Blu-ray Review Conrack Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Conrack Blu-ray Review

Inspirational teachers: we’ve all undoubtedly had them somewhere along the way; men and women who pique our curiosity, inspire us to delve deeper into things that interest us, and guide us toward accomplishing something that’s meaningful for our lives. The movies have sometimes done a masterful job in portraying those who are drawn to instructing others; whether it be Mr. Chips, Miss Dove, Sylvia Barrett, or Mr. Holland, the movies have occasionally offered us memorable examples of dedicated individuals for whom imparting knowledge or offering a helping hand to those who crave it is as necessary as breathing. Martin Ritt’s Conrack offers us a look at another such driven individual.

Studio: Fox

Distributed By: Twilight Time

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA

Subtitles: English SDH

Rating: PG

Run Time: 1 Hr. 46 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray

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Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)

Region: All

Release Date: 03/11/2014

MSRP: $29.95

The Production Rating: 4.5/5

Pat Conroy (Jon Voight) comes to the isolated island of Yamacraw off the South Carolina coast to teach in a two-room schoolhouse handling children in grades five through eight. What he finds, however, is a classroom full of children who can’t count, read, or write, know nothing of the world in which they live, and who have been beaten down by their former teacher and school principal Mrs. Scott (Madge Sinclair) to think they’re really not worthy of the time it takes to master such things. Conroy thinks anything is possible and gets down and dirty with his kids to teach them rudimentary facts as well as opening up the world to them as something filled with wonders to be explored. Of course, his unconventional teaching methods don’t go over well with Mrs. Scott or the school superintendent Mr. Skeffington (Hume Cronyn) who simply will not abide the personable Conroy’s unorthodox ideas about what constitutes meaningful education.The script by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. is based on Pat Conroy’s memoir The Water Is Wide, a slightly fictionalized account of his year teaching the almost alien-like children of this Gullah island community. He makes the entire world his classroom as he takes his children beyond the four walls of the school to help them explore life in all its variety. He introduces them to the music of Beethoven and Brahms, he teaches them football and swimming (after he learns the surrounding river and ocean take a few lives each year of residents who simply fear the water so much they’ve never learned to swim), and he gives them instruction on the basics of counting, reading, and writing, enough so that when he’s being threatened with contract termination, his students can actually write testimonials in his behalf.Director Martin Ritt makes each of these field trips into small triumphs as the children begin to have natural curiosity about things, and he keeps his camera on their faces as they listen raptly to their teacher’s chats, hanging on every word as their minds and souls are given much needed intellectual nourishment. We go with them on their first-ever Halloween excursion to Beaufort (quite a contrast to the moody Halloween sequence in Meet Me in St. Louis but in some ways equally as stirring) and watch them seeing their first movie (The Black Rose, a swashbuckler). Sure, the writers and director have stacked the deck in the “us versus them” conflict of the movie. Only stubborn, selfish fools determined to keep these people backward could object to this kind of alternative instruction as the children begin to blossom for the first time, but the unfairness and outrageousness of their actions against the teacher are undoubtedly suitable for the nihilistic era in which the film first appeared (all the ugliness of the Vietnam War protests, the Nixon administration and its scandals were a very negative time). What happens seems typical and unsurprising for the era though there is an ill-advised late scene of Conroy protesting his dismissal around the streets of Beaufort in a campaign truck which emphasizes the movie’s themes a bit too self-consciously.Jon Voight has an actor’s field day with the title role (the children’s Gullah dialects won’t let their mouths form his correct name; even Mrs. Scott calls him “Patroy” through the entire film). His earnestness, determination, and sense of play, joy, and delight as he sees his charges begin to flower are all on display, and he never stops his relentless pursuit for the children’s well-being from beginning to end. Madge Sinclair gives an interesting performance as the demanding but (in her own mind) reasonable Mrs. Scott. Hume Cronyn’s conservative superintendent Mr. Skeffington (an amalgamation of two characters in the book) may be a touch too smug and sure for some, but it’s an effective performance that never quite goes overboard. Tina Andrews as one of the children Pat is the most interested in helping better her life is very successful in her first movie role. Excellent actors like Paul Winfield as the moonshiner Mad Billy and especially Antonio Fargas as local eccentric Mr. Quickfellow must establish themselves with precious little screen time.

Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA

The film’s theatrical Panavision aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is faithfully reproduced in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Though contrast is sometimes a bit irregular and long shots sometimes lack depth, clarity, and sharpness, the image quality and detail for the most part is very good. Color is stable and flesh tones are believable. Black levels vary from only fair to very good (during the Halloween sequence), and the image is free from any age-related specks or debris. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.

Audio Rating: 4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix (the cover art identifies it as DTS-HD MA 1.0, but my receiver said something different) doesn’t offer the greatest fidelity, but the dialogue, music, and sound effects all reside comfortably together without any one element outpacing the others. It’s a mix very typical of its era and without any age-related artifacts like hiss or flutter to mar the listening experience.

Special Features Rating: 3/5

Audio Commentary: film historians Nick Redman and Paul Seydor compare and contrast the book and the film, praising the movie for its achievements and pointing out its flaws and missteps professionally. It’s an interesting listen.Isolated Score and Effects Track: John Williams’ music and the audio effects are presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo.Theatrical Trailer (2:41, SD)Six-Page Booklet: contains a series of color stills, poster art on the back cover, and film historian Julie Kirgo’s illuminating take on the movie.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Conrack is a superbly heartrending and affecting gem, an overlooked film from an era when violence and ugliness in movies often not only was the center of attention but often the only thing getting any kind of attention. This is a film that deserves a rediscovery. There are only 3,000 copies of this Blu-ray available. Those interested should go to www.screenarchives.com to see if product is still in stock. Information about the movie can also be found via Facebook at www.facebook.com/twilighttimemovies.

Reviewed By: Matt Hough

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Good review Matt. I can't wait to listen to the commentary.
I agree with you. It looks great.

Good review! Good movie. Recommended during this sale, esp. at $10.

Kind of off-topic, but am I the only one who has fond memories of Voight in the cornball tear-jerker The Champ from 1979? I wonder if there's any chance of TT doing that movie?

Yeah, I like The Champ, too, though it is very overheated melodrama.

A short time after the book was released but before the movie came out, Pat Conroy was a guest lecturer in a graduate studies program I was taking. He was a very interesting person to talk to, and I only wish it had been years afterward when several of his books had been adapted for films so that he could talk in even more depth about the good and bad in their treatment of his work.

benbess said:

Good review! Good movie. Recommended during this sale, esp. at $10.

Kind of off-topic, but am I the only one who has fond memories of Voight in the cornball tear-jerker The Champ from 1979? I wonder if there's any chance of TT doing that movie?

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Have you seen the 1931 original, with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper?

Dave B Ferris said:

Have you seen the 1931 original, with Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper?

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Just a little clip from it, decades ago. Any thoughts on it? I imagine in some ways it's better than the remake?

Another off-topic comment, but I love Jackie Cooper in Superman!

benbess said:

Just a little clip from it, decades ago. Any thoughts on it? I imagine in some ways it's better than the remake?

Another off-topic comment, but I love Jackie Cooper in Superman!

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If somebody has an aversion to "old" movies, or black-and-white movies, then that person probably would not even watch it, much less think it's better. However, I think most film buffs prefer the original, partly due to the backstory that, if I remember correctly, in real life Beery needed the same kind of watching-over that his character needed in the movie, making Cooper's performance that much more affecting (and miraculous).