Vera Cruz

Vera Cruz is the tale of two western adventurers looking to make a quick buck during the Mexican War. The two gunslingers hire themselves out to Spanish Emperor Maximillian. Their job is to be armed escorts for the Spanish women and take them to the court of Vera Cruz. However, it soon becomes apparent that there is something else going on in Vera Cruz. A coach full of gold bullion is on its way there, and our two ‘friendly’ gunslingers, Benjamin Trane (Gary Cooper) and Joe Erin, (Burt Lancaster) have to join the Emperor’s troops to repel the French forces in order of having a chance to see some of the bullion.

Vera Cruz is a typical 1950’s Western. A star studded cast including Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Ernest Borgnine, and Charles Bronson. Vera Cruz shows off the true grit of the American cowboy, and is an excellent portrayal of the western experience. The performances by all the stars are quite good and there is enough action to keep this 94 minute classic exciting for most of the way through.

The video transfer is reasonable considering the age of this flick. The detail is surprisingly sharp and clear, and the colours on a whole are reasonably bright, especially the reds which at times look too bright. Film artefacts are a constant occurrence, but are about what is to be expected considering the age of this film. The film starts off plagued by film artefacts, but these clear up as the film progresses.

MPEG artefacts are minimal if not non-existent. Aliasing was also not a problem, unlike MGM’s release of ‘The Big Country’ which was plagued by it. Overall the video transfer is quite clear. The trailer for the movie shows how bad the video quality could have been, but luckily for us it does appear that MGM have put in some effort to restore this classic.

The audio is presented in a pretty dull mono soundtrack. Obviously MGM haven’t put a whole lot of work into refining this one. Although probably not deserving a 5.1 channel remix, a stereo soundtrack may have been a nice addition.

The dialogue for the most part is quite clear and understandable, although at times it sounds a little dubbed in. There are a few crackles in the sound, as well as that typical mono low level hum. Overall however, the audio is generally clear and easy to understand. The soundtrack is definitely nothing to get excited about, but it does the job.

The only extra’s to speak of is a theatrical trailer. Another bare-bones western release from MGM, a shame really.

Vera Cruz is really quite a good film, and if you’re a western fanatic, you probably will already appreciate that. The transfer is definitely not something to write home about, which is a shame considering that MGM do have the recourse’s to restore such footage. For a western, Vera Cruz falls into the expansive category of a ‘classic’ and is well deserved addition to MGM’s growing range of region 4 DVD’s. Probably not a movie for everyone’s tastes, but for those who love a good gunslingers movie Vera Cruz is a great watch.