Ultra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Threastwood: Dirty Harry, Josey Wales and Pale Rider on 4K

By Chris Chiarella

Studio pushes like the one Warner has done for filmmaker Clint Eastwood—long one of their most bankable stars—are a great opportunity to rediscover what made an icon so iconic. These are not the first Eastwoods in 4K, nor are they the first from Warner, but they certainly represent some of his absolute best work on screen.

All of the titles covered here are new to Ultra HD disc, with native 4K masters in HDR10 dynamic range. They all default to new Dolby Atmos mixes but each also includes its original theatrical audio (specific formats listed in the specs below). There are no HD Blu-rays included, but all are bundled with a Movies Anywhere digital copy code. We reviewed the standard, slipcased editions but SteelBook alternatives are available. Oh, and one impressive little tidbit I feel compelled to call out before we start: Since the movies span 14 tumultuous years, we’re treated to three different WB logos.

Pale Rider 4K

After a young girl’s desperate prayer, a mysterious stranger known only as Preacher rides into a remote mining town, and before long he changes the lives of everyone he encounters. Equally adept with pistols, dynamite or even an axe handle, he dispenses copious whoop-ass in the name of justice. Pale Rider is strongly inspired by the classic Shane but with a possible supernatural twist, much like the earlier High Plains Drifter, a western so dark and violent that it drove a wedge between Eastwood and John Wayne that would never be resolved.

The three movies on this list were all shot by Oscar-nominated director of photography Bruce Surtees. The latest release in this bunch, Pale Rider looks and feels the most straightforward, produced with access to significantly newer film stocks and lenses. The image is sharp and stable with vibrant color and strong contrast. The location photography of wintry Idaho is simply gorgeous. Dialogue is consistently clear within the Atmos soundstage, atmospherics are subtle and the musical score is well-balanced. The gunshots—and there are a lot of them—always ring true. Like the other two movies, the original theatrical audio is supplied in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 as well, although unlike the split-mono Josey and Harry, Preachy rides in stereo.

The Outlaw Josey Wales 4K

A very different sort of western from 1976 finds Clint at the end of the Civil War, a good man who lost it all and wound up as a heroic bush fighter for the South. His men surrender but he chooses not to, a wise decision as fate would have it and soon he finds himself on the run and headed south and west, with a growing legend and an expanding cadre of followers. We see a more sensitive side of Eastwood this time, Clint the actor and not just the movie star, as a man haunted by his past while shouldering the burden of leadership, in search of a new beginning.

There’s a real beauty to the visual style of Josey Wales, many scenes looking like a painting of the American frontier come to life, lovingly maintained at 4K resolution. One particular shot early on transitions from monochromatic to full color, so wondrous I had to scan back and watch it again to appreciate it. There’s an epic quality to Josey’s journey (this is the longest of the three movies), and the spacious Atmos remix really helps carry it all along, aided by Jerry Fielding’s Oscar-nominated score. Though fleeting, the big Civil War scenes supply requisite boom and surround engagement.

Dirty Harry 4K

Like the boldest dramas of its period, Dirty Harry is unafraid to ask hard questions: What’s right and what’s wrong? What does justice look like in contemporary society? Here, as America was coming to grips with recent protections for the accused and law enforcement was being held to a different standard, a hardline cop is tasked with hunting a serial killer terrorizing San Francisco while facing opposition at every turn. Perhaps this, like the other two, is in fact a cowboy tale, or at least inspired by those morality plays of yore, leading to a powerful ending that clearly echoes High Noon. Fun fact: Clint was cast as Detective Harry Callahan only after Frank Sinatra and others had passed. (Sinatra also passed on Die Hard, but that’s another story.) Orangutans notwithstanding, this would become Eastwood’s biggest film franchise, spawning four sequels before he surrendered his .44 magnum and badge following 1988’s The Dead Pool.

Reportedly scanned at a staggering 8K, this rendition of Dirty Harry serves up a magnificent snapshot of early ’70s San Francisco, with frequent crisp wide shots full of almost shocking levels of detail. Smaller nuances are evident as well, down to the fuzz of Harry’s go-to tweed sportcoat. Grain is well-managed but still present, the image displays ample, appropriate color, and the HDR highlights in the many nighttime scenes are respectably bright. As is to be expected, some limits to the source negative are exposed: blacks are organic but don’t always reveal significant picture information.

I remember being excited to give a listen to the Chace Stereo remix of the native mono Dirty Harry on VHS eons ago, so you can imagine my eagerness to dive into this new Atmos track. Warner gives us a modern but natural expansion of the soundscape, never hokey or distracting, with convincing flyovers of helicopters surveilling the city rooftops and police car sirens in frantic motion. And this movie just wouldn’t hit the same without Lalo Schifrin’s haunting score, deftly mixed in exquisite clarity.

It’s mostly legacy bonus content on these three single discs, featurettes and documentaries of varying lengths and vintages, some title-specific while others are career-spanning but nothing is redundant between them. Each movie carries two short, unique new featurettes, most on the fluffy side but the one with grown-up Pale Rider co-star Sydney Penny is worth a watch. Dirty Harry and Josey Wales include audio commentaries by noted film critic and Eastwood expert Richard Schickel. No worries on bit rate, as all are presented on triple-layer BD-100 platters.

While there’s no guarantee the same titles won’t wind up in themed 4K boxed sets in the future (possibly upgraded to Dolby Vision), I can highly recommend Warner’s three new singles. The inclusion of the original theatrical audio shows respect for the fans, I appreciate the effort to give us something new, extras-wise, and these really are a major, welcome upgrade to some of Clint’s most enduring characters.