The 10th Victim Blu-ray offers solid video and mediocre audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
It is the 21st Century, and society's lust for violence is satisfied by "The Big Hunt," an international game of legalized murder. But when the sport's two top assassins (Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress) are pitted against each other, they find that love is the most dangerous game of all. As the world watches, the hunt is on. Who will become THE 10TH VICTIM?
The 10th Victim plays in hindsight like a tale of two movies. On one hand, it's a terribly dated and ultra-cheesy forward-thinking picture of
antiquated "future" technologies and ridiculous "future" landscapes that are both enough to pull the modern audience right out of the movie. On
the other hand,
it's impossible not to see it as nothing less than a visionary film. Sure the "man hunts man" and "hunter becomes hunted" angles were long
established before even The 10th Victim, gaining notoriety way back when with the release of The Most Dangerous Game, but
Director Elio Petri's 1965 Italian film is a trailblazer all its own. It's a film that incorporates corporate sponsorship, high technology, and media
sensationalism as critical pieces of the plot, all elements that would define one of Action's juiciest sub-genres that includes pictures like the original
Rollerball, The Running Man, The Condemned, and Hard Target. Each are movies of varying
degrees of
success but that give an idea what The 10th Victim might be like if its twisty plot and character-driven narrative also incorporated more
imaginative visions of
21st century technology to push it along. Fortunately, the movie works in spite of its visual silliness. Even today it's an engaging and occasionally
even heart-stopping Sci-Fi-inspired Thriller that's intriguing on its own merits and worth a watch for its standard-setting and forward-thinking
influences.
Hunting.
In the 21st century, "The Big Hunt" is a big sensation. It's legalized murder for the entertainment of the masses, pitting a hunter against a hunted
for fame and prize money. Survive ten hunts -- five as the hunter, five as the hunted -- and gain untold fame and a million dollars to boot. Hunters
are tasked with thoroughly researching their prey to make for a more complete hunt, but the victim cannot know the hunter's identity. However,
the victim has every right to turn the tables and kill the hunter, and that's in fact a necessary ingredient to Big Hunt's success and just what
Caroline Meredith has done five times. She's one hunt away from becoming a member of the elite group of Big Hunt "winners" who have made it to
the magical threshold of ten victories. She's pitted against a veteran of The Big Hunt, Marcello Polletti, and her plan to kill him is met with great
corporate interest. It's staged to happen in an exotic locale and sponsored by a tea conglomerate. Things don't go quite according to plan, however,
when the hunter and the hunted become more than mere enemies: the begin to develop feelings for one another. With complex maneuvering,
great uncertainty, plenty of money, and untold fame at stake, can matters of the heart counter human greed, deviousness, and depravity?
The 10th Victim's shiny future landscape and colorful clothes offset the film's far darker and more sinister underbelly, a world where people
are
murdered -- for real -- for the entertainment of the masses, for celebrity, and for money. It's a future where humanity has devolved while things
like
the gun-equipped bra and the exploding cookie have evolved. But the absence of a bleaker palette gives the movie a completely unique charm that
would again be evident in a not-wholly-dissimilar picture that would come out a decade later, Logan's Run, a film home to an equally bleak future but where clunky
yet
shiny feel-good utopian era-inspired clothes and furnishings masked the true darkness behind the veil. Both films emphasize characterization and
plot
over visuals, but The 10th Victim sets itself apart from most similar genre pictures in that it's constructed more through excellent
characterization and dramatic arcs than standard beat-em-up, shoot-it-out action scenes. In that way, the film is more of a throwback,
brining it into an odd and unique full circle where it's forward-thinking yet visually-dated as well as a sign of things to come while grounded in a more
traditional character-driven narrative. What a fascinating picture!
Then there's the more traditional strengths and weaknesses. The 10th Victim's emphasis on its involved plot and well-developed characters
make the technical merits even more critical to the film's success. Fortunately, all's well in that area, too. Leads Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula
Andress are excellent. The interplay between them is dynamic, and the scheming, uncertainty, and struggles to gain personal success all influence
the developing romantic relationship that slowly blossoms between them, setting up a deliciously topsy-turvy end string of events that will leave
audiences spinning. They handle the dialogue and character interactions far better than they do the bulky and clumsy action scenes, though again
the de-emphasis on action and the emphasis on characterization lessens the negative impact of the picture's more kinetic elements. Director Elio
Petri films in such a way that the picture seems to almost speed up and slow down physically, not merely structurally. It's evenhanded and a fine
asset that goes a long way towards the success of the finished product.
The 10th Victim's 1080p transfer is sometimes shaky, but the cumulative result is very positive. Blue Underground's latest transfer is sturdy
and very nicely detailed. Clothes and faces are complex, and interior and exterior elements alike -- smooth and rough textures both -- enjoy stable
detailing and strong definition. Colors are a strength; from the brightest hues to the least extraordinary whites and grays, the transfer never misses a
beat in delivery of The 10th Victim's diverse palette. The image retains a very sharp grain structure which never feels wholly organic, but then
again
the image doesn't appear to be detrimentally scrubbed, either. However, jagged lines and noisy clusters do often surround objects and characters, which
represents the transfer's most evident weakness. Additionally, occasional print damage -- pops, stray hairs -- appears but not to an excessive or
distracting level. Getting back to the plusses, natural depth is evident, flesh tones appear accurate, and blacks are unwaveringly strong. This isn't quite
Blue Underground's finest transfer, but it's a good, high-yield image that overcomes its few weaknesses with ease.
The 10th Victim features both original Italian and English-dubbed soundtracks, each of the DTS-HD MA mono variety. Neither is any great
shakes, frankly, but the original Italian track is clearly the superior of the two. The English dub is so crackly and scratchy that it often borders on the
unlistenable. It's a bit louder than the Italian mix, but the original track -- despite sounding a bit hollow in places -- is also more often than not the
fuller, more balanced, cleaner, and generally more pleasant of the two. Of course, range is terribly limited, most sound effects lack even basic clarity, and
the overall sensation is one of mushiness and undefined elements. However, dialogue is suitably crisp. Neither track is likely to impress, but the
presentation succeeds -- notably in its original state -- in delivering the basic sound structure to a suitable level of proficiency.
The 10th Victim isn't exactly the kind of thing Blue Underground normally releases on Blu-ray. It's a far cry from the Horror pictures the studio
puts out on a monthly basis, but that doesn't make it any less of a frightening tale of a possible future. While visually dated, the movie holds strong to
its entertainment value while serving as a template for a slew of movies that copy its themes and put a different spin on its plot but that don't really
find the
same balance that makes The 10th Victim a success. Strong acting, good writing, steady direction, and its place as a semi-important historical
picture make The
10th Victim a must-see for 21st century film connoisseurs. Blue Underground's Blu-ray release of The 10th Victim features occasionally
troubled but mostly solid video, a serviceable but problematic soundtrack, and a few minor film-related extras to go along with a feature documentary.
Recommended on the strength of the film.
Blue Underground are set to release Italian director Elio Petri's La decima vittima a.k.a The 10th Victim (1965), starring Marcello Mastroianni (La Dolce Vita, Casanova 70), Ursula Andress (The Loves and Times of Scaramouche, Tigers in Lipstick), and Elsa Martinelli ...
