PATRIOT GAMES - Blu-ray review

I have always been a bit of a snob when it comes to home theater. At least, I've always wanted the best quality picture for my viewing pleasure. The craptacular picture quality of VHS was something I had scorned and the first movie playback device I paid money for and called my own was an old single-sided Pioneer LaserDisc player. If I thought about it for a few moments, I could probably remember the model number. 204 is sticking in my head. The first movie I had ever purchased for my LaserDisc player was "Patriot Games." I can still remember coming home and plugging in that unit to the then-large 25" television in the living room and being in awe at the letterboxed picture that unfolded on the television with round corners. It was simply amazing. And the sound was far better than anything on the VCR as well. It is just a shame that most of my viewing during the first year I had a LaserDisc player was on a far smaller 13" television. The discs just cost too much to easily afford a new television to coincide with my beloved LD unit.

The years have passed and I am still very much a technophile of all things higher resolution. To date, the only VHS tapes I have ever purchased remain "Batman (1989)," which I had bought for comparative purposes and "It's A Bundyful Life." All but my special edition "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" LaserDisc has been sold and I no longer own a unit capable of playing that LaserDisc. Nowadays my viewing habits are mostly centered on the Blu-ray format and the defunct HD-DVD. With the changing times, I can enjoy my films at 1080p resolution and no longer find myself constrained to a hand-me-down television set that doesn't deserve the technology being piped through it. The high definition formats have been an absolute blessing and the sting of LaserDisc's demise is finally gone. Today, I am reminded of the glory days when my movies were 12" in diameter as I had the opportunity to once again enjoy "Patriot Games," but this time on the 5" Blu-ray disc.

"Patriot Games" is a reminder of another time; a time when Harrison Ford was a far larger star in Hollywood. He had become a household name with the roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones. "Patriot Games" was his first outing in another franchise and familiar character; that of Tom Clancy's leading man John Patrick "Jack" Ryan. Alec Baldwin first portrayed the former Marine in "The Hunt for Red October." For various reasons, Ryan was recast with Harrison Ford taking over the role in the follow-up "Patriot Games" and its sequel "Clear and Present Danger." These three films constituted a trilogy in the story arc and although author Clancy was never quite happy with the casting choice of the older Harrison Ford, it is Ford that is best remembered for his heroic performance as the CIA hero. Ben Affleck would attempt to revive the character in "The Sum of All Fears," but that combination of actor and character never made it past one film.

This film finds Jack Ryan (Ford) on a trip with his family to London. During this trip he finds himself involved in a terrorist plot to kill a member of the Royal Family. Ryan springs to action and manages to kill one of the terrorists and wound another, whom is captured by the British police. The IRA terrorist that Ryan brings to capture is Sean Miller (Sean Bean) and the man killed was his brother. This places Jack Ryan and his family instantly into the crosshairs of Miller and his men and when a daring rescue grants Miller his freedom, the Irish terrorist has no qualms about crossing the Atlantic and taking the fight to the area surrounding Washington D.C. and Annapolis, Maryland. Sean's arrival in America places Jack's wife Dr. Cathy Ryan (Anne Archer) and his young daughter Sally (Thora Birch) ino grave danger.

Jack is not alone as the terrorists slowly decent upon him. His longtime friend Lt. Commander Robby Jackson (Samuel L. Jackson) enters the fray after an attack on Cathy and Sally is made by Sean. Jack's former CIA supervisor, Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones), manages to talk Jack into returning to the CIA. Here Jack and his CIA team members scour the globe with satellite technology and intelligence to find where Sean and his assassins may be holed up. A terrorist camp in Africa is hit, but it becomes clear that Sean is not among them and that perhaps the attack on the Ryan family was directly caused by Miller. During this time, the Royal who Ryan had saved, Lord William Holmes (James Fox) comes to America and decides to pay the Ryan family a visit after Jack's heroics in London. This creates a perfect situation for Sean to once again strike and get revenge against Ryan for the death of his brother.

