Against All Odds Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
An injured football player, broke and at loose ends, reluctantly takes a job tracking down the former girlfriend of an old friend, a shady club owner and bookie. The girlfriend also happens to be the daughter of the football team’s owner, a wealthy society lady and L.A. real estate developer. When the football player finds the girlfriend hiding out in a tiny resort in Mexico, sparks fly between them, but they’re involved in game bigger than either of them suspects.
In the summer of 1984, you couldn't tune into MTV without encountering the video for Phil
Collins' "Take a Look at Me Now", his Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning theme to Against
All Odds. The song is an insistent ballad, and the video adroitly reconstructed footage from the
film to make it look like an intense love story—which, at one level, it is. But not that kind
of love story. When the first strains of Collins' piano gently waft into the film's soundtrack at the
end, the song serves as an ironic commentary on the futility of love (or any other virtue) among
the hopelessly corrupt and damaged people at the story's core. Inspired by the 1947 film Out of
the Past, director Taylor Hackford's Against All Odds is, as he himself put it, a film
noir in bright sunlight. Even the people who start out with good intentions find themselves led astray by people
who'd scoff at the notion. Ultimately, the film is like an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about the very
rich who, it turns out, really are different from you and me, because their wealth allows them
to get away with just about anything.
In this century, Ray has been Taylor Hackford's only success, but there was a time when the
director made a string of hits: An Officer and a Gentleman, White Knights and
Against All Odds. Even if the last one's box office was modest, the soundtrack sales were major. Unfortunately, the
Phil Collins video is one of the extras not included on Image Entertainment's Blu-ray (although it
was on the original Sony DVD), but Image and Sony have done a fine job with the film itself,
which features a career-changing lead performance by Jeff Bridges and powerful supporting
work from James Woods, Rachel Ward, Swoozie Kurtz, Saul Rubinek, a commanding Richard
Widmark and, crucially, an original star of Out of the Past, Jane Greer, who is superb.
Terry Brogan (Bridges), a professional football player for the L.A. Outlaws (a fictional team
loosely based on the Raiders), returns for the new season after being sidelined with a badly
injured shoulder, but the head coach (Bill McKinney) correctly assesses that Brogan isn't ready
to play and cuts him from the team. Under the team's current owner, Mrs. Wyler (Greer), a
wealthy widow, football is strictly business and players are no more than assets. Brogan is no
longer an asset worth keeping, despite the efforts of his friend and trainer, Hank Sully (Alex
Karras). Sully resents the current management philosophy, because he remembers how things
were run when Mr. Wyler was alive. Mrs. Wyler's principal interest is real estate—at the
moment, Wyler Canyon, a massive hilltop development overlooking Los Angeles. (The
production used the site of what is now the Getty Museum.)
Brogan tries to get help from his long-time lawyer, Steve Kirsch (Saul Rubinek), but Mrs. Wyler
now owns him too. Kirsch, who'd been far too effective negotiating favorable contracts for
players, has been hired by the law firm run by Mrs. Wyler's lawyer, Ben Caxton (Widmark).
Since the firm represents the team, Kirsch has to drop his player-clients, and he's all too happy to
do so, because Caxton's firm is an entree to the city's elite. Caxton himself is the kind of lawyer
who doesn't practice law. His clients hire him for his connections. Right now, he's helping Mrs.
Wyler obtain the necessary zoning variance and environmental approvals for Wyler Canyon over
the objections of local interests led by City Councilman Bob Soames (Allen Williams).
Kirsch's secretary, Edie (Swoosie Kurtz), would love to help Brogan, but there's nothing she can
do. She'd be happy to date him, but that's the furthest thing from Brogan's mind. Broke, with no
prospects or savings and big bills to pay, Brogan is desperate—and all too conveniently an
unconventional job offer appears. A friend from Brogan's past, Jake Wise (Woods), offers
Brogan a handsome salary and all expenses paid to track down Jake's ex-girlfriend, Jessie
(Ward), who just happens to be Mrs. Wyler's daughter. Jake was a small-time bookie when
Brogan used to know him, but now he's a slick club owner who takes big bets for high rollers.
He's accompanied everywhere by a taciturn bodyguard named Tommy (Dorian Harewood),
seems to know every angle and keeps one step ahead of the game at all times. But Jessie Wyler
got to him, and now he wants her found.
