Ain’t Them Bodies Saints [Blu-Ray]

Director: David Lowery

Cast: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster

Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10

Disc Rating: 9.5/10

Plot Summary:

The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met.

‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ tells the story of a young couple (Casey Affleck & Rooney Mara) in love who have just discovered they are expecting a child. Unfortunately their lifestyle which exists in contrast with the law results in a shootout and Bob (Affleck) ends up going to prison in order to protect Ruth (Mara) for her part in shooting a police officer (Ben Foster) during the gunfight. Now the real struggle will be finding their way back to each other, which involves Bob escaping prison as well as avoiding those who are looking to track him down for their own reasons.

 

Writer and director David Lowery does an absolutely phenomenal job here, and he will certainly be a name to keep an eye on in the future. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara are both fantastic as the struggling young lovers, and Ben Foster is outstanding as always, also likely being the standout performance of the film. The performances are powerful all around, as is the landscape, tone and pretty much every element of this film.

‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ is a gorgeous and powerful love story set in 1970’s Texas about the journey one couple is forced to endure in order to try and make it back to each other. It is emotional, well written, impressively shot and provides both a modern tone along with a classic western vibe being ever-present at the same time throughout. This is a well crafted and fantastic film with outstanding performances from a highly talented cast that I would urge everyone to check out.

VIDEO:

The Blu-Ray release of ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. As is usually the case with releases from IFC & MPI, the video transfer looks quite nice and is provided with a more than sufficient bitrate. All of the colors and background elements that are an intricate part of this film’s beauty are on gorgeous display here on this Blu-Ray video presentation and most folks out there should be absolutely content with this High Definition presentation.

AUDIO:

The Blu-Ray release of ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Considering the mostly calm tone of the film, the rear channels don’t get too many chances to show off their stuff. During the few action oriented sequences, bullets do go whizzing by and cars pass out of frames which help to contribute some nice touches to the overall experience. All in all, this is a more than capable lossless 5.1 soundtrack which does an excellent job of accentuating the feel of this gorgeous movie.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

This Blu-Ray release features a pretty impressive helping of extra goodies. Certainly far more than we see on a good number of IFC releases, so that is certainly a nice treat. Included are a number of Deleted Scenes from the film, A Making of Documentary, Music Video, Behind The Scenes, Teasers, a trailer, and ‘St. Nick’ which is director David Lowery’s first feature. There is certainly a nice supply of interesting and informative extras to keep the film buffs sufficiently busy following their viewing of the film.

Film Rating: 9/10

Disc Rating: 9.5/10

 

‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ is now available to own on Blu-Ray & DVD from IFC Films & MPI Media Group.