UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - Ronin -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Worth]

The script was written by J. D. Zeik and Richard Weisz.

Richard Weisz is David Mamet's nom de plume.

 

[Kyle_D]

The script was written by J. D. Zeik and Richard Weisz.

"Richard Weisz" is a pseudonym for David Mamet.

EDIT: Did not see Worth's comment before I posted. Also, the shooting script was almost entirely written by Mamet. Zeik received credit because he wrote the first draft, but it was heavily re-written by Mamet.

 

[JoshZ]

"Richard Weisz" is a pseudonym for David Mamet.

EDIT: Did not see Worth's comment before I posted. Also, the shooting script was almost entirely written by Mamet. Zeik received credit because he wrote the first draft, but it was heavily re-written by Mamet.

There's at least some dispute about how much each writer is actually responsible for. Zeik insisted that the movie was mostly his and that Mamet only came in for a last-minute polish to expand Robert De Niro's role, but John Frankenheimer contradicted that and gave all the credit to Mamet, even going so far as to say that he didn't shoot a line of Zeik's screenplay. When Zeik went to the WGA for arbitration, Frankenheimer retracted his comment and made a conciliatory statement saying that Zeik deserved primary credit after all.

Mamet demanded the pseudonym as he didn't want his name on a movie unless he was given sole writing credit.

I have no idea how much Zeik really did or didn't write, but I will say that most of the dialogue sounds like it came from Mamet's pen. The movie seems to have a lot more of his imprint than just a few scenes to beef up De Niro's screen time, as Zeik claimed.

 

[Kyle_D]

I have no idea how much Zeik really did or didn't write, but I will say that most of the dialogue sounds like it came from Mamet's pen. The movie seems to have a lot more of his imprint than just a few scenes to beef up De Niro's screen time, as Zeik claimed

Agreed. If you're familiar with Mamet's style, the dialog is immediately recognizable as his.

 

[Kyle_D]

Out of curiosity, I searched for a copy of Zeik’s draft online and something popped up without too much effort. I won’t link it here because I can’t verify that it’s legit. I only skimmed through it, but if what I read is real and was the last draft that Zeik turned in, Frankenheimer’s initial comments on proper credit were accurate. Zeik is responsible for the basic skeleton of the story, but very little of his scene work survived. Mamet wrote just about every scene and line of dialog that made it into the finished film.

 

[cda1143]

Out of curiosity, I searched for a copy of Zeik’s draft online and something popped up without too much effort. I won’t link it here because I can’t verify that it’s legit. I only skimmed through it, but if what I read is real and was the last draft that Zeik turned in, Frankenheimer’s initial comments on proper credit were accurate. Zeik is responsible for the basic skeleton of the story, but very little of his scene work survived. Mamet wrote just about every scene and line of dialog that made it into the finished film.

Much appreciated. That said, the story does have good bone structure.

 

[Robin9]

Richard Weisz is David Mamet's nom de plume.

Thank you. I didn't know that.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Something unexpected happened today, I played a 4k disc that exceeded my expectations. Ronin on 4k is as good as everyone says. The film itself is only dated by some of the tech and, of course, by the lack of CG (this is a very good thing). Old fashioned filmmaking at it's best.

 

[JoshZ]

The film itself is only dated by some of the tech and, of course, by the lack of CG (this is a very good thing).

The smoke around the squealing tires was CG, and has dated pretty badly. (Well, actually, it looked pretty bad even at the time.) The car chases and stunts were otherwise practical, however.

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched the Ronin 4K disc Friday night, I want to compare to the Blu ray I have from Arrow. As far as I can see, it looks great for sure! But I am not sure which areas really are improved over the earlier releases, I have each release, DVD and blu ray from MGM, Arrow blu ray and now the 4K. The kind of stuff I was noticing mostly was skin texture on Natascha McElhone’s face. I could see some fine grain in the initial scenes in the warehouse as Deirdre is giving the crew the mission overview. Oh, and the initial shots of the VW van as it drive into the warehouse while it’s raining, I noticed the rain. And maybe because I’m watching on a larger screen, I finally noticed the BMW M5 badge in the car chase.

About the use of CGI, yes, I could see the fake smoke coming from only one shot, when Sam and Vincent get into the gold Mercedes and goes after the Citroen’s. That backwards 180 Vincent does is clearly early CGi smoke work. Then the only other processed shot I noticed even in the DVD was after Sam is shot and Vincent is driving to Jean-Pierre’s house to give Sam first aid, the view out the car’s windows is not real. It looks like it was shot in the studio and the mountain road was green screen work.