A Breed Apart (1984) - Region Free PAL, plays in English without subtitles

Bought as present, old film they enjoyed watching it. Perfect quality

A good action film with a young Rutgers Bauer.

Good film enjoyed it and it came quickly. Very happy thank you

Great film in english

An old movie, but love the story ...

love Rutger Hauer in anything

Brilliant classic rutger hauer and seller was awesome in my opinion

Philippe Mora's eco action thriller A Breed Apart makes it's worldwide high definition debut from Shout Factory. Graced a brand new 2K scan from the interpositive further assisted by uncompressed audio this also contains an exclusive feature length audio commentary and on camera interview with it's director. It is also worth noting that this is a region A locked Blu ray release meaning UK buyers will require a multi-region Blu ray player to view the content on this disc.Synopsis:Jim Malden (Rutger Hauer) is a twitchy vietnam vet recluse who resides on his own private island in North Carolina with only nature for company. Quite obviously traumatised by his tour of duty in Nam (we know this only by the way the soundtrack fills with the din Cobra attack helicopters and machine gun fire whenever Jim looses his rag) he spends his time protecting his bird population from drunken good ol boy poachers while at the same time trying to hide his affections for the local supply store owner Stella (Kathleen Turner). It also transpires that Maldens private retreat is the home to a pair of nesting (and totally ficticious) Bald Eagles that are rumoured to be larger than the common all garden variety. Cut to J.P Whittier (Donald Pleasence) a multi millionaire and collector of rare birds eggs who hires the rugged Mike Walker (Powers Boothe) a fearless mountain climber to make a visit to Malden's island with the sole intention of stealing the eggs for the sum of $200,000. After assisting Malden in a scuffle involving a pair of disgruntled poachers, Walker earns his respect. Malden agrees to let Walker visit his island believing him to be an ornathologist and photographer but with the $200,000 hanging in the wings and the fact the eggs incubation period is nearing the end of its cycle Walker has a race against time to scale the eagles mountaintop home whilst at the same time distracting his overly suspicious host.Virtually forgotten today, A Breed Apart features an exceptional cast that includes Rutger Hauer, Kathleen Turner, Powers Boothe, Donald Pleasence and the late great 80s favourite bad guy Brion James. With a line-up like that how could this movie be so obscure and unheard of. All of these stars were at the height of their games with Hauer fresh off Bladerunner, Turner right in the middle of her Joan Wilder days and Boothe sandwiching this inbetween Walter Hills Southern Comfort and the equally eco friendly The Emerald Forest. Pleasence was always a well known face with a huge range of movies in his vast filmography and bad guy for hire Brion James was pretty much everywhere. Sadly the mixture of eco warroir antics and Rambo heroics missed the mark plus with mostly bland direction from Philippe Mora, some terrible pacing and uneven narrative A Breed Apart fell by the wayside confined to poor quality VHS and the occasional TV airings. A lot of the problems that plagued this movie could be attributed to the fact that after principal filming had been completed four reels of film were sent to LA for processing but only three arrived. Because of this the film had to be significantly recut and re-edited around the missing footage which could be one of the main reasons why there is no real backstory to Rutger Hauers Malden character and some sub plots remain incomplete. A real shame as the movie does have an interesting idea and a handful of fairly powerful action sequences with the siege on Maldens home being the best. In addition the locations also look great and the score by Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees is far better than it has any right to be. Most unsuprisingly the movie remains more famous now for the lengthy nude scenes involving Kathleen Turner which according to Philippe Mora prompted Michael Douglas to suggest her for Romancing The Stone.Is is worth noting that I have recently seen a small piece where Philippe Mora commented that there were no missing reels but different cuts of the movie some of which were incomplete. Again how true this is remains to be seen but as Mr. Mora makes no reference to any of this confusion in the included interview or audio commentary on this very disc, this strange chapter in the history of A Breed Apart's production continues to remain a mystery.Picture:A Breed Apart arrives on Blu ray from Shout Factory with an AVC encoded MPEG 4 1080p transfer framed at the film's correct aspect ratio of 1.85:1. According to the packaging this