Fate Is The Hunter hit Blu-Ray on May 13 in a limited edition of 3000 from Twilight Time.
While it surprisingly isn’t mentioned on the packaging, this Blu-Ray edition marks this film’s 50th Anniversary. Released in 1964, Fate Is The Hunter largely preceded the wave of airplane and disaster films that would pepper the 60s and 70s. Unlike most of those films, the disaster itself is shockingly abrupt. This film is more concerned with the aftermath, and “the aftermath” is concerned with the events which led up to the crash.
When a commercial flight goes down shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board except a single flight attendant, most are quick to blame pilot Jack Savage (Rod Taylor). Jack was known for his jovial “party guy” demeanor and some witnesses attest to seeing him bar-hopping before the flight. He makes a convenient scapegoat, what with being dead and all. The airline representatives hope to bury the controversy with him rather than shoulder direct responsibility, with one exception: investigator Sam McBane (Glenn Ford).
McBane knew the pilot personally and can’t believe that his old brother-in-arms, an expert pilot, could be at fault. He doggedly fights to clear the dead pilot’s name, gathering input from Jack’s friends and trying to assemble a defense. It’s a bit like Kurosawa’s Ikiru, in the sense that the posthumous analysis of a man’s life, pieced together from the accounts of different people, uncovers a surprisingly textured portrait of a passionate, courageous, and misunderstood person.
By today’s point of reference, the film stands as a weird counterpoint to the 2012 Robert Zemeckis film Flight, which is a Bizarro-world inversal of the plot: Denzel Washington’s pilot character heroically saves the lives of everyone on board a compromised airplane, but is implicated in the surrounding investigation which uncovers his alcoholism.
The film opens with the doomed flight and crash serving as a hair-raising pre-title sequence. At this point, though, the pacing takes a hit with some pretty talky scenes and an often palpable sparseness in the musical score by Jerry Goldsmith. It recovers as McBane’s investigation prompts flashbacks which fill in the details of Jack Savage’s life, and ends with an intriguing last-ditch effort by McBane to fully replicate the conditions of the flight to see if they can repeat the problem.
THE PACKAGE
The film comes in a new Blu-Ray edition from Twilight Time, limited to 3000 units, as is their wont. The package includes a 8-page booklet with a great and surprisingly comprehensive analysis of the film written by Twilight Time film historian Julie Kirgo.
Fate Is The Hunter was nominated for an Academy Award in Cinematography and the evidence is on the screen. It looks fantastic. Textures are nicely detailed and there’s a pleasing amount of fine grain.
Audio doesn’t fare as well. Excepting the punchier action scenes, it’s a very soft and quiet track which had me turning the volume way up. I’m not previously familiar with the film in any other medium, and it’s quite possible this softness comes from the original mix. The disc lacks subtitles, which would’ve been especially helpful given the softness of some of the audio.
The film is not rated but is roughly “PG” material, including a fiery plane crash and some mild adult themes.
Special Features