Blu-ray Review The Big Heat (Encore Edition) Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Richard Gallagher]

richard-gallagher has published a new article.

The Big Heat (Encore Edition) Blu-ray Review

The Big Heat is a searing, violent film noir from famed director Fritz Lang. The first Twilight Time Blu-ray sold out quickly, and it is once...
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[Keith Cobby]

I have already double-dipped with the French release so don't need a third copy. However if it was to be released in UHD that would be another matter. Incidentally, I prefer the original cover.

Great film, great performances all round. One of the best I have seen and one I watch often.

I hope Human Desire is also released soon.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you for the review. Hell, I have the first BD release from TT and didn't hesitate to buy it again for the excellent commentary.

 

[PaulDA]

Blind purchase based on this review and the RAH comments. It's been a while since I've treated myself with a movie I know will only be watched by me in the house--looking forward to it.

 

[Robin9]

Blind purchase based on this review and the RAH comments. It's been a while since I've treated myself with a movie I know will only be watched by me in the house--looking forward to it.

It's a very good presentation of a very good film. The Big Heat, by the way, is one of those cases where the film is better than the source novel.

 

[warnerbro]

The Julie Kirgo commentary is outstanding. I wish she would do commentaries for every classic film ever made. Her observations and interesting detail are impeccable.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The Julie Kirgo commentary is outstanding. I wish she would do commentaries for every classic film ever made. Her observations and interesting detail are impeccable.

Yes, I very much enjoy her insights, but I do take issue with a few things she said in this commentary about Glenn Ford and the character he portrayed, but I think our differences are due from looking at both from different perspectives.

 

[warnerbro]

I know what you mean, but I took it to mean she was talking about the character he played (that he was sort of an anti-hero). I didn't take it to mean that she was talking personally about Glenn Ford. I also love the story about the scene in Superman The Movie where Glenn Ford came up with the idea of grabbing his arm when he had his heart attack. That scene has always moved me tremendously! I don't think anyone doubts his tremendous talent as an actor and I also understand he was a pretty decent human being.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I know what you mean, but I took it to mean she was talking about the character he played (that he was sort of an anti-hero). I didn't take it to mean that she was talking personally about Glenn Ford. I also love the story about the scene in Superman The Movie where Glenn Ford came up with the idea of grabbing his arm when he had his heart attack. That scene has always moved me tremendously! I don't think anyone doubts his tremendous talent as an actor and I also understand he was a pretty decent human being.

The thing I disagree with her about is how she felt Bannon treated women in the film. As to Glenn Ford, I disagree with her assessment of him as an actor and leading man.

 

[PaulDA]

Finally got around to watching this last night. Loved it. Very multilayered story and film (both dramatically and technically). Definitely merits re-watching and I look forward to the commentary. No one is as they seem on the surface, including Bannion. His treatment of the women has a dark undertone--one his character seems largely unaware of but present nonetheless. Unsurprising in a Fritz Lang film. Well worth the blind buy.

 

[Race Bannon]

I finally got the chance to watch my copy tonight, having never seen the movie. I've seen a LOT of movies. This one catapulted to the top of my favorites list. What a great film.

I love film noir. I also love cop movies where the central character is portrayed as having integrity, as having a desire to believe the law enforcement can stand for the right things. This film combines both of those elements -- the existential doom of film noir with the hopefulness of one man who will not cave in to nihilism and corruption. I think this is a pattern that emerges in early 50's noir -- the lost-ness of the post WWII noir began to combine with American 1950's Cold War optimism -- the simmering belief that we had to make of ourselves a society that believed in the right things. This is reflected in otherwise dark films like Asphalt Jungle and Robert Mitchum's The Racket.

Now I'll turn to enjoying the commentary, which is praised in the posts above.

 

[Race Bannon]

Yes, I very much enjoy her insights, but I do take issue with a few things she said in this commentary about Glenn Ford and the character he portrayed, but I think our differences are due from looking at both from different perspectives.

I'm with you on this point. I think Ford's character is a moral one by this standard -- if everyone in the town comported himself like Ford, it would be a safer and less corrupt place. He has no stomach for thieves and killers -- he's the only one that seems to care that Lucy was tortured and killed. Everyone else is calloused to it, seems to accept it as a fact of life. He knows Lagana pulls the strings for every such hit, and doesn't think it ought to go unchallenged. I find it honorable. And his bitterness is understandable and fully motivated by the events in the plot.

 

[Race Bannon]

I ended up disagreeing with most of what Julie Kirgo said in the commentary. She seemed morally oblivious to the atrocities that were affecting Ford's disposition in the film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I ended up disagreeing with most of what Julie Kirgo said in the commentary. She seemed morally oblivious to the atrocities that were affecting Ford's disposition in the film.

Julie Kirgo has her perspective and we have our own, but some of her points became food for thought for me, even though, I might not agree with them.

 

[Race Bannon]

Julie Kirgo has her perspective and we have our own, but some of her points became food for thought for me, even though, I might not agree with them.

I could agree with that -- I began to be prepared to look at the Glenn Ford character in a new light, one where his relentless machismo was escalating and causing collateral harm to the other characters.

But I listened carefully and Kirgo seemed to totally miss how much it pained Ford that Lucy had been tortured and killed. He was only routinely checking out a suicide before that. Everyone else seemed to chalk it up as a worthless life. But he was the only character that felt true revulsion that a valuable life was lost, even if no one else thought she mattered. That was a true rounded character, to me. And Kirgo just flew right past it, as if the entire case was an ego trip. His character was one that believed you have to make a stand for the little people (like Lucy) to live free of corruption from men like Lagano.

She took very lightly the sinister calls to his home -- as if he was some sort of prude because the calls were supposedly "dirty." And she even dinged him for moving his daughter out of the house! As if that was a self-centered act.

I hear you -- it was almost the definition of a provocative commentary, or I wouldn't be thinking about it so much. But I must say the most lasting impression was one of disagreement on my part. And it almost seems like Nick Redman was hanging back, not sure how to chime in. (So secretly I imagine Nick Redmond agreement with me.

 

[shoeshineboy]

Julie Kirgo has her perspective and we have our own, but some of her points became food for thought for me, even though, I might not agree with them.

Couldn't have said it better; it must be difficult to embrace a good number of great film noir and have such a low opinion of Ford as an actor... Ms. Kirgo does add a lot to these commentaries beyond what we both disagree with, so I appreciate that.

 

[Race Bannon]

Couldn't have said it better; it must be difficult to embrace a good number of great film noir and have such a low opinion of Ford as an actor... Ms. Kirgo does add a lot to these commentaries beyond what we both disagree with, so I appreciate that.

It's not really Ford as an actor in this one -- she just lays the lumber to the character he's playing. She really sees nothing but "macho bullshit" and carelessness on his part, with a particular lack of care for harm to women. Goes back to that well over and over in the commentary.

 

[RolandL]

Just watched this. I'm sure you all noticed the playing of Put the Blame on Mame at the bar.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Just watched this. I'm sure you all noticed the playing of Put the Blame on Mame at the bar.

That bar scene is among my favorite movie sequences of all-time. Bannion: "Where you going Thief?"