With Ford, James Earl Jones, Sean Bean, Anne Archer and Samuel L. Jackson having lead and supporting roles in the film, the Phillip Noyce directed film is a well acted and nicely paced action thriller that is not fully loyal to the novel by Tom Clancy, but keeps much of the spirit of the original book. I had read "Patriot Games" before watching the film and while there are significant changes to the adapted screenplay by W. Peter Iliff, Donald E. Stewart and Steven Zaillian, I felt the excellent cast and solid combination of technology and action overcame the narrative shortcomings. One of the more significant changes in the story is the fate of the Sean Miller character. Another variance between book and film is the relation of the British Royalty to the Queen. The film has the Queen's cousin as a target of the terrorists, while the book went a little higher up the Monarch's family tree and a Prince was the assassination target. There are other changes, but these are the most apparent. Of course, more action was added to utilize Ford's action star status.

Director Phillip Noyce did not have a large body of work before he signed on to direct the back-to-back Jack Ryan films starring Harrison Ford. He hasn't done much since either unless you consider "The Saint" and "The Bone Collector" notable projects. Of course, Noyce is partly responsible for the horrendous "Sliver." "Patriot Games" is the director's most important film and he and his cast of filmmakers wanted "Patriot Games" to be a ‘family' movie about Jack Ryan with the follow-up "Clear and Present Danger" concentrating more on action. Noyce was tasked with handling a fifty-year old Ford as Jack Ryan, whereas Alec Baldwin was roughly fifteen years younger. The change of star for the second Jack Ryan film didn't pose much of a problem for Noyce and the writers after they rehashed the project to better fit Ford and maintain a story that mixes action with intelligence.

Part of the allure of "Patriot Games" has always been the clever use of military technology and brainpower that is a staple of the Tom Clancy books. There are a few very nice action scenes, but aside from the climactic face-off between Ryan and Miller, the action is handled in realistic circumstances and Ryan seems every bit of the ‘everyman' that has a military background, but must act to protect his family. Never in the film does Ryan seem like a superhero and credit must be given to both Ford and Noyce for the direction they took in the film. "Patriot Games" is one of the better films of its type and while many considered Baldwin a better Jack Ryan in "The Hunt for Red October," it has always been the film "Patriot Games" that I enjoy the most out of the four films created starring the Ryan character. This is an action film for an adult.

"Patriot Games" is a film I enjoy. It isn't perfect and it is far from being the perfect adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel. Clancy is one of my favorite novelists and I never felt offended by the changes made to bring the story to the big screen. The movie is written to be a sequel to "Hunt for Red October" and not a prequel as the books' timeline has the story fall. There are other changes. However, it is rather difficult to fit a large novel into just two hours time and a little work was required to fit the film to Ford's older age. The final product of this intelligent action film is a movie that is enjoyable, moves along at a near perfect pace and features strong performances. Some people simply cannot accept a film that is not 100% faithful to the written word and they will not be able to embrace this Harrison Ford classic. For those that can enjoy an ‘alternate' story, "Patriot Games" should entertain you.

Video:

This is the second time I've been able to enjoy "Patriot Games" in high definition. The first time was on HD-DVD before Paramount pulled the plug on the "Jack Ryan Collection" box set. My review for that set was never posted and with HD-DVD now defunct, those versions of the Ryan films will never see light of day. The 2.35:1 AVC / MPEG-4 encoded transfer is virtually identical to the HD-DVD mastering for those curious how the Blu-ray would have stacked up to the HD-DVD title had it been released. I had hoped for a slight upgrade over the last effort, but after watching "Patriot Games" a second time on high definition it becomes apparent that this is the best this film will look and the sixteen years that have passed since "Patriot Games" hit theaters is the primary reason for the less-than-perfect transfer. I was generally very pleased with the Blu-ray release of the title and I cannot recall the LaserDisc or DVD releases ever looking anything near this sharp.

