Review of High Lonesome

Introduction

Say the word Odyssey and straight away I think of shelf upon shelf of bargain basement VHS titles. You know the sort of deal, buy one get another 10 free. I`ve probably been dragged around too many record shops during my married life and have purchased far too many of said VHS bargains in an attempt to placate the wife. Odyssey specialise in low budget true story movies featuring B list stars with the emphasis on tear jerking.

Well now the kings of the bargain bin have made their way onto DVD. This movie, High Lonesome, is set against the backdrop of racial hatred in 1930s America. It tells the tale of Walter (Lous Gossett Jr.), the last coloured person in the town of High Lonesome. With his wife dead and his son having been missing for 7 years the townsfolk have so far failed to drive him from their town. They are all waiting for Walter to slip up and give them the excuse they need to get rid of him. Thrown into the mix is a young boy. When he`s left behind by his drunk father Walter takes the boy under his wing.

Video

This is a very run of the mill full frame transfer. No anamorphic widescreen bells and whistles here. If you`ve ever seen an Odyssey presentation before on VHS you`ll know what to expect here. No major flaws but nothing to make it stand out either, very average.

Audio

The Pro-Logic soundtrack is very unremarkable and flat. Unfortunately it doesn`t even match the mediocre picture quality.

Features

Just a trailer on this one however I don`t think this sort of movie is necessarily targeted at the sort of audience that would demand supplementary material.

Conclusion

Despite the low budgets these Odyssey movies can be extremely watchable and this one is no exception. The theme of High Lonesome has been played out many, many times in numerous other movies but this still does a good job of getting you involved.

There won`t be any awards for acting dished out for this one, in fact it possibly features some of the worst child acting I`ve seen in a long time, but then you wouldn`t expect there to be. It`s the subject matter that really does it and by the end of the movie you can`t help but feel some real emotional involvement.

Not a great film and certainly not a great DVD but very watchable and emotionally involving. One for a night in with the missus.