: on the night before D-Day, a group of American pathfinders dropped into Normandy to mark the drop zones with beacons and lights for the paratroops who would spearhead the invasion of Nazi occupied France. As the story has it, the Pathfinders were a scratch team assembled from volunteers from different airborne units in the last weeks before D-Day. Their drop zone in Normandy turned out to be in the middle of a German infantry regiment, and they had only 30 minutes to set up the beacons that would guide the invasion’s paratroopers. The point is made that if they fail, the paradrops fail, so the invasion fails. One wonders if the fate of the invasion, and the war, would really rest on such a slender thread.

     Pathfinders is not a good film. The dialogue and acting are strictly B-feature and the lack of a budget is always apparent. There are no wide establishing shots of the camp, the airfield, or the French countryside: we get to see one tent and one DC-3 on an open field. There are also numerous characters, who are mostly indistinguishable from each other and who mostly sit around talking while the romantic subplot between Captain McRoberts (Christopher Serrone) and an English girl is poorly written and intrusive. Of the pathfinders, the few who do stand out include Lieutenant Weaver (Ryan Findley), Livingstone (Michael Conner Humphreys) and Pfc. Rigs (Billy Reynolds).

     Once the group parachute into France, the film does build some interest. In the dark, with scattered paratroopers in small groups wandering around bumping into Germans, the low budget restrictions can be more easily hidden – the darkness covers the lack of depth and detail and all you need is a few weapons and a few actors, no more than 5 or 6 in any scene. You can also get away with limited equipment – one open car, a motorcycle and a few soldiers in grey represent the German defenders. In these sequences the film does capture the chaotic nature of hedgerow fighting in the dark, with fire and sounds coming from everywhere, and it builds a tension as the soldiers try to set up the beacons in time to guide the incoming aircraft. Yet even here the pacing and editing is uneven, with some shots held for a long time, seemingly at random.

     While Pathfinders does hold some interest once the troops get into Normandy and tells a little known story about an undoubtedly brave group of men, the chunky dialogue, wooden acting and miniscule budget undermine an interesting story that certainly should be told.

Video

    Pathfinders is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which I suspect is the original ratio, in 1080p.

     The colours have been desaturated: they are dull and drab with browns, khaki, greys and dull greens throughout. Skin tones thus took on a copper tone. Blacks were good, and shadow detail mostly OK, although there did seem to be some murky patches. When it counted, however, in the fighting in the dark, detail was fine. I did not notice any marks or artefacts.

     The English subtitles come in a combination of white, yellow, blue and green text and follow the dialogue exactly (from the portion I sampled). Extra audio information is fairly limited.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     Audio choice was English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1. Dialogue occasionally was indistinct, but it really didn’t matter as little of interest was being said. The surrounds were used for ambience and gunshots, but there we no panning effects worth noting and the shots, and especially the explosions of hand grenades, were bland and lacking in oomph. The subwoofer was fairly subdued, mostly ambient noise.

     The music is credited to Chris Hurn, Philip Delorenzo, Lilli Turner and Steve Averill. It did a reasonable job of supporting the visuals without being memorable.

     Lip Synchronisation was fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Trailers

     Trailers for other films from Eagle Entertainment: The Bridge (1:06), The Airlift (3:50), The Trial (2:02), Manolete (1:46), Like Dandelion Dust (2:30), and The Good, The Debt (2:13).

     There was no trailer for Pathfinders included although I know one exists as it appears on other Eagle titles I have recently reviewed. The company seems to have taken the decision not to include in the extras package of films they release the film’s trailer; I may be alone, but I do like to see them and the Madman system of including a film’s trailer, plus other trailers, is better.

Image Gallery

     18 film images. Background music, use the remote to advance.

     I could not find a Blu-ray release of the film in any other region at present. There is a Region B UK DVD release, specifications unknown. Our release is fine.

     While Pathfinders does hold some interest once the troops get into Normandy, and tells a little known story about an undoubtedly brave group of men, the chunky dialogue, wooden acting and miniscule budget undermine an interesting story that certainly should be told.

     The video and audio are nothing you would use to show off the advantages of Blu-ray. Extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall