Universal Pictures
Movies come and movies go, studios pour millions of dollars into production and promotion on the hopes of making most of that back … and more. Studios can bank on certain properties (like comic book movies and sequels), stars and directors to make them lots of lots of money, but sometimes no matter how big the stars, how talented and revered the directors, no amount of money will draw audiences to a movie they simply don’t understand.
Hail, Caesar! snuck into theaters back in February, and even with a pretty hefty television advertising campaign, preview audiences and critics were taken a bit off guard by the promotions for the film which made it seem like an all-star laugh-fest, something harkening back to the classic It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with George Clooney as its anchor. That’s not what audiences got.
Universal Pictures
Hail, Caesar! actually finds 1951 Hollywood studio “fixer” Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) as its center with the rest of the all-star cast revolving around him. He’s tasked with keeping stars like Clooney’s Baird Whitlock on the strait and narrow, covering up swimming sweetheart DeeAnna Morton’s (Scarlett Johansson) out-of-wedlock pregnancy out of the press, forcing cowboy star Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) into a more classy image under the guidance of fussy director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes), all while dodging snoopy twin rival gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton).
Universal Pictures
The Coen Brothers have lovingly recreated the 1950s era of Hollywood including the major genre films that any movie lover should eat up … but it’s still a puzzle as to why moviegoers stayed away from the film. Perhaps critical reaction and the fact that the movie’s advertising sold a completely different scenario are to blame, but Hail, Caesar! is one of my favorite movies of the year.
Universal Pictures
And now you have a chance to see what you may have missed as Universal Pictures Home Entertainment brings the film to home video. While the film may have missed the mark at the box office, Universal has given it a glorious transfer to Blu-ray. In a rare instance of a film actually being shot on film, the Blu-ray brings out and enhances the vibrant color scheme (even though it’s been color graded a bit with a very subtle sepia to give it the feel of a 1950s movie) and amazing textural details on the costumes, from Clooney’s leather to the heavy wool suits, and faces. The 1080p video transfer is simply gorgeous. The Blu-ray also contains a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, that keeps the dialog-heavy audio mostly front and center, but also gives the surrounds a chance to let the audio’s atmospheric effects and music a chance to breathe. Overall, a stellar presentation of the film.
The Blu-ray also includes a few bonus features:
- Directing Hollywood (4:11) – A short love letter to the Coen Brothers with the cast talking of the honor of working with them. Clooney tells a funny story about how he basically forced them to make the movie.
- The Stars Align (11:34) – The main cast gets a chance to briefly talk about their characters. Of interest is seeing script pages and how the Coens write every inflection of a character’s voice.
- An Era of Glamour (6:22) – Cast and crew talk about recreating the atmosphere of making movies in 1951.
- Magic of a Bygone Era (6:01) – Detailed looks at the tap dance and synchronized swimming scenes. Interesting fact, the pool sound stage was the same one where Esther Williams made her aquatic musicals.
Hail, Caesar! may not win over everyone, but if you truly love classic movies and insidery Hollywood stuff, then this is the movie for you!
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided Hotchka with a Blu-ray for reviewing purposes.
Share this post
