Blu-ray Review Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean Blu-ray Review

In the early 1980s, director Robert Altman set about filming in Super 16mm and with tiny budgets small plays with his unique cinematic eye. Along with the harrowingly dramatic Streamers, he filmed a comedy-drama he had originally directed (none too successfully) for the Broadway stage: Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. It’s a director and actors tour de force allowing these fine craftsmen to capture subtleties and nuances that would have been missed in a theatrical performance while still maintaining a theatrical feel for the material. As a dramatic piece, though, the play doesn’t always work deftly, telegraphing its surprises sometimes too blatantly and dragging its feet for too tiny a response, but the staging is clever and involving, the performances are eerily moving, and the soul-bearing revelations that come forth before the show ends will leave a mark on your consciousness.

Studio: Paramount

Distributed By: Olive

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HDMA (Mono)

Subtitles: None

Rating: PG

Run Time: 1 Hr. 50 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray

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Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 11/18/2014

MSRP: $39.95

The Production Rating: 3.5/5

On the twentieth anniversary of the death of James Dean in 1975, a group of his devotees meets in a rundown five and dime in McCarthy, Texas, to recall the formation of their club twenty years earlier when James Dean had come to Marfa, Texas, to film Giant. Mona (Sandy Dennis) claims to have fathered James Dean’s love child, a revelation which had made her a local celebrity back in the day. But time has not been kind to Mona, store owner Juanita (Sudie Bond), or fellow worker Sissy (Cher) though you’d never know it from the facades they’re all hiding behind. As other former members (Kathy Bates, Marta Heflin) show up and begin reminiscing, the group is unnerved by the arrival of a handsome woman Joanne (Karen Black) who claims to know them, but even though she doesn’t come readily to anyone’s mind, Joanne holds keys to revelations that will tear down the protections the women have all erected around themselves.Ed Graczyk’s original play and movie script is part memory play and part confessional, the kind of dramatic piece (like The Boys in the Band or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) where lots of flowing alcohol brings forth secretive admissions from the past vomited forth in the present after being long ago hidden away in the inner recesses of these women’s psyches. Robert Altman and his production designer David Cropman have installed a two-way mirror in the dime store set which can either reflect the present or allow entry into the past as scenes from twenty years ago are staged in the reflective dime store set (which is brilliantly realized) behind the mirror (where Altman sometimes superimposes one actor’s face on another as past and present begin to merge). The actors (except for Joanne) play both their past and present selves, a most effective trick on the stage but not quite as powerful on film where close-ups can betray the actors’ true ages. The dramatic thrust of the piece is intended to strip away the characters’ pretenses to lay bear the real people underneath, but what was once daring and provocative (transgenderism, mastectomies, smothering mother love) aren’t radical ideas any more. Not that it makes the film any less entertaining, but the 1975 attitudes espoused by the ultra-religious Juanita or the spoiled, thoughtless Stella Mae seem quaint now (though undoubtedly still in vogue in some quarters of the country even today).The film, as with all Robert Altman projects, is an actor’s dream-come-true. Sandy Dennis is wonderful as the sputtering, wrapped-in-fantasy Mona trying to maintain her composure as the past comes back to haunt and eventually catch up to her. Karen Black’s Joanne is perhaps a bit too theatrical and angsty (the performance probably worked better on the stage), but Sudie Bond is all righteous indignation as the narrow-minded Juanita. The play and film offered Cher her first taste of a legitimate role, and she ran with it emerging with all of the reviews and a Golden Globe nomination, all deserved for her plucky, funny, and finally honest Sissy. Kathy Bates makes a vivid impression as the rich, sharp-tongued Stella Mae, and Marta Heflin is her polar opposite as the delicate and innocent Edna Louise. Mark Patton is quite haunting in the part of the film’s true outsider Joe Qualley.

Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA

The film has been framed at 1.78:1 for this release and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Though the image is certainly film-like with noticeable grain, it also sometimes appears a bit dated though over the course of the film’s nearly two hours, one gets used to the look and accepts it for what it is. It does look exactly as I remember seeing it in a theater with colors a bit wan and sharpness varying from pleasing to edgy. There are no age-related artifacts present, however: the transfer is spotless in that regard. Black levels are only fair. The film has been divided into 8 chapters.

Audio Rating: 4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 sound mix is typical for a micro-budgeted feature such as this one. Dialogue has been well recorded and is presented clearly and cleanly with no age-related hiss or crackle. A rich selection of period music (including many hits by the Maguire Sisters who figure into the plot of the piece) and the few other sound effects (wind, thunder and rain) all blend seamlessly with the dialogue in this fine mono track.

Special Features Rating: 1/5

Ed Graczyk Interview (20:16, HD): the playwright details the long, complicated journey of his work from the birth of the idea through regional theaters, off-Broadway, a frustratingly short Broadway run, and this subsequent feature film. He still awaits his ideal production of the piece.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean offers a touching look at some of life’s losers and loners in a theatrical piece played exquisitely by a host of excellent actors and directed with flair by one of the cinema’s true artists. It’s not for every taste but connoisseurs of fine acting will relish what is being offered here even if the play doesn’t always live up to their gifts.

Reviewed By: Matt Hough

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Looking forward to seeing this again. I'd read that elements for this were at death's door but it looks to have been pulled from the brink.

Nice review last time I caught this fil and only time was I believe on A&E nearly 20 years ago and whatever they used for their broadcast looked almost like it was videotape. this BLU should be a welcome change.

I love his film. Imperfect, but mesmerizing. Can't wait to get this blu-ray.

Is this film really region free on Blu Ray?

I stumbled across a copy of the DVD which the box states as Region 1 so I just find it hard to believe that the film would be region free on Blu Ray.

There were no region codes on the case or disc, so I just assumed it was open to all regions.

Thanks. That's good a sign. I suppose if it turns out to be region locked I just return it and purchase the DVD.

I wonder why the choice was made to shoot this film in 16 millimeter? Robert Altman was a highly acclaimed director by 1982. Was it his choice to shoot on small gauge or was he forced to do so by budgetary constraints?

I think he had not had a big hit film in quite awhile (even Popeye had been a box-office disappointment), and he was forced to shoot inexpensively until he could get financial backing for something more elaborate.

I received my Blu Ray today and can confirm that it is Region A locked.

Olive should have printed clearly on the box (and disc) as should all companies if a film is region locked or region all rather than nothing.

Thanks for the information. I will amend the review (and I agree with you wholeheartedly).

Is the Olive blu ray release better than the other release from Eureka which is newer?