Why So Blu?

Brazilian Western (Blu-ray Review)

Brace yourself for a gritty gangster crime drama that delivers neo-Western violence, revenge and a captivating tale of love in equal measure. Shout! Factory releases to DVD and Blu-ray the much-anticipated South American box office hit Brazilian Western. Since its theatrical premiere in Brazil and at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, this movie has been hailed by international critics and audiences alike for its passionate storytelling, melding the stylistic approach of classic genre films with a distinct and original vision.  The film truly has the spirit, tone and feel in that of a modernized western film in the setting of Brazil as opposed to the old west we’re most familiar with those movies tackling.  Much in the vein of something akin to a No Country For Old Men when it comes to westerns.  Not the same kind of movie, but that same kind of more modernized feeling to the western tropes and aesthetic.  This movie is mainly a kind of love story.

Film 

A film by René Sampaio, Brazilian Western is a film adaptation of the popular song “Faroeste Caboclo” by Brazilian music icon Renato Russo and tells the story of love, blood and revenge. João de Santo Cristo, a young man who leaves his life of poverty in the backlands of the state of Bahia to try his luck in Brasilia. With the help of his cousin Pablo, he becomes a carpenter’s apprentice but also gets involved in drug trafficking.  One day, he happens to meet the beautiful Maria Lúcia, the daughter of a senator. They begin a relationship, but João plunges deeper and deeper into a downward spiral of crime and violence. He finally meets his greatest enemy, the playboy drug dealer Jeremias, his rival in business and for the heart of Maria Lúcia.

Brazilian Western is pretty much a familiar tune done by a different group.  The story, dealing with drug dealing and a love story with a jealous outsider, we’ve seen done many times.  And we’ve seen it done in this sort of drug world as well.  While its not rewriting the book or even the best of its  brethren, the film still is a pretty entertaining action-drama that puts enough of its stamp on things with its solid characters, suspenseful shootings and above average story work.

While I praised the narrative and story stuff, there was one character decision and plot point I just didn’t go along with and found myself scratching my head.  I’m not going to spoil, but when the film turns over into its third act, one of the characters makes a decision that I thought was going be part of some devious plan that would become a nice twist toward the end somewhere.  But, time went on and on and then it seemed the character’s decision was that of a genuine one.  And it really didn’t make a lick of sense to me.  It felt like some forced motivation for the film to have a little more weight to its finale.

While its not detriment to or what the focus the film really wants to have, I feel Joao’s brush with becoming a drug dealer and turning into the big business in town seemed a little too short.  Most of it was done in montage and narration, but as soon as that was over, there was like a scene and then he gave it up.  However, it was long enough to get the attention of the drug lords in town, that’s for sure.  And maybe that’s the point, but from the film’s perspective I felt they wanted us to believe it took awhile and he was building it up.

Brazilian Western is a solid little modern western love story.  While I have questioned a couple things in the narrative and a character decision, this film is still more than solid.  Its well shot and very competently made.  It features some cool shootouts and a few groovy moments of violence.  A nice little effort from our film brothers to the south.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Clarity/Detail:  When the film is well lit or scenes take place in daylight, this is one of the best transfers of a modern film I’ve ever seen from the Factory of Shout!  This is a highly detailed picture fully realizing and displaying every surface and fabric texture all the way to little rust pieces on the exterior of a bus.  Long, medium and close up shots all are rich with detail.  Dirt paths and more nature-y settings have plenty of distinct and completely rendered detail in them.

Depth:  There are some good outdoors examples.  For this most part, this crisp image manages to make a solid split of foreground and background.

Black Levels:  Blacks are deep and rich.  Some nighttime scenes however, prove to be way too dark though, and its hard to make people out.  It looks almost naturally lit and may be because of the production that it looks like this, but the scenes are much too dark.

Color Reproduction:  Colors are a bit muted down and kept to a sort of sun trodden look.  There’s a nice palette that is represented well here.

Flesh Tones:  Flesh tones are warm and consistent.  The first shot of the movie will give you every detail as to why this transfer looks outstanding.

Noise/Artifacts:  I witnessed a few specs here and there, but for the most part this is really clean.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): Portuguese 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Portuguese 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English

Dynamics:  This is a pretty outstanding track.  Its loud, boisterous and really makes you feel danger when chases and gunfire occurs.  There is a healthy balance in this mix of sound, voice and score that never steps on each other’s toes in the mix.  This track really felt alive and gave a fantastic sense of atmosphere and setting as I was viewing the film.

Low Frequency Extension:  Gunshots, slamming doors, engines and score all get a lift from the subwoofer.

Surround Sound Presentation:  Rear speakers mainly see some ambiance and scoring.  There is some solid, above average work done with the right/left interplay and volume and sound placement is ideal.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Clean, loud and very clear.  A tad on the front-heavy side.  There was one line of dialogue that peaked, but aside from that all was great.

Extras 

Brazilian Western also comes with a DVD version of the film.

Making Of Brazilian Western (HD, 25:14) – Cast and crew go back through an in depth look at the production of the film.  Features behind the scenes footage as well as some rehearsals.

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:53)

Teaser Trailer (HD, 2:06) – Yes, the teaser is longer than the Theatrical Trailer, you’re seeing that right.

Summary 

Shout! Factory imports Brazilian Western to Blu-ray and DVD.  Its a solid little modern western with a love story in the world drug dealing.  This release gives it a really good presentation and a pretty good making of documentary that gives you quite a bit more of this release than it looks on the surface.  This is definitely one to look into if you’re interested.