As there is no blu-ray release of The Hard Way, I have opted to give a DVD review of the best quality version of this DVD on the market.
The Hard Way is an interesting British telefilm from the late 70's starring Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner) and Lee Van Cleef, both about 10 years past the height of their careers. This is a typical cat and mouse type hitman movie, after McGoohan double-crosses LVC for not doing that "one last job". The standout performance is McGoohan's, but LVC is dependable here, playing the villain nicely.
Unfortunately this DVD has only been available in Europe, and as such is region 2/PAL encoded (making it unplayable on most US DVD players)
VIDEO
As this was a telemovie made by ITC, it was shot full frame (4:3). Overall the image is nice, with occasional film scratching.
Screencaps below-
A decent mono mix. English only.
EXTRAS
- Trailer
- Video slideshow of posters and stills (including some LVC stills from Escape From New York oddly enough)
Highly recommended for LVC fans. An excellent example of some of the smaller somber films made in this era.
THE GOOD:
- Decent image quality
THE BAD
- Region 2 (UK) only
Amazon.co.uk - The Hard Way DVD
I have this on DVD I got some years ago in the bargin bin. It was shot in Ireland and Lee and Patrick both give very good performances. Actually it's one of Lee's better films post Leone.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bob, I agree with you this is a very characterised bleak thirller/crime movie that depended heavily on the two leads and they made this movie substantial. The grayer Lee could have easily be the coolest M in Bond films. we LVC fans shouldn't miss this little gem.
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