I finally sat down and really watched Criterion’s One-Eyed Jacks Bluray (which was created by Universal Home Video and The Film Foundation under the watchful eyes of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg). While wearing my recently bought blue-tint bifocals, I mean. Which make Blurays on my 65″ Sony 4K look much sharper than I had previously suspected was possible. 

So let me tell you and speaking as one who saw this restored version of Marlon Brando‘s 1961 film projected in the Salle Bazin at the Cannes Film Festival, the Criterion Bluray is so ripe and robust it’s almost surreal — crisp and clean and needle-sharp beyond belief. It’s a VistaVision color bath you can just sink into. It caresses your eyeballs. I’m guessing it looks way, way better than it did on opening day at Loews’ Capitol on 3.30.61.

Side issue: Movies starring actors on the short side never announce this. In just about every film that’s ever starred a not-tall guy, and particularly in the case of action films or westerns, the lead actor’s short stature is always camoflauged to some extent. And yet when it came to casting two guys that his character would beat up, director-star Marlon Brando chose actors who were significantly taller and bulkier than he — Slim Pickens and Timothy Carey. And when those beating scenes happen, it looks a little strange for this much shorter guy to be whipping these big-ass guys. It doesn’t stop the film, but it seems odd.