U.S. Marshals Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard and his street-smart deputies pursue Sheridan, a new fugitive who is accused of two New York assassinations. Aiding Gerard is a cocky young government operative who proves to be a match for Gerard's tactical and intellectual strengths.
More a spinoff than a sequel to the 1993 hit The Fugitive, 1998's U.S. Marshals is a tribute to a
great actor's ability to fill out a supporting role with such conviction that the lawman pursuing
Richard Kimble became as much a star of the film as the fugitive he was chasing. Tommy Lee
Jones won the supporting actor Oscar by transforming the character of U.S. Deputy Marshal Sam Gerard
into a complex and memorable individual that audiences loved, probably because it's comforting
to imagine society being protected by people of such talent, determination and morality. On the
page, Gerard was a plot function, much as he had been in the original TV series. Jones built an
entire character out of the seemingly simple notion of an individual engaged in a "relentless
pursuit" and "obsessed" with the capture of an escaped prisoner (to borrow phrases from the
famous narration that opened each TV episode). Every time I watch The Fugitive, I notice some
additional gesture or facial expression that Jones layered into his performance to express not only
Gerard's intense focus, but also the restless intelligence behind it.
U.S. Marshals put Gerard front and center and surrounded him with most of the same deputies
who served as effective foils in The Fugitive; the only new face is LaTanya Richardson, whose
Deputy Cooper replaces L. Scott Caldwell's Deputy Poole—and does so effectively. Once again,
Gerard and his team have to hunt down an escaped federal fugitive who proves to be more
resourceful than your average detainee. The main reason why U.S. Marshals is a lesser film (and
performed well below its predecessor at the box office) is that it's hard to craft a chase scenario
with the elegant simplicity of Richard Kimble's search for the one-armed man. For U.S.
Marshals, screenwriter John Pogue turned to the world of espionage, where plots, hidden
agendas and double-crosses are all too familiar. Pogue's fugitive, a former covert operative,
would have been equally at home in the world of 24, John le Carré or even James Bond.
Because such a character is so familiar in the movies (though not in real life), he can't be endowed
with the everyman quality that made Harrison Ford's Kimble so compelling. Kimble may have been a
wealthy and successful surgeon, but he was still a guy who got up, kissed his wife goodbye and
went to work; when crime and violence burst into his life, it was a shocking and unexpected
intrusion. By contrast, the fugitive in U.S. Marshals has lived "off the grid" and outside
society's norms for much of his adult life. His quest to clear his name feels more like a routine spy
thriller than a personal tragedy.
The film opens with grainy surveillance video of a parking garage in New York where two men
are killed. The exact circumstance are revealed (and misrepresented) throughout the film's
running time, but the incident drives the story. A few days later, police in Chicago arrest a tow
truck driver named Mark Warren (Wesley Snipes), after his truck is involved in a spectacular
crash caused by a driver talking on a cell phone. While Warren is being treated at the hospital,
where his girlfriend, Marie (Irène Jacob, familiar to viewers of Red), is waiting to pick him up, a
fingerprint check reveals that he's Mark Roberts, who is wanted in connection with the New
York parking garage murders.
Meanwhile, Chief Deputy Marshal Gerard (Jones) and his assistant deputies—Cosmo Renfro (Joe Pantoliano), Noah Newman
(Tom Wood), Bobby Biggs (Daniel Roebuck) and Savannah Cooper (Richardson)—are arresting
a pair of street toughs after patiently staking out the apartment of their girlfriends. (Gerard's
disguise for the stakeout is a chicken costume, which director Stuart Baird says on the
commentary was his own idea to make the scene more interesting.) The bust turns violent, and a
prisoner makes a public stink about his injuries. As a PR maneuver, Gerard's boss (and old
flame), Catherine Walsh (Kate Nelligan) orders him to accompany the arrestees on their plane
flight to a Tennessee prison, where Gerard will make a contrite statement to the press.
Unfortunately for Gerard and everyone else, Warren/Roberts is being transported on the same
plane. An incident in mid-flight downs the aircraft (spectacularly), and when the bodies, living
and dead, are counted up, Mark Whatever-His-Name-Might-Be is gone. It's time to summon
Gerard's team and get to work.
Mark (whose real name is neither Warren nor Roberts) leads them on a lively chase through
swamps, along interstates and eventually back to New York, where he hopes to find the truth and
exonerate himself. In the process, Gerard and crew circle back to Chicago to locate Marie, who
seems less disturbed upon learning her boyfriend is a covert operative than by the allegation that
he killed two people. For Gerard, the most annoying element of the case is the new associate he's
been forced to include, a State Department diplomatic security agent named Royce (Robert Downey, Jr.),
who seems to have a personal stake in the chase (since he was friends with the two murder
victims), has no experience in fugitive apprehensions, carries a "nickel-plated sissy pistol" (or so
says Gerard) and clearly isn't sharing everything he knows.
