CHILD OF GOD – The Blu Review

Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee, director James Franco’s CHILD OF GOD tells the tale of Lester Ballard (played by Scott Haze), a dispossessed, violent misfit whom the narrator describes as “a child of God much like yourself perhaps.” Ballard’s life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation. CHILD OF GOD is based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy and Franco does a good job depicting the squalor of backwoods life, but his film is so relentlessly oppressive and dreary, with its themes of necrophilia and aberration that it hardly makes for a fun time at the movies. McCarthy’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN wasn’t exactly a light comedy, but the Coen Brothers were able to adapt it in an entertaining and even humorous manner. CHILD OF GOD is well-made but shapeless, unpleasant, and in the end doesn’t add up to much. Franco and Tim Blake Nelson costar.

Well GoUSA’s CHILD OF GOD high definition transfer is outstanding. The overall look of the film is a rotten, brown, dead visual tone and the transfer marvelously captures every nuance amidst the weathered and worn visuals. Details are readily visible even under these conditions, whether the scuffs on a well-worn rifle, frays in tattered clothing, scraggly facial hairs, and even pores and wrinkles underneath caked-on dirt and grime; The 1080p transfer delivers an extraordinary amount of information even through the deliberately lifeless visual scheme. The color palette is limited at best; grays, blacks, and browns dominate the transfer, and even brighter objects – a car or a bottle – appears terribly faded but intentionally so. Through all of this, black levels impress. In several scenes they might absorb some of the finer details, but in a picture that’s overwhelmingly dark and harsh, there’s little room to complain. Flesh tones reflect the dusty and worn look the picture is going for. The print is free of unwanted dirt and debris, and it’s coated with a light sprinkling of grain. The visual tone and Blu-ray presentation is reflective of the film: CHILD OF GOD is an ugly picture, but it’s also, for the most part, lovingly reproduced on Blu-ray.

CHILD OF GOD has a high quality DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack that does well to aurally place the listener in the midst of the unwelcoming world the film creates. There’s no shortage of surround activity; rain falls, gunfire erupts, the wind blows. The track captures the entire gambit of sound. Dialogue, too, can be sharp or subdued, with a few quieter lines a bit hard to hear, even at a higher volume. Overall, there’s little room for complaint; Well GoUS has once again delivered a wonderful soundtrack that suits the movie well.

There are no extras.

CHILD OF GOD will be released on Blu-ray Tuesday, October 28th