Megan Leavey - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Megan Leavey

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Dogs have a way of effecting our lives more than most other animals. I’ve been an animal lover my whole life, and I love my cats, my hampsters, my birds, etc. But there is just something about the way humans bond with dogs that have earned them the title of “man’s best friend”. They have an exuberance and adoration of their masters that endears them to people young and old, not to mention they can be extremely trainable and useful to us as tools as well. Megan Leave tells the tale of a Marine soldier and her K9 dog Rex, and the unbreakable bond that forms between them in the heat of battle. Freshman director Gabriela Copperthwaite gives a very impressive first run behind the camera, crafting a movie that is both sweet, heartbreaking and full of those warm fuzzy feelings despite some minor mishaps in the second act.

Megan Leavey (Kate Mara) is one of those problem kids who has very little ahead of her in life. She’s fired from a dead end job, left with no one who really seems to care about her (at least more than themselves), and after the death of her childhood friend decides to just run away to the Marine Corp. There she finds out that she’s just as much of a mess in the corp as she was out. After getting punishment duty cleaning out the dog kennels, Megan finds new purpose when she kindles the desire to become a bomb dog handler. However, her road to digging her way out of the mess she put herself in is a rough one. She not only has to impress Gunny Martin (Common), but she has to actually get top marksmanship in her class, graduate in the top 10 percent AND gain the trust of a dog.

After one of the most unruly dogs takes out his handler with a good swift bite to the arm, Megan is finally given a chance to prove herself. The thing is, it’s with that same dog and the petite Marine recruit has to find a way to bond with this dog, Rex, if she’s going to survive out there. They always say that it’s the most odd relationship matches that last the longest, and soon Rex and Megan are connected at the hip. Across Iraq the two of them march, sniffing out bombs, saving lives and forming a loving friendship that most humans would be jealous of. However, good things come to an end when Corporal Leavey decides to leave the military, and the crotchety old veterinarian nixes her hopes of adopting Rex to live out his days. With the military behind her, and more importantly Rex, Megan’s life is in pieces. She can’t hold a job, her relationship with her mother is even rockier than BEFORE she went into the military, and nights are spent crying for the one love of her life who’s still sniffing out bombs in his old age. That is, until the determined young veteran decides that she will not give up on Rex, much the same way that the dog didn’t give up on a messed up young recruit. So now a new battle is underway. A battle to reunite two war heroes and give one of them the dignified retirement than he deserves.

Megan Leavey is an impressive first directorial debut for Gabriela Copperthwaite. It’s a heartwarming tale that had the dog lover in me engaged from beginning to end. The movie is not an action movie. It’s not a military drama even. Instead it’s a love story between a woman and her dog that just so happens to take place in a war zone. It’s a story about how a directionless person not only found a direction and purpose, but a lifelong friend that defined her as a person, and as a soldier. The movie builds quite nicely from the get go, introducing Megan in a matter of a few short moments, and then throws her right into the relational aspect in under 10 minutes. The second act has a few problems near the second half of that act, but those are mitigated in the harshly different third act. Megan is out of the military, and her life is back to being directionless and messed up again. However it is this pain that allows her to bring about one of the best and most rousing endings that I have seen in an animal lover film.

What makes the movie work so well is that there is nothing super sappy about it. I don’t mean you’re not going to cry if you love dogs as much as I do (stupid onions in the room), but if you watch these animal films you’re used to how there’s some song and dance buildup where the dog is some superhero who saves the day, whining over his master’s dead body, or stopping a drug dealer from taking over the little town. Instead this is a straight forward movie that deals with the emotional bond man (or woman really) and their K9 friend. The bond is believable, and above all, relatable. They say that a dog is a large portion of a human’s life, but to that dog, you’re their entire life. I can say from experience that this is absolutely true, and that’s what makes the movie so enjoyable. Megan and Rex have this caring relationship that doesn’t feel forced, doesn’t feel ridiculous, and ends with the respect and dignity that both people deserve. The film is based off of the true story of Megan Leavey, and while I haven’t researched the story ALL that well, from what I have been able to ascertain, there was a lot of effort spent in trying to make the story as accurate to what really happened as possible.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for war violence, language, suggestive material, and thematic elements




Video:

The 2.39:1 AVC encoded digital shoot is definitely a looker on Blu-ray. It never truly excels to amazing status, but it does everything quite well, with very few flaws. The digital image is bright and clean, with strong visual clarity and more than enough fine details to go around. The dust world of Iraq combat zones are appropriately sandy and dusty looking, while the training scenes at the base and the third act when Megan goes home is much brighter and full of colors. Greens, blues, reds and the like are well saturated, and skin tones look natural. I did notice a little bit of banding in a few scenes, but they were relatively minor and didn’t pop up for more than a moment or two.







Audio:

The audio fares about the same as the video encode does. It’s a very capable track that really doesn’t bring down the walls, but does everything asked of it without question. The first portion of the movie is very dialog intensive (as is the third act), but there is enough surround activity with the dogs, as well as a few moments of rumble to keep it interesting. When Megan and Rex are overseas in Iraq things get a little more heated. The combat action sequences are intense and visceral, giving us some rocking explosions and plenty of LFE, while engaging all 6 channels with the chatter of gunfire and screams. It’s a solid track and done expertly, with it’s only “fault” being that it isn’t a wild action or sci-fi movie that screams activity at all times.






Extras:

• Never Give Up

Final Score: ​

Megan Leavey is an honest and loving look at the bond that forms between animals and their owners, especially in a highly intense situation like military combat. The story is well paced, and despite a few plot contrivances that happened In the second act (the romance was a slightly annoying dalliance that really felt like it could have been left out completely), and if you’re an animal lover, I guarantee that there will be more than a few snuffles and eye wiping by the end of the film. Audio and video are very competently done, but the lack of extras is a little disappointing, as I would love to have seen more behind the scenes dealing with the backstory of the real Megan Leavey and Rex. Definitely recommended.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kate Mara, Common, Tom Felton, Bradley Whitford
Directed by: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Written by: Pamela Gray, Annie Mumolo
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 117 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 5th, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will add this to my watch list.