Director Baird, whose previous film was the terrorist thriller Executive Decision (1996), stages
some first-rate action scenes, including the plane crash previously mentioned, a tense shootout in
a cemetery, a deadly pursuit through the corridors of a retirement home and a punchout in the hold
of a cargo ship. Snipes has sufficient screen presence to make Warren into a worthy opponent,
even though the story never allows him the innately righteous cause of Richard Kimble (or the
sympathetic position of Harrison Ford). Gerard's cantankerous banter with his deputies remains
entertaining even when it acquires a sharp edge, as it often threatened to do with Pantoliano's
Cosmo in The Fugitive, which here spills over into outright rancor. In this film, the stakes
for the team itself are much higher.
U.S. Marshals was shot by Andrzej Bartkowiak, who became a favorite for action pictures after
his work on Speed (1994).
Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray vividly converys
Bartkowiak's trademark style, with its rich but understated colors and almost tactile textures.
Detail is well-rendered throughout; you can see every crease and crag in Tommy Lee Jones's
face, which can go from stern to mock-playful in an instant. During the elaborate stunt and model
sequences (the film was made just before CGI had largely supplanted realism in action films), the
degree of visible detail adds dramatically to their impact. The same is true for the tense, extended
sequence in the Tennessee swamp, where all the leaves, aquatic vegetation, mud and muck are
plainly visible and make the characters' discomfort feel quite real.
Blacks are deep and solid, which is essential to such scenes as the aftermath of the plane crash.
Colors are rich without being oversaturated. There was no indication of artificial sharpening,
high frequency filtering or compression artifacts, and the only flaw I spotted was an occasional
minor instance of aliasing on very fine cross-hatch patterns. (I'm particularly sensitive to this
kind of flaw; others may not even notice it.) The film itself may not be anyone's idea of eye
candy, but the transfer from Warner is top notch.
From the moment the snowy surveillance footage flashes on the screen at the beginning, you
know that the soundtrack of U.S. Marshals won't be ordinary. The events on the tape are pumped
up and echo through the surrounds in a manner that no surveillance system ever managed. All of
the major action sequences fully engage the rear speakers and the sub, and they do so at full
volume, driven by the Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Mark "Warren's" tow truck crash is
sickeningly bone-crunching. The decompression and crash landing of the prison plane are filled
with shocking sounds that no air travel passenger ever wants to hear (and, as catastrophes keep
piling on top of each other, the sound gets more frightening). The cemetery shooting is a
symphony of mayhem, as bullets whiz by and hit various objects and people. Scenes in
downtown New York (many of them shot in Chicago) also contribute to the sonic experience,
with the ever-present traffic noise, which is a running joke, since Gerard's guys keep getting
stuck in traffic.
Dialogue is almost always clear, except when it's getting drowned out by something else. The
score by the late Jerry Goldsmith does a great job of latching onto elements from James Newton
Howard's score for The Fugitive and developing them into something that is distinctive for this
film, while remaining sonically connected to the one that inspired it.
The extras have been ported over from the 1998 Warner DVD. Omitted are three TV spots, a
trailer for The Fugitive and a behind-the-scenes essay.
Commentary by Director Stuart Baird: Baird's commentary is dry, sparse and
contains lengthy pauses (and when I say "lengthy", I mean as much as half an hour). He sometimes
provides interesting information (e.g., how to simulate the Wall Street area in downtown
Chicago), but more often than not he states the obvious (e.g., Tommy Lee Jones is a
powerful screen presence—really?).
Anatomy of the Plane Crash (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 12:44): A step-by-step
breakdown of how the crash sequence was achieved, presented in multiple short featurettes with a
"play all" function.
The Crash: A Five-Act Play
Model Airplanes
Exterior Sets
Interior Sets
Landing Locations
Escape Under Water
Crash Research
Miniature Road
Crash for Crash: "U.S. Marshals" vs. "The Fugitive"
Justice Under the Star (SD; 1.33:1; 18:27): A history of the U.S. Marshal's
Service, both in reality and in the movies. It's followed by trailers for Cahill U.S. Marshal
and the Lawrence Kasdan film ofWyatt Earp.
U.S. Marshals isn't a classic, as The Fugitive is and probably will remain. But it's
well-made, entertaining and features a great performance by Tommy Lee Jones and equally good supporting
work from almost everyone else. (The exception is Downey, whose talents weren't well-suited to
the role of a button-down government functionary. He later said in an interview that he hated
working on the film.) As derivative as the plot may be, it's coherent and carefully thought
through, which is more than one can say for many thrillers today. The Blu-ray is technically
superior and highly recommended.
Warner Home Entertainment will bring U.S. Marshals to Blu-ray this June. Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) reprises his Academy Award-winning turn from The Fugitive as U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, who now finds himself hunting convicted murderer Mark Roberts ...