Why hire a football player to find a missing rich girl? That story element may at first seem to be
nothing more than a plot device, but it goes to the heart of who Jake is and the complexities of
the relationship between him and Brogan, which are essential to how the story unfolds. In a sharp
piece of screenwriting by Eric Hughes (jointly developed with director Hackford), we're
immediately drawn into the strange connections between the player and the gambler, when Jake
dares Brogan into a race on Sunset Boulevard from the beach to Jake's club, and they go
speeding along in a Porsche and a Ferrari.
The sequence became famous, and it still holds up, because director Hackford and a bevy of
Hollywood's top stunt men worked with the L.A.P.D. to shut down part of Sunset on successive
weekends and the Fourth of July, then staged the car chase for real at high speed with no
tricks—and Woods and Bridges did a lot of their own driving. The sequence feels dangerous,
because it was, as Jake and Brogan keep pushing each other into ever more perilous straits.
Among other things, their race reveals that Jake is a "risk junkie"; he can't help putting himself
in situations from which only a daredevil "Hail Mary" stunt can possibly extract him. Sending a
handsome football player after his girlfriend is just one more high-stakes gamble.
Smelling trouble in Jake's offer, Brogan first visits Mrs. Wyler in a vain attempt to get reinstated
on the team. She declines, but makes him the same offer that Jake did: find her daughter, but
don't tell Jake. Not having any options, and not exactly sure what he'll do if he finds Jessie,
Brogan leaves for Mexico. Eventually he finds her in the resort town of Cozumel. By this point
Brogan is fascinated with this rich girl who's bewitched his old friend. As for Jessie, the chief
attraction for her in a man is whether he's someone of which her mother would disapprove. Jake,
who's a criminal, fit the bill; so does Brogan, who's an ex-player on the team her mother owns.
They quickly fall into an affair.
In these happy early days of love, Brogan and Jessie travel around Mexico, so that Brogan can
appear to be looking for her still. But it turns out they're not alone. Someone is following them,
maybe for Jake, maybe for Mrs. Wyler. At the spectacular Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá, a
deadly confrontation occurs, and a spooked Jessie goes rushing back to Los Angeles for protection.
Brogan follows her, but nothing is the same now that he and Jessie have left the idyllic serenity
of the Mexican countryside for the unforgiving steel and glass of L.A. Even the few people
Brogan could trust before are no longer available to him. Plots, setups, double-crosses, secret
alliances and murders pile up quickly in a series of collisions that leave almost nothing
undamaged or untouched. Except for Wyler Canyon, of course. As in Chinatown, real estate
always prevails.
On the commentary tracks, Hackford repeatedly describes the film as an exploration of where
real power lies in contemporary L.A. Terry Brogan begins the film thinking that he's a
somebody, because he's a football star. Throughout the film, he's repeatedly and often brutally
shown that he's a highly paid nobody who can easily be replaced. "You're so innocent!" Jessie
tells him at one point. By the end, he's lost that innocence.
Consistent with the notion of "a film noir with bright sun", cinematographer Donald Thorin (who
also shot An Officer and a Gentleman for director Hackford) gave Against All Odds a
bright colorful look that is well-represented on Image's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. Strong contrast
levels accentuate the colors, but not at the expense of detail. By today's digitally enhanced
standards, the image might be considered "soft", but it's still detailed enough so that, for
example, when Brogan and Jessie are on top of one of the pyramids at Chichén Itzá, you
can see the details of other visitors' interactions on the ground in the distance behind them. A light grain
pattern is visible but not intrusive, and black levels are good enough so that, e.g., a scene where
Tommy emerges from shadow to surprise Brogan works as intended. I did not observe any high-frequency
filtering or transfer-induced ringing (although the illumination of bright sunlight at
some angles can create a haloing effect that might be mistaken for ringing). Despite Image's
continued addiction to BD-25s for two-hour-plus films with multiple audio tracks, I did not spot
any obvious compression-related artifacts. Indeed, the only criticism I have of the disc is some
light banding that was so transient and occasional that most viewers may not notice it.
