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Blu-ray Review: End Of Watch
Thursday, January 24, 2013 23:20
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The hell that Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) live in every day at their job as LAPD officers in South Central LA is a life that not everyone can handle to even look at for 109 minutes, the duration of one of the best police thrillers recently –End Of Watch. They do their job with a complete selflessness and abandon, saving gagged toddlers from their drugged parents or rescuing the same poor, neglected kids from a raging fire. They do it because they have to, and they don’t think twice.
Director David Ayer lived in South Central for while after he was kicked out from his home as a teenager. He knows what he is talking about inEnd Of Watch. The grim ugliness you expect to see is all there, but Ayer doesn’t depict stereotypes in stereotypical situations. He humanizes his Taylor and Zavala for the viewer; these two guys, full of stories and jokes, are two cops mostly hated by the people they are protecting. At times they seem like kids having fun, their dark blue lockers behind them, covered in stickers and memorabilia. At times they seem like hotheads who jump in on the scent of trouble. Deep down they are the unsung heroes doing deadly jobs, serving and protecting (without the notorious quotation marks) where others give up, give in, and become corrupt beyond recognition (and it is difficult to blame those others when the level of despair and deadly danger becomes apparent).
Ayer uses a shaky cam/lost footage approach inEnd Of Watch(the excuse is that Taylor is taking a movie class) to put the viewer into the center of the action. I am in love with the style, even though I am aware it is not for everyone. To me it helps to be stuck in the car with the two cops, chase after criminals with them, wipe the sweat off the forehead with them. It also reflects the shakiness of their situation, the uncertainty of their being – in danger all the time.
Besides the tightly knit plot, sparkling humor and unrelenting pace,End Of Watchis a movie bursting with enigmatic, colorful characters, who make this movie experience a real treat. The rest of the officers – Van Hauser (David Harbour), Sarge (Frank Grillo), and Orozco (America Ferrera) – are all strong characters played well by the cast, helping to paint a bigger picture of the force. Natalie Martinez (as Gabby, Zavala’s wife) and Anna Kendrick (as Janet, Taylor’s girlfriend) are great as the two better halves of the lead characters. They are especially good when the more experienced Gabby shares kinky sexual tips with the astonished Janet. Their femininity (they are both pregnant at some point) adds dimension to this predominantly masculine story and, while it foreshadows tragedy and loss, it also presupposes continuity and hope.
Gyllenhaal and Peña are astonishing in their roles. They project warmth without it ever getting syrupy; they are loving without replaying any of the cop buddy stereotypes. Being a movie set in such a gruesome atmosphere and featuring so many tragedies,End Of Watchshines beautifully, through its characters and through its philosophical stance. The end of the movie is done with a lot of taste, tonally ending the story on a fun, positive note. This is a great choice of Ayer’s, a smart move for depth, dimension, and perspective.
Blu-ray
Universal offers the Blu-ray ofEnd Of Watchin an AVC-encoded 1.85:1 widescreen presentation of high quality. The usual noise and over pixilation of the image present in hand held type of narrations are absent here and the image is always of great quality. Even the fastest sequences work well; at least, they look like the intention of the director.
The movie is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround, and it brings the level of excellence you would expect, creating a realistic experience. From loud and violent shootouts to ambient noise, sound effects are rendered expertly. Dialogues are discernible easily and there is a lot of attention to detail on the soundtrack.
Extras
The audio commentary with Ayer is the main extra on the pack. Ayer discusses the use of the shaky camera, the production in general, the message of the film, the intricacies of the plot (that some critics have found implausible – Lord knows, Ayer was guilty of that sin when he co-wroteU-571) and other issues.
PocketBlu functionality, a standard definition copy of the film, and the Digital Copy and/or streaming via UltraViolet options are also included in this Blu-ray pack.
Verdict: It is amazing to be moved so much by a movie likeEnd Of Watchwhen you least expect it. It is a great look into the life of policemen, at work and at play, with their strengths and weaknesses, at their highs and lows. Great movie.
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Sviatlana Piatakova is a writer, songwriter and singer from Minsk, Belarus. At http://svetapiatakova.blogspot.com/ she blogs on music, movies, modern pop culture, motherhood, and trying to find humor in all of the above. She is currently working on her first music album and a zombie apocalypse blog novel.
2013-01-24 22:47:47
Source: http://svetapiatakova.blogspot.com/2013/01/blu-ray-review-end-of-watch.html
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