"Patriot Games" is detailed and colorful on Blu-ray. Many scenes have a very deep and three dimensional appeal to them because of the solid definition in the 1080p transfer. The early scenes in London looked amazing and you could see the hairs on the British army hats. A few close-ups of Ford and Bean show the wear and tear on the veteran actors' faces. Coloring was strong as well and the scene that sticks out rather nicely is again from the London moments; when young Sally is impressed with the palace guard, her red outfit looks stunning and shows how well saturated and natural the hues in the film look. The darker moments in the movie look quite well and the climactic boat fight and Miller's rescue are both detailed and exhibit strong black levels and shadow detail. The age of the film presents the only problems as a thin veil of grain is present throughout the film and a few flaws in the source material can be spotted if one would look hard enough.

Audio:

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix that was first released for "Patriot Games" on the HD-DVD release of the film makes its way to Blu-ray and is a bag of mixed results. I remember always being so impressed with the LaserDisc Dolby Surround mix of this film, but that was years ago when stereo television and VHS was the norm and we still listened to cassette tapes. Times have changed and since "Patriot Games" was released on LaserDisc in 1992 we have had the AC-3 encoded Dolby Digital 5.1 and other advances in sound. Sixteen years later, "Patriot Games" no longer packs the same explosive punch that I remember so fondly from the days when it was my first experience with digital sound for a film. The TrueHD sound mix is easily the best that "Patriot Games" has ever sounded, but the movie cannot compete with more modern soundtracks.

From the opening moments when the incredible Celtic-themed musical score by James Horner populates the speakers, "Patriot Games" sounds very clean on Blu-ray. The score is haunting and one day I will track down a copy of the soundtrack on CD. Imagine across all channels is fluid and strong. "Patriot Games" is filled with solid directional effects and plenty of ambient sound. There were noises I can never recall hearing before and I've watched this film a dozen times. All five full channels are kept busy through most of the film. Bullets can be heard whizzing around the room during the gunfire sequences and crowds and cars move from left to right and from front to rear. Dialogue is clean and strong as well. The only major complaint I had was the relative lack of oomph in the .1 LFE channel. Bass is just not as strong as I would have hoped. There is bass present in both left and right main speakers, but the subwoofer isn't given much to do.

Extras:

The primary reasoning that "Patriot Games" and the "Jack Ryan Collection" were never released onto HD-DVD was due to a problem with the packaging. The special features were listed on each box, but they did not appear on the discs themselves. Finally, the Blu-ray release contains the supplements listed on the box artwork and the question becomes whether or not they were worth the wait and worth canceling the release of the films on HD-DVD. The only major supplement for "Patriot Games" is the documentary Patriot Games Up Close (25:14). This is a rather good making of feature and you can learn how the two Harrison Ford starred Jack Ryan films were done together and how the undertaking occurred from start to finish. Harrison Ford, Phillip Noyce, Charles H. Maguire and others lend a few moments to talk about the film and with plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, "Up Close" is an above average making-of feature. The only other feature provided on the disc is the Theatrical Trailer.

Closing:

"Patriot Games" was the first LaserDisc I had ever purchased and with one of my favorite all time actors in the lead role, it is a film I have enjoyed many times over. The film may hold another designation and be one of the final HD-DVD titles that I hold onto as I was lucky enough to come into ownership of the canceled discs for reviewing purposes. It will cost nearly $200 for the set of films on HD-DVD through eBay and the improved versions on Blu-ray are easily a bargain compared to the faulty former high definition release. On Blu-ray, the film looks and sounds solid, but the age keeps "Patriot Games" from competing with the top-notch releases. I was happy to finally get a chance to watch the making-of feature and that was a nice addition. The film itself is a lot of fun and if you can get past the changes made to the story, it is a great intelligent action film. If you are to fork over the money for a high definition copy of "Patriot Games," I strongly recommend the Blu-ray version.