Charley Varrick

Rating:
Summary: Yeah, but is the MOVIE any good?
Review: "Charley Varrick" appears on the NY Times list of best 1000 movies of all time. And we can see from the notes left by other Amazon users that the DVD is less than hoped. But what about the movie? Certainly we all know how far you can trust the typical movie critic, NY Times or otherwise.

Walter Matthau stars as a middle-aged former barnstorming stunt pilot and cropduster who, with his wife and a couple of business associates, decides they're tired of scraping for a living. So they set out on a life of crime, namely robbing banks. The film begins with a robbery about to be undertaken, and it goes horribly wrong...then goes so WAY right that it has to be WAY wrong. Stumbling across $0.75 mil of mob money in a tiny New Mexico town's lone bank, well, that's more take and more trouble than Charley Varrick ever bargained for. At least Varrick is smart enough to figure that out, while his only surviving associate doesn't seem to have the sense God gave a goony bird.

The setup sounds like it could be played for laughs, and any film with Matthau would seem to lead that way. But no, this is a full-bodied, complex drama, with multiple double crosses, manhunts, and inventive chase scenes. (Nary a cliche in the climactic chase that matches a Mafia hit man and his car chasing Varrick in a biplane around a field on the edge of the desert.)

There's a lot to like about this rather small film, directed by Don Siegel of "Dirty Harry" fame and co-starring Joe Don Baker of the original "Walking Tall." Varrick himself seems too clever and gifted as a criminal mastermind, given his low station in life, but this gives the impression of an intelligent, regular good guy who just finally got frustrated with said low station. Shots of his trailer are perfect in setting this atmosphere; here's a guy who never got a good break except that he married his soulmate, and even that is taken away from him in a series of scenes played with perfect pathos. Baker plays his sadistic role with panache and relish, and veteran character actor John Vernon, Dean Wormer of "Animal House," is again terrific as a shifty-eyed snake of the upper class who's out to undermine our antihero.

I don't know if this really belongs among the 1000 best movies ever, though. For instance, how did the local sheriff stumble across the identity of the bank robber? I never did see any hint of how this came to pass. And if you need comedy relief from Varrick's neighbor, could we please have something a little more fun than the stock crazy little old lady? Does anybody think the mob secretary would have inexplicably wound up in bed with pug-ugly Matthau, having basically been his hostage, if this were written by someone who understood women at all?

Regardless of a couple of nitpicks, "Charley Varrick" is the kind of bank caper flick that many such films aspire to: It's smart, engaging, and it works, with a minimum of imperfections. Yeah, I can see how it might squeeze into the bottom end of a list of 1000 best films. The ending, which ties up a number of apparent loose ends tossed out during its nearly 2-hour length, is as ideal as one could hope for too. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Thanks for nothing, Universal
Review: Charley Varrick is a great movie. Walter Matthau is excellent, and Don Siegel is a great director.

Why oh why did Universal decide to release this in a cropped version? This DVD is a 1.33:1 transfer of a film that was shot in 1.85:1.

When the same thing happened with Sydney Pollack's under-rated gem "Castle Keep", mavericks like Martin Scorsese lobbied to have a widescreen version of the film released on DVD, and they were triumphant. Hopefully that will happen with this equally-worthy film.

Rating:
Summary: A five star film gets a one star rating
Review: Great film, messed up by pan and scan -- avoid and wait for the Panavision version

Rating:
Summary: "Old" should command more respect
Review: I agree with the strong emotional orientation of other reviewers of this "full-screen" disc. I don't see why this Walter Matthau movie has not been released on disc before in its original format ... It is a great story, and to release it in a fore-shortened format (AND NO CAPTIONS, EITHER) invites the criticism of stupidity. In this vein, I would like to point out that in general the market for these older movies is getting older and older, and for some of us the extra cost of a quality production is well worth it. I can assure whoever it is that makes the selections of what to produce, the younger generation is only sparsely interested to see, let alone buy, movies older than the youngster. Please attend to these older movie productions in a quality manner while you still have any market for them left.






Rating:
Summary: Five Star Movie, Stellar Cast, Disgraceful release format
Review: I totally subscribe to the views expressed by many reviewers. This is a travesty of a release. Charley Varrick is a superb film with a cult status only because it has never been adequately presented or marketed. I bought this in advance of its release on the bizarrely timed date at the end of december 2004 (Have the marketing department never heard of Christmas?) and I was thoroughly disappointed. The print looks like a bad 70's piece of television and the ratio is the same. This film was shot and screened in the cinemas as a panavision 1:85 or wider ratio. Who wants to look at something that doesn't reflect its true worth? Don't buy this even though it is a great film. Wait until someone wakes up and does a proper job!

