THE 10TH VICTIM Blu-ray Review

Blue Underground:

It is the 21st Century, and society's lust for violence is satisfied by The Big Hunt, an international game of legalized murder. But when the sport's two top assassins are pitted against each other, they find that love is the most dangerous game of all. As the world watches, the hunt is on. Who will become THE 10TH VICTIM? THE 10TH VICTIM is the international cult classic whose wild action and sexy style has influenced a generation of movies, from THE RUNNING MAN to the AUSTIN POWERS series. Now this outrageous satire has been newly remastered from the original negative and is presented here in groovy High Definition!

From the opening chase sequence all the way through to the ultra-pop bizarro finale, The 10th Victim is one of the most entertaining films I've ever seen!  The film is a highly stylized sci-fi flick set in the 21st century, there are no flying cars, no robots, nothing that has come to be recognized as the hallmarks of modern science-fiction.  Instead, we are simply dropped into a world where murder is legislated, condoned, and regulated by the government.  The rules of the game are fairly simple, but rather unimportant, what is important is the superb atmosphere director Elio Petri creates that influenced films for years after this film left theaters.

Petri is helped along in his quest to create supreme entertainment by the amazing cast he worked with, namely Marcello Mastroianni (Marriage, Italian Style) and Ursula Andress (Dr. No).  The camera loves this pair, and they love it right back.  Mastroianni has a presence on screen that is magnetic, even as he lounges in his bed carelessly aggravating his mistress he is riveting.  Ursula Andress is, well, she's Ursula Andress.  We are introduced to her character mid strip-tease, an act that ends with a bra that shoots her opponent to death, a la Austin Powers' fembots.  There are tons of moments like that that have been plucked from this film and referenced in more modern films. It is kind of fun to watch just to see how many films have appropriated ideas from this one, but even beyond that, it is just a blast.

In 1965, this film must've looked absolutely bizarre, but within five years much of its hyper-stylized look had been picked up by the fashion world and even Hollywood filmmakers. The easiest films to point out are the Austin Powers films, but The 10th Victim was influential on the early Bond films and their fashion as well as the films that came out of mid to late '60s Swinging London scene.  Petri's stamp is on all of it, and it is a beautiful stamp.

Blue Underground is more well known for their horror catalogue, but this is a definite winner.  Among their Italian non-horror titles, this may be my favorite.

The Disc:

Blue Underground released this film on DVD several years back and it was good at the time.  This Blu-ray blows that disc away.  The image has a lovely filmic sheen of grain, an immense amount of detail, and eye-popping colors that help to heighten the experience, which is largely about impressions and atmosphere.  This Blu-ray disc does a wonderful job of creating that atmosphere with the image.  There is no major print damage to speak of, and apart from some minor brightness flickering during the opening sequence, the image looks pretty stable.  The audio tracks included are the original Italian and English Mono dubs in DTS-HD.  As I've mentioned in countless other reviews, Italian films well into the 70's were post dubbed, so there is no live audio track for this film.  That being said, the dubs are both decent, and they sound very lively, thanks to the wonderful bouncy score that is so important to creating the mood for the film.

There is only one major extra on the disc, but it is a doozy.  Blue Underground have included the feature length documentary Marcello: A Sweet Life on this disc. At 102 minutes, it still feels too brief to tell the complete story of such a major talent, but the film is appropriately reverent in its approach to Mastroianni's life and career.  I would buy this documentary even without the film attached, but the pair on the same disc is a home run.  The only other extra is a theatrical trailer, which captures the feel of the film quite nicely.

The 10th Victim was a surprise to me, but one that I'm very happy about.  They just don't get better than this!  Highly recommended!

Blue Underground presents The 10th Victim on ALL REGION Blu-ray.