Man of Violence
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Synopsis
British crime drama in which a soldier of fortune becomes involved with some bent cops searching for missing gold bullion. British mercenary Moon (Michael Latimer) finds himself hired by crooked cops Nixon (Derek Aylward) and Burgess (George Belbin) as they try to get their hands on over 30 million pounds worth of stolen Arab gold, stashed away somewhere in Britain. But violence and treachery soon follow as rival gangsters, along with a sadistic murderer, home in on the prize.
Picture 8/10
For their sixth release in their Flipside series BFI Video presents Pete Walker’s Man of Violence (aka Moon) in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on this dual-layer Blu-ray disc. The image is presented in 1080p.
BFI yet again surprise and deliver a top-notch, near-perfect transfer for an older, unbelievably obscure film. Colours are certainly the strongest feature of the transfer, presenting bright, bold reds (which there are a lot of,) vibrant yellows and greens, and deep blacks. The image is consistently sharp, a tad fuzzy in spots, but overall the level of detail is quite shocking. Grain is present though isn’t too heavy, and the print is next to flawless.
I’ve consistently stunned by BFI’s transfers, though by now I probably shouldn’t be, but it truly is amazing how they can make films like this look almost like they were made yesterday. It’s absolutely striking.
Man of Violence - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
We get a lossless mono track that is of excellent quality, presenting no pops, hisses, scratches, or any other signs of damage. Still it lacks a real punch and does sound fairly flat, even when the film’s score is blaring at higher levels.
Extras 5/10
BFI includes a couple of intriguing supplements on here, though there’s not as much here as found on other BFI titles.
The first feature is a 3-minute theatrical trailer for Man of Violence, which of course pushes its exploitive charms as best it can.
Man of Violence ‘Moon’ Title presents a five-second alternate title card for the film. The main feature actually does start with a title card over the opening sequence for the title Moon, but the alternate title card here is over a blue background. First “Man of Violence” is shown and then “Moon” is pasted over it.
The big feature on here is two versions of Pete Walker’s film The Big Switch (aka Strip Poker.) The domestic version is the original UK version, running about 67-minutes. The movie is not very good, though has the same kind of feel as Man of Violence. It’s fairly energetic for the most part, but again has a ludicrous plot that, in the end, doesn’t really matter (nor really makes sense.) The film exists just to titillate in whatever way it can and unfortunately it doesn’t completely succeed. It’s amusing enough, and I enjoyed the obviously scattershot way it was put together (the last few minutes have quite a few continuity errors and I had a rather good chuckle when I realize the hero and the damsel-in-distress are running away from thugs, but appear to be in one spot pretending to run.) But like Man of Violence it’s impressively put together when one considers its low budget and time constraints (apparently it was shot in less than a week.)
Even more interesting is the export cut which is what would have played in the States. It’s longer, running 76-minutes, and the plotline is (unfortunately) the same, but it has far more nudity, even opening with a rather horrific strip show. It also shows more full body nudity, and also shows the beating our hero takes at the hands of goons, which is unbelievably bizarre since it involves a topless woman. Still not very good but makes for an interesting comparison piece.
BFI closes of the supplements with a trailer for The Big Switch, which again pushes the exploitive nature of the film.
BFI includes a booklet, not as thick as others, but worth a read. It opens with an essay by Cathi Unsworth, which probably gives more credit to Man of Violence than it probably deserves, an essay by David McGillivray on The Big Switch, where he recalls first seeing it (and not thinking it very good,) and then another essay by Julian Petley on exploitive British cinema. There’s a great little piece by Pete Walker where he recalls the two films (he has very little to say about The Big Switch other than he made a lot of money, and then the booklet concludes with a brief bio on Walker. As usual it’s a great booklet.
Not jam packed and unfortunately the big feature on here is two versions of a rather bad film, but altogether this release is an interesting little curiosity.
Closing
I have a vague idea of what happened in Man of Violence but it appears plot was the last concern Walker had with the film, despite the rather convoluted nature of it (involving real estate, oil, gold, etc.) While it’s a little on the long side it is a rather fun and fairly energetic film with a bizarre hero who will sleep with anyone (and I mean anyone) to get what he needs. With this release BFI’s Flipside continues to be one of the more curious and intriguing series out there, and again they have given that extra bit of effort to an obscure title, giving it a better transfer than what a lot of newer films receive. The films on here aren’t really all that good but I must admit it’s still a fun release overall.
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