Rating:
Summary: SHAME ON UNIVERSAL
Review: I've been waiting for this dvd for years, and this is what you give us? It's time to get smart and release this cult classic in its proper theatrical aspect ratio. You've given a 5-star movie less than 1-star treatment.

Rating:
Summary: A "fool screen" version? May it burn.
Review: I've waited a few years for "Varrick" to come out on DVD.

And now that it did come out, I will not buy it.

That is because I do not enjoy watching 60% of a film. When the studio halfwits realize that only brain damaged in-duh-viduals want to see the cut, blurred by panning-and-scanning full screen version, and when they decide to release "Varrick" in a proper, widescreen version instead - *then* I will purchase a copy. As for this one, I would not want it for free.

Rating:
Summary: The Last of the Independents
Review: Matthau steals a huge load of money from a rural new mexico bank only to find out it was mob money. the ensuing chase from mafia tough guy john doe baker is amazing and makes for a great game of cat and mouse that finally allows crime to pay. this adaptation is fantastic, and although not readily available, charley varrick is a must see.

Rating:
Summary: To Be Matted Or Not Be Matted
Review: So long as studios continue to release DVDs shot with wide-angled lenses in only a reformatted television aspect ratio, we should all protest as vociferously as possible. Unfortunately, it appears that the outcry over `Charley Varrick' as shown by numerous critiques on this site and elsewhere is misinformed and does not apply. At the Internet Movie Data Base site (www.imdb.com), it is stated under the technical notes for `Charley Varrick' that the movie was filmed using the spherical lens system. This means that it was NOT filmed in a wide-angled lens format, but rather in the standard television aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is what a spherical lens provides. For those who recall viewing it in a widescreen form in theaters or on cable shows like Bravo, this was because the movie was then `soft' matted into a 1.85:1 aspect following filming, by artificially masking the frame across the top and bottom, thus cutting off what was intended to be superfluous objects and views in those areas (note for example how the credits are centered to leave large spaces both above and below for the matting). When, as Universal does on the current DVD release, the movie is then declared `reformatted to fit the standard television screen,' what is meant is that the matting itself is not provided (unlike the laser disc release), and what the viewer is seeing is the original, spherical 35 mm print before it was masked. While one would perhaps feel more comfortable seeing it in its theatrically matted form, in reality nothing is lost in the DVD version as it would be if it was from a film shot with a wide-angle lens.

So please let us save our outcry for those films shot in the various wide-angle lens ratios that are then criminally released in the reformatted, 1.33:1 television aspect. I am referring, for example, to pick another Universal title, to a movie such as Van Damme's `Timecop,' originally shot in a 2.35:1 Panavision aspect and then cruelly cut down on the DVD for the standard television screen. This as far as we consumers go should not be tolerated, but we do need to aim our protests in the correct direction and not misfire when a matted rather than a genuine widescreen aspect movie is involved. (For an expert description of the various widescreen techniques, the site www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Makeup/4303/vertical35mm.html is strongly recommended.) In the meantime, hopefully we can all settle down and enjoy the quirky delights of Walter Matthau and Charley Varrick as it was originally filmed in the 1.33:1 television aspect ratio. As for those who MUST have the film as it appeared in theaters, by the way, the application of an inch or two of black masking tape across the top and bottom of your TV screen should give a reasonable representation of that original feeling!


Rating:
Summary: Superbly done and highly entertaining
Review: This film about a bank robber being pursued by the mob for monies that he unwittingly stole from them is one of the best pictures of the crime-chase genre that I have ever seen. Not only is the pace and suspense admirably sustained by the much underrated action film director Don Siegal, and moreover, with mordantly witty (almost Hitchcockian) touches throughout, but the characters all come across as highly distinctive, even idiosyncratic, instead of generic types (as is often the case in such films). Matthau shines in an effectively low key portrayal as the unassuming but ultimately crafty and resourceful crop duster pilot/bank robber, Charley Varrick, as does Joe Don Baker, who uses his hulking presence to come across as genuinely fearsome as the hit man, Molly (how do you like that as a choice of name for a villain?). Also, John Vernon is both sophisticated and sinister as the white-collar executive bagman for the mob.
Highly recommended as a very fun watch.