227 Murphy's War

[MichaelB]

MURPHY'S WAR
(Peter Yates, 1971)
Release date: 23 May 2022
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World Blu-ray premiere)

Pre-order here

Peter O’Toole (The Ruling Class) gives one of his most spirited and memorable performances in Murphy’s War, a blood-and-thunder adventure film directed with grit by Peter Yates (The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Deep).

O’Toole is the titular Irish merchant seaman, whose ship is attacked by a German U-boat on the Orinoco river in Venezuela during the dying days of World War II. The sole survivor, Murphy is picked up by a French oil engineer (Philippe Noiret, Cinema Paradiso) and taken to a native village hospital where he is treated by the pacifist Quaker Dr Hayden (Siân Phillips, Becket, Dune). During his convalescence, Murphy plots his one man war on the enemy U-boat that callously slaughtered his shipmates…

Filmed on location in infamously uncompromising conditions, Murphy’s War combines impressively staged action with harsh realism and good humour. Presented on Blu-ray for the first time, and accompanied by a wealth of new and archival extras, along with a booklet containing new writing on the film.


INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Michael Deeley in Conversation (2008): archival audio interview with the Murphy’s War producer, recorded onstage at BFI Southbank
• Interview with editor and assistant director John Glen (2022)
• Interview with focus puller Robin Vidgeon (2022)
• Video appreciation by academic and film historian Sheldon Hall (2022)
• Behind the Camera: Douglas Slocombe (1999): archival documentary on the great cinematographer, featuring interviews with Richard Attenborough, Alan Parker and Ken Russell
• Super 8 version: original cut-down home-cinema presentation
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Julian Wheeler, an archival interview with Peter O’Toole, a look at the production of the film, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies
• All extras subject to change

#PHILTD227
BBFC cert: 12
REGION B
EAN: 5060697922240

[MichaelB]

Final specs:

[MichaelB]

A rave from CineSavant:

Murphy’s War was such an under-the-radar release in America that new viewers will surely be surprised at how good it is. It’s better-written and directed than some serious war-action pictures made a little earlier, like Operation Crossbow and The Heroes of Telemark. If you’ve been on a steady diet of CGI movies art-directed and optimized up the ying-yang, experiencing Murphy’s lovingly-filmed ‘real stuff’ will be an audio-visual vacation.

[Finch]

Cine Outsider

Despite its orphan status, Murphy's War is due a new appraisal and despite 70s cutting rhythms requiring a little patience, the film is entertaining, extremely well made and as a study of obsession, it's a fine example of its kind.

[Finch]

dvdcompare

This cynical, eccentric WWII adventure film was one that I had seen many years ago in the early 1980s but hadn't managed to see it again since until now. O'Toole plays a character who isn't entirely sympathetic but who's righteous fury at the murder of his entire crew - by a German submarine commander (Horst Janson, Captain Kronos himself!) and his crew - is completely understandable and than empathy drives audience involvement in his plight most of the way. It's not a masterpiece but it is a very good relic of the era that deserves to be much more widely seen.

Ultimately the film's cynical, downbeat ending wasn't to my taste and indeed the film changed a great deal from the book on which it was based (1969, Max Catto) and not for the better. Still, a good film.

This is a gorgeous looking, full bodied film with wonderful Scope cinematography and a rich colour palette with lots of browns and greens. The navel plane used in the film is a rich blue and little spots of primaries shine through nicely in this sparkling transfer. Flesh tones are warm and healthy, black levels deep and rich and contrast is punchy and supportive. I really wish mainstream Hollywood filmmaking would return to the filmic values we see here rather than the dull, low contrast rather flat modern digital look we've been suffering from (just look at the recent Dune, Part One for instance).

The encode is superb as usual allowing the natural grain to shine through in this photochemically lensed production. There's no signs of age related wear and tear, it looks spotless and like it was shot yesterday

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

Complete with audacious aerial sequences and a very physical performance by O'Toole leaping all over the place, Murphy's War is the kind of entertaining action film that would have probably been a bigger hit five years earlier. Given the time, it also adds on an overt anti-war angle far more dramatically than the then-recent source novel by Max Catto, whose work had earlier inspired films like Trapeze, Seven Thieves, and The Devil at 4 O'Clock. It's really O'Toole's show all the way, though Noiret also gets a few choice moments in a role that definitely feels like it was written for Peter Ustinov.