was scanned in 2k from the interpositive and is without a doubt the best Philippe Mora's movie has ever looked for home consumption. Generally speaking the image is mostly bright and clear when compared to my old German DVD from Koch Media but limitations occasionally hinder the experience. Detailing is for the most part solid whether it be the numerous close ups of humans or animals, leafy woodland or jutting rock formations. Interiors too receive an uptick in fine detail from J.P Whittier's decadent mansion through to Stella's general store or Malden's rustic homestead and texturing easily picks out clothing, weaponry and facial particulars. Unfortunately some softness lessens the depth and dimensionality of the image and quite randomly certain scenes appear to suffer a dip in quality, often appearing thicker with a rather murky feel although this could have been a by product of the low budget on location shoot and inherent to the source.Thankfully for the most part colours are nicely saturated with rich vibrant screen filling greens of the island's flora, vivid reds for various food labels, clothing and occasional splashes of blood and deep blues for the Carolina skylines.Black levels are far from perfect with some crush disrupting certain lower lit segments but again are far far better than what was seen on the old DVD and light years ahead of VHS plus shadow detail is more revealing especially during the nighttime siege which appeared rather gloomy and indistinct on lesser formats.On the whole this new transfer of a neglected and mostly forgotten movie exhibits a rather natural and organic appearance on Blu ray. Grain is evident and at times rather thick but is thankfully well managed and despite some smearing looks decent and filmic in motion. The source utilised features very minimal traces of damage confined only to a few brief white specs and edge enhancement or any other digital corrections do not appear to have been used.Though hardly a top tier transfer with a typically mid 80's feel, I must admit it is good to finally get this low budget curio in 1080p.Sound:Shout provide one audio option in the form an uncompressed 24bit DTS HD Master 2.0 mix peaking at around 1.8mbps. Despite hailing from the early to mid 80's and Dolby Stereo being pretty much common place, A Breed Apart was recorded in plain mono. Shout's disc reproduces this monaural sound design with no stereo or 5.1 bump and as to be expected is a touch flat and one dimensional. Thankfully dialogue exchanges are clear and understandable with a surprisingly rich timbre to character voices but effects came across as canned, low-fi and dated. The score which often put me in mind of Bladerunner was also a trifle thin, lacking detail and range in the higher registers although the lower frequencies carried a certain amount of weight. The track was also very clean and free of any distracting hiss, pops or crackle.Extras:When I first heard reports that A Breed Apart was making it's high definition debut I must admit I was just as excited about possible supplementary features as I was seeing the movie in 1080p. An on camera interview with director Philippe Mora and a feature length commentary were the deal breaker for me importing this with thoughts going through my mind of in-depth discussions concerning missing reels and drastic recuts to the film. Alas non of this is touched upon in either feature as all the rumours and mystic surrounding the chequered production of this movie were apparently false. The only time Mora even touches upon different versions of his picture is when he speaks of various cuts made to TV airings to reduce some of the fruitier moments. Slightly disappointing for sure but I suppose he didn't feel the need to mention any of this or even know that the missing reels story was live on Wikipedia. As it is both the interview and commentary cover very similar ground with the Australian director remembering his time working on the movie for Hemdale (the same production company who brought us The Terminator) and going into detail on locations, financing and it's wonderful collection of actors. The only other real gripe with the commentary track was the amount of dead air with both Mora and the moderator disappearing for minutes at a time. The disc also contains the original theatrical trailer and a short intro to the movie by it's director.Conclusion:A Breed Apart is an interesting but ultimately flawed film the sort of which would never get the green light today. It is though a wonderful 80's time capsule and the sort of movie the term guilty pleasure was coined for which I for one am very happy to finally have on Blu ray.Technically this is the best the film has ever looked with a decent if typically 80's picture transfer and I'm sure fans will enjoy the extras despite what I have outlined above. Recommended.