The Brave One on Blu-ray: A Must See!

Starring: Jodie Foster (Contact, Panic Room) as Erica Bain, Terence Howard (Four Brothers, Crash) as Detective Mercer, Naveen Andrews (Lost) as David Kirmani, and Nicky Katt (World Trade Center, Sin City) as Detective Vitale.
Directed By: Neil Jordan (Crying Game)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

The Story
The Brave One [Blu-ray] revolves around Erica Bain (Foster), a radio host who lived and breathed New York, “the safest big city in the world” and was deeply in love with her fiance David Kirmani (Andrews). One night, whilst having a romantic stroll through Central Park, they were viciously attacked by a gang of thugs. David was killed, while Erica was left in a coma for 3 weeks.

What follows is a transformation to her darker side - a lone woman who becomes judge, jury, and executioner. Unlike many vigilante stories, however, we see Erica struggle with her inner demons, all the while being pursued by the deeply honest Detective Mercer (Howard), a man who actually cares about his victims and the law’s inability to punish those who deserve to be punished. There is a very strong kinship between Erica and Mercer. Can the honest detective make the choice between doing his job and his new friend? Does he have the strength and the fortitude to bring her down?

Having lived in London all my life and reading many newspaper reports about how the law seems more concerned about defending the “human rights” of criminals rather than protecting the victims, I can strongly sympathize. I found myself asking the questions: when does wrong become right? And just how far would you be prepared to right the wrong that was done to you? I daresay you’ll be asking yourself the same things, too.

It was refreshing to see a female in the male-dominated vigilante role in The Brave One movie, and Foster truly outdid herself, showing both fierce determination and self-doubt as she deals with the scum of New York City. Plus, she looks great! I give it a 9/10.

The Visuals
The visuals were both crisp and naturally-toned. You could clearly see the tiny hairs on Foster’s face, and distant shots were also detailed. The many night shots were also full of detail. In fact, everything was detailed, including (drumroll, please) The Brave One sex scene (not Blu-ray porn material, mind you).
I wonder, though, what it would have looked like if it had been encoded for Blu-ray only on AVC-MPEG4 on a 50GB disc rather than for HD on VC-1 25GB disc it came on. Come 1st of June ‘08 maybe we’ll find out. Still good work, Warner. I give it an 8/10.

The Audio
There was a choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish, French, English) and Dolby Tru-HD 5.1 (English). I chose the latter and was extremely pleased that I did. It was a beautiful mix. At no time were vocals drowned out or subdued.

I particularly liked the soundtrack and the very haunting song that played at key moments, both written and performed by Sarah McLachlan. The Brave One soundtrack sounded gorgeous. Gunshots sounded crisp, clear, and very loud, as did the Subway trains. I give it a 9/10.

The Extras
There were very few extras on the disc, the main one being a 22-minute long featurette about the movie and the subject matter. It was a very insightful feature and, as a bonus, was shot in HD. Also available are a collection of deleted scenes which are mainly superfluous to the film. They could’ve put in more, though, an inadequacy seemingly common in Warner Brothers Blu-ray releases. This is the only dark spot in this Blu-ray disc movie review, that’s why I give it 6/10.

Overall Impact
I have to say, myself and the girlfriend really enjoyed The Brave One. It was refreshing. Foster’s and Howard’s performances were topnotch, and Jordan’s direction was sharp. This is a Blu-ray Warner didn’t screw up. Top banana! I give it 8/10. Do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy - ASAP!

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