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Released by: Mill Creek Entertainment
Released on: January 3rd, 2017.
Director: H.B. Halicki
Cast: H.B. Halicki, Marion Busia, Jerry Daugirda, James McIntyre
Year: 1974
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The Movie:
Forget about the remake with Nicolas Cage, the original 1974 Gone In 60 Seconds is where it's at! Writer/producer/director H.B. Halicki stars as Maindrian Pace, a Los Angeles based insurance investigator who is in charge of a small but talented crew - Atlee (George Cole), Stanley (James McIntyre) and his brother Corlis (Ronald Halicki). They're the best there is at what they do. What most folks don't know about Pace and his pals is that they've got a really nice little side business going as car thieves.
When Pace gets a job offer from a South American drug kingpin to steal him forty-eight different cars in a one week period of time, he accepts. The money is good and the job should be a breeze. For the most part, he's right… until it's time to swipe a 1973 Mustang nicknamed Eleanor. That car's owner is none too keen on seeing his ride run away on him. Things get even more complicated from there when Maindrian's boss, Eugene Chase (Jerry Daguirda), rats him out not for moral reasons, but because he sees him as competition and because Maindrian put down the giant heroin deal he was working. Meanwhile, two cops (Butch Stockton and Phil Woods) know what Maindrian's up to and aim to put a stop to him… which leads to one of the best damn car chases in movie history.
The film is rightly famous for the fact that it's basically half set up, half giant car chase. And what a car chase it is. The last forty minutes of the movie see the cops chase Maindrian's through five different cities with almost one hundred different cars wrecked in the process. Halicki coordinated all of this and did all his own driving, making this feat even more impressive. Sure, some of the wrecks we see on screen weren't planned for (oops!) but that just makes it all feel more authentic. In a day and age where almost all of what we see here would now be done with CGI, you've really got to admire what went in to creating all of the cinematic chaos Halicki manages to get up there on the screen for the audience.
While the focus is understandably on the cars and the car chases, the characters are, if not particularly deep, colorful and entertaining enough. Halicki is slick in the lead, obviously having a lot of fun playing this particular part. Stockton and Woods are also pretty fun as the cops and Jerry Daguirda is great as the chief foil in the picture.
This might not be deep but it definitely offers up plenty of thrills, chills and spills. It's also a testament to the independent spirit that made low budget filmmaking in the 70s so damn cool.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Mill Creek Entertainment brings Gone In 60 Seconds to Blu-ray in an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. While a newer AVC encode would have probably yielded better results, this transfer is still a decent effort. The film's naturally grainy look is nicely preserved here but at the same time the image stays clean, meaning it's free of all but minor instances of print damage or noticeable debris. There's a good amount of detail and texture evident in the picture and there's impressive depth throughout. Color reproduction is spot on, while black levels are deep but sometimes tend to crush things just a bit. A few shots are in soft focus and most of the film was shot using natural light, so there are moments in the film that look a bit dark, but this is how the movie should look as this is how the movie was shot. Not a reference quality image, but certainly a very good one.
The only audio option for the feature is an English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track. Optional closed captioning is provided in English only, there are no alternate language options provided here. While a lossless option would have been nice, the 5.1 mix here sounds pretty decent - which makes it a bit distressing that it suffers from occasional synch issues (this is more noticeable in some scenes than in others). Aside from that, the track is fine - there are no problems with any hiss or distortion and the levels are nicely balanced.
Extras are more substantial here than they are for most Mill Creek release. In the interviews section we get a half hours' worth of talk time with Lee Iacocca, Parnelli Jones, Jim Dilamarter, J.C. AgaJanian, Jr., and Bobby Ore. Each of the participants chimes in which some input on the history of the film, the cars that are featured in the picture, their thoughts on some of the more impressive and memorable sequences in the film and quite a bit more.
The disc also provides us with the chance to peruse fifteen minutes of 'Rare Footage' which is a collection of clips shot POV style that show off some of the driving done in the film followed by some interesting case chase footage and then some random bits and bobs shot throughout the production.
Rounding out the extras is the film's original theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection. Also included inside the Blu-ray case alongside the disc is an insert slip featuring a download for a Digital HD version of the movie. It's a shame the treasure trove of extras that appeared on the previous Blu-ray and DVD releases hasn't been ported over to this release (the story behind how Halicki went about getting this movie made is pretty fascinating), but what's here is good.
The Final Word:
Gone In 60 Seconds holds up really well, one of the all-time classic car chase movies. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release looks quite good and features a few fun extras but unfortunately drops the ball in the audio department due to the noticeable synch problems on the disc's only audio track. If you can look past that, this is a solid disc at a more than fair price.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
