A Few Words About A few words about...™ Blood Work -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Clint Eastwood's Blood Work (2002) is an interesting film. It's the tale of an FBI agent of retirement age, who is forced into quitting because of his health - but goes back for one more case in the private arena.

Every time I watch this film, it takes me to the black & white era of Mr. Marlowe's classic adventures of the 1940s.

There seems to be a consensus that this may be B+ level Eastwood. I like this film, but it's taken me a while to get around to checking out Warner's new Blu-ray. To me it's A level work. Now that I've found the time to take a look, I've come away very pleased, as this looks terrific.

Color, densities, shadow detail, grain structure, are all within very high ranges.

Blood Work is an entertaining film, that gets better with each screening. A bit of bottle age is a good thing. You can sense the superb rapport between director and star.

Image - 4.25

Audio - 5

Highly Recommended.

RAH

 

[Johnny Angell]

Better with each screening? I think that about In the Line of Fire. A really solid film and Blood Work sounds like it might be like that.

 

[RobHam]

Sometimes I sense your playfullness Mr Harris.
A few years ago I developed a bad habit of collecting movies by director.
Clint Eastwood - well I have all of them.
Blood Work I regard as joint bottom of a fine body of work alongside The Eiger Sanction, and Bronco Billy.
Of all the films I'm waiting on to hit blu-ray, this would have been close to last in my list, and (to me) is simply a wasted effort for a non-existent audience.
Where is - Witness, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, The Killing Fields, Ryan's Daughter, No Way Out, The Big Chill, Always, The Abyss, The Great Escape, Shane et al (add personal favourites below)?

 

[Robert Harris]

Sometimes I sense your playfullness Mr Harris.
A few years ago I developed a bad habit of collecting movies by director.
Clint Eastwood - well I have all of them.
Blood Work I regard as joint bottom of a fine body of work alongside The Eiger Sanction, and Bronco Billy.
Of all the films I'm waiting on to hit blu-ray, this would have been close to last in my list, and (to me) is simply a wasted effort for a non-existent audience.
Where is - Witness, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, The Killing Fields, Ryan's Daughter, No Way Out, The Big Chill, Always, The Abyss, The Great Escape, Shane et al (add personal favourites below)?

With a bit of luck, we should be seeing all of those in 2013.

 

[PaulDA]

So I can finally retire my well-worn VHS copy of 1492 before I retire? (I use the film for excerpts in several of the history courses I teach--my graduate work was on historical feature films and the way they shape historical perceptions).
As for Blood Work, I'm glad I'm not the only one who spotted the "superb rapport between director and star".
To me Eastwood is a lot like Hitchcock in that even lesser efforts of theirs are better than the best efforts of many others.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I just watched this and was disappointed. All the time I was watching I was thinking "I'm watching actors trying to act." That's not good. It was if they all were uncomfortable in their roles. The actor who played the asshole Hispanic cop was terrible. That character was an asshole in the book, but here, he's a caricature, not a fully realized character. To me, this is D level Clint. This just didn't work for me. I didn't buy into any of the characters. It's been a couple years since I read the book so I don't think that influenced my reaction. They did make a very significant change to the plot of the book. I had to do a little googling to verify what I thought I remembered. Even with the plot change, this could have been a good movie but it was as if everyone had an off day. All IMHO of course.

 

[Mark-P]

This has only been out on Blu-ray for 6 months and Amazon already has it marked down to $4.99. Even though I've never seen it I went ahead and ordered it at that price because I'm a great admirer of Eastwood, the director. If it turns out to be a dud, at least I won't feel guilty for having paid too much.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'll be interested to read your opinion.