Brute Force (Criterion) DVD

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
• A new interview with Paul Mason, author of Capturing the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
• Theatrical trailer
• Stills gallery
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, and more!

Director: Jules Dassin
Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne de Carlo, Ann Blyth

As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Force was the first of Jules Dassin’s forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins’s dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey’s chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom.

Brute Force is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm composite fine-grain print. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of material included.

The soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from 35mm composite fine-grain prints, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 signal will be directed to the center channel on surround sound systems, but some viewers may prefer to switch to two-channel playback for a wider dispersal of the mono sound.