Before Dawn - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Before Dawn



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I’m always intrigued by Well Go USA “non Asian” films, as they tend to be indie films with a hit or miss ratio that is pretty even. Sometimes I’m bored to death with a low budget film that never hit Hollywood for a reason, other times I’m actually floored by a really different take on some genre. But either way, it’s almost never an in between of the two extremes, so I tend to go in with guarded expectations. Being that this is the second feature film of an Australian director who made a middling Aussie Western a few years back, I was leaning towards the “bored to death” predisposition rather than “wow, that completely took me by surprise”, and while it wasn’t AS weak as I was expecting, Before Dawn does very little drag itself above the glut of World War I movies in any appreciable way.

The film revolves around young Jim (Levi Miller), an Aussie farmer who is disenchanted with life in the mud and the mucking of stalls, and decides to sign up for the Great War. However, he learns very quickly that war is not as glamours as it seems, as he’s stuck in the French trenches, covered in mud and muck (irony, sweet irony), desperately trying to stay alive in the European theater of the first great war.

Most of the film keeps us intently focused on Jim and his relationships with the men around him, giving us a very claustrophobic feeling. Director Jordon Prince-Wright tries to give us glimpses behind the lines here and there, but mostly he keeps the camera directly in the present of trench warfare, including all the brutality and desperation found inside those grimy fox holes. Narratively Before Dawn checks all of the boxes for your average WWI film, but sadly doesn’t really stretch the boundaries or tell us anything know. We’ve see the war weary soldiers living in misery enough times, and while the film tries to give us a slightly hopefull look for Jim, it’s grim beats and well worn tropes don’t really keep the audience from checking their watch every 10 minutes or so.

Levi Miller is serviceable as our main protagonist, even though he starts off rather sullen and morose at the beginning of the film. I had little to complain about with his progression over the film, but once more, nothing he’s done or said really makes the man (by end) stand out over any other low budget war hero. However, Myles Pollard takes the spotlight as the jaded Sgt. He’s funny, a bit ruggedly charming, and every time he speaks the audience locks their eyes DIRECTLY on him (I loved that moment part way through where he looks at the mortar shells fall around him, and slowly lowering himself onto the ground).




Rating:

Rated R for War Violence and Language




Video:

Before Dawn is given a very satisfactory 2.39:1 framed AVC encode for the Blu-ray, with a rather stylized look to replicate the WWI feel applied to it. Like usual with foreign films, I couldn’t find any information on the type of digital camera USED for the production, nor the master used, but that’s beside the point. The resulting image is decently crisp, but given a worn down brown and grungy look while being in the trenches. Outdoor daylight shots at the farm are the most lively, with more honey colors and fine details resplendently on display. Black levels are generally good, but banding does crop up now and again, as is the case with a lot of darker Well Go USA titles. There can be some mild noise in the trench shots, but overall clarity is quite good, and the slightly desaturated image is pleasing considering the very unique visual aesthetics applied.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track found on the disc gives us a solidly immersive war time mix, with large swathes loaded firmly up front during the exposition, but expanding quite a bit with the gunfire and mortar shells dropping. One thing that actually surprised me is that the bass channel for this mix is MORE than a bit aggressive. Mortar shells were actually shaking my room at times, even though the dialog is quite soft and mellow and the war time energy never “Hollywoodized” in terms of aggressiveness. It’s not exactly perfect, but a competently done track that checks all the right boxes.












Extras: :

• Theatrical Trailer
• Behind the Scenes Featurettes

Final Score:
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While I liked the IDEA of Before Dawn, it simply is one of those films that just gets lost midst the sea of generic war flicks. It is competently acted and directed, but not much more than that. It just “is” and falls into one of those “I wasn’t exactly enamored, but I’d watch it on a lazy saturday afternoon If nothing’s on” categories. Well Go USA is pretty light on the extras as usual, but gives the film a solid pair of audio/video scores. So at the end of the day I classify this is a mild rental.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ed Oxenbould, Levi Miller, Lawrence Murphy
Directed by: Jordan Prince-Wright
Written by: Jordan Prince-Wright, Jarrad Russell
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 24th, 2024

Recommendation: Rental