Against All Odds was released to theaters in Dolby Surround. The 1999 "Special Edition" DVD
offered a choice between the original mix and a 4.0 mix consisting of the surround track's
discrete elements in separate channels (left, center, right, mono surround). The DTS lossless 5.1
track on the Blu-ray is a more recent remix that has been handled thoughtfully and with care.
Dialogue and effects remain largely in front, which is where they have always been, and the
dialogue is clear. The real impact of the remix and lossless presentation is to detach the
distinctive musical track and expand it into its own space where it serves as a kind of
commentary on the action. The score was a joint creation of Michel Colombier and guitarist
Larry Carlton, who is widely considered one of the great American guitar players for work that
includes Steely Dan's The Royal Scam and his Grammy-winning contribution to the theme for
Hill Street Blues. For Against All Odds, Carlton contributed guitar solos at critical
portions that sound nothing like film music. (The only similar-sounding film I know is Rush, which was
scored by Eric Clapton.) I've always been aware of the film's distinctive sound, but never before
have I heard it with such presence and urgency. Even if you've seen the film before, I
recommend hearing it again on this Blu-ray.
The extras have been ported over from the 1999 "special edition" DVD released by Sony, with
the unfortunate omission of the two music videos for Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and King
Creole and the Coconuts' "My Male Curiosity", which contains the full performance seen and
heard only in fragments in the film.
Commentary with Director Taylor Hackford and Actors Jeff Bridges and James
Woods: The three collaborators chat like the old friends they have remained, and the
commentary sometimes gets boisterous (especially when they're reminiscing about
shooting the club scene featuring King Creole and the Coconuts). Hackford tends to
discuss the story (on his solo commentary for The Devil's Advocate, he virtually
summarized the film), but Bridges and Woods frequently pull the discussion toward the
process of shooting the movie and the nuts and bolts of acting. It's a lively commentary,
well worth hearing.
Commentary with Director Taylor Hackford and Screenwriter Eric Hughes:
Hackford recorded this commentary with Hughes the day after doing the commentary
with his actors. He characterizes it as more "technical", which is accurate in the sense that
he and Hughes don't stick as closely to the action on-screen. At the outset, for example,
they describe in detail how the project was developed over a two-year period at
Paramount, where Hackford made An Officer and a Gentleman, then had the plug pulled
on it well after pre-production was underway, with a team assembled, locations scouted,
costumes designed, etc. (The regime at Paramount was changing, and the executive who
had championed the project, Don Simpson, had been fired.) Hackford's agent saved the
film by quickly getting it reestablished at Columbia, before the team that Hackford had
assembled could fall apart. If you've ever wondered what a good agent does, this is an
example.
Hackford and Hughes also discuss the film's underlying themes and the stylistic choices
they consciously made so that the film wouldn't "date". (Hughes was present on the set
throughout.)
Deleted Scenes (SD; 1.33:1; 23:09): There are seven scenes, with optional
commentary by Hackford. Hackford also provides a general introduction that, after so many years of
deleted scene entries on DVDs and Blu-rays, sounds almost quaint in its explanation of
why directors make cuts. All seven scenes are interesting, especially a long one involving
a surprise appearance by Jake and Tommy in Mexico, which would have provided a more
immediate reason for Brogan and Jessie to leave Cozumel. An additional scene between
Brogan and Jessie at Chichén Itzá is also quite good but was appropriately cut for both
length and pacing.
Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1080p; 1.33:1, centered; 1:33): As nice as it is to have the
trailer in hi-def, the source is in pretty rough shape.
The Jeff Bridges who appeared so memorably in Against All Odds recently made a kind of
spectral return to theaters, because the makers of TRON: Legacy used this film as a reference
for Bridges' younger self in the character of CLU. CLU was interesting, but Terry Brogan was more
so: basically decent but not very bright, and caught up in something way out of his
league (no pun intended). The most effective hero for a film noir is a sap we happen to like, whether
it's Fred MacMurray or William Hurt—or Jeff Bridges. Because we like them, it's all the more
painful when they make a mess of things, as they always do. The film and the disc are both
highly recommended.
Image Entertainment has announced that on March 22, 2011 it will release Blu-ray editions for three catalog titles from the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment catalog: Against All Odds (Taylor Hackford, 1984); Awakenings (Penny Marshall, 1990); and Random Hearts ...
