The Movie
With two of the worst movies ever made still in his rearview mirror, director Joel Schumacher bounced back with a gripping ensemble drama about the Vietnam era. Tigerland takes its name from the special training facility at Fort Polk, Louisiana where soldiers are given a realistic, week-long taste of what to expect when they arrive in the jungle.
A de facto leader among the young recruits, and eventually the official boss of his squad, Roland Bozz is one of those fascinating characters that comes along far too rarely, brought indelibly to life by the charismatic Colin Farrell in his breakthrough performance. He's a wiseass but so much more, a good guy but a bad fit for the cookie-cutter, "Sir, yes sir!" U.S. Army, a gifted soldier who can't stop badmouthing the war.
We get to know all of the grunts, each with a different story, some of which tug at the savvy Bozz' heartstrings to the point that he is able to engineer a discharge or two before it's too late. He has a different plan for himself though, one that changes drastically when he comes to the sad realization that he and his buddies are already facing some serious enemies before they even ship out.
The Picture
Likely to simulate the look of you-are-there 1971 footage, Tigerland was shot on 16mm film with quite distinctive results. Contrast is downright screwy and somewhat unpleasant, colors are washed out, the 1.85:1 image is grainy and dirty, all likely deliberate artistic choices. Even the video noise seems almost appropriate. Some of the flaws are not as easily forgiven however, such as the unfortunate strobing in fast motion, serious edge enhancement and some of the harshest shadow I've seen in a while.
The Sound
To balance the guerilla visuals, the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is often quite simple. There is some 5.1-channel action, as when a truck drives over the camera, and the soundstage really opens up in the combat scenes, with gunfire and blasts near and far. Music is clean and creatively mixed, but I did find the dialogue difficult to hear more than once.
The Extras
Some of the bonuses on this new Blu-ray edition are recycled, but much of it is brand-new (vintage 2010). The audio commentary by director Schumacher is informative, and Colin Farrell's four-part screen test is definitely worth a look, despite the crazy-soft SD video. There's also a general four-minute promotional clip, again in SD, entitled simply "Featurette."
The three HD segments include "The Real Tigerland" (22 minutes) about the notoriously brutal training experience from veterans' point of view; "Joel Schumacher: Journey to Tigerland" (ten minutes), an on-camera interview covering the career path that brought him to this movie; and "Ross Klavan: Ode to Tigerland" (eleven minutes) from one of the writers, himself an army vet.
Final Thoughts
No movie buff interested in the Vietnam experience can afford to miss Tigerland. Although set entirely stateside, it has a unique voice on a sensitive subject, with moments that resonate long after the end credits. The quality of the disc, for better or worse, could be mistaken for something that has been sitting in a military archive for 40 years, not hideous but maybe not showoff material, either.
Product Details
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