Paramount Home Media released a 4k Blu-ray upgrade to The Firm (1993) on June 20, 2023. The 30th Anniversary edition includes a 4k BD and code to redeem a Digital Copy via paramountmovies.com.
Video
On 4k Blu-ray Disc, The Firm is presented in 2160p at 1.78:1 aspect ratio. High Dynamic Range formats include Dolby Vision and HDR10. The new remaster offers a much higher-quality image with sharpness improvements throughout. Shadow areas reveal a good amount of detail not seen before. And, the color is deeper with Dolby Vision (reviewed in DV not HDR10). Color grading is more realistic than previous Blu-rays that leaned toward the warm side with whites often muddied by yellow or cyan casts.
Bitrates are not very consistent in this film, in fact, its one the most inconsistent we’ve seen. In the opening scenes bitrates averaged around 20 Mbps and sometimes dropped below 20 Mbps (we noticed one drop to only 4 Mbps and got very scared this was not a 4k Blu-ray!). Other scenes (like at the first night scene in Memphis) jumped up to the 70 Mbps range. And then at times the bitrates sat around 35 – 40 Mbps.
Some of the nighttime shots are not as vivid as we would hope, suffering from a bit of the flats (in other words, lack of contrast and deep black tones), while other scenes like the nightclub and beach scene with Mitch improve on the previous Blu-ray output.
The shot of Mitch at 16.41 is a very nice image with good sharpness, details in the shadows, and color balance that set the tone for some of the best color grading in the film.
Audio
On 4k Blu-ray, the soundtrack is offered the same English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack as the first Blu-ray released in 2011. Subtitles are provided in English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. The disc sounds pretty darn good, with the action playing out over multiple channels, but without much in the way of back-channel ambiance. Dialogue sounds nice and clear from the center and front channels. More than anything, it’s nice to hear Dave Grusin’s Oscar-nominated score (as sassy as Holly Hunter’s performance) play out in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The rollicking, piano-heavy score always sounds great on this disc, and is a highlight of the movie, but don’t expect the kind of gangbusters sound that recent theatrical releases deliver. It’s Memphis mellow, let’s put it that way.
Bonus Material
Unfortunately, the 4k Blu-ray release doesn’t offer any bonus material (previous Blu-rays were bare bones with just a couple of trailers). Guess there was no budget for documentation back when the film was made. Either that or somebody’s got some content hidden in a closet somewhere!
Menu & Packaging
The strip-down packaging doesn’t exactly sell this copy as a must-own piece of physical media, only the actual movie itself does. A slipcover protects the single-disc plastic BD case, and the left side holds the paper insert with digital code. The disc menu is also as basic as it comes, with a still photo of Mitch (Tom Cruise) and tabs for Play, Settings, and Scenes.
Movie
[From a previous Blu-ray review by Christian Hokenson]
The story, adapted from one of John Grisham’s best legal potboilers, is simple enough… A newly minted Harvard law grad Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) comes from a rough n’ tumble background (or so we’re made to infer) and doesn’t talk about his impoverished upbringing or his troublesome family… he distances himself from an imprisoned brother and tries to prove to his young wife, Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) that he can succeed in the legal profession and, as God is his witness, he’ll never be hungry again.
Mitch is noticed by all the top law firms, who interview him and are impressed, but it’s his turn to be impressed when a small, but important, Memphis law firm comes a-callin’. Bendini, Lambert & Locke may not seem like much on the outside, and well, that’s just the perception they like… since their main business is quite shady and often leads to lawyers in their firm taking permanent vacations from life itself. Mitch, unaware, is seduced by a fat paycheck, choice of a hot car, and payment of his student loans by the firm, but the firm also has their conditions… the price paid to the Devil for some tricks at the crossroads.
The firm’s partners, played with a fair amount of mystery and loads of gravitas by the great Hal Holbrook and Gene Hackman (along with familiar character actor Jerry Hardin), are all in accord that new lawyers in their organization pass the bar exam on the first try, that their wives immediately have children and put family first, and that these young lawyers are mentored in the special ways of doing business… and how to bill their clients for every waking (and sleeping) moment they’re working a case, even if it’s only a brain fart in the shower. Turns out the firm has one special client in particular, and that client doesn’t like it very much when the firm’s young legal eagles decide to go AWOL or dig deeper into things they’re better off ignoring.
When a few lawyers suddenly end up dead while on business in the Cayman Islands, McDeere realizes something is amiss, and when the FBI (smartly led by the investigative team of Ed Harris and Paul Calderone) thinks they can use McDeere to nail that one client, well, suddenly the young Harvard lawyer is in a mess of Memphis mud up to his ears, and sinking quick. The fantastic cast is rounded out by an Oscar-nominated Holly Hunter in a role that’s all legs, ass, and sass; Gary Busey in a short turn as a tightly wound P.I., and Wilford Brimley and Tobin Bell (Jigsaw himself!) as the firm’s primary security team… a team sometimes tasked with murder.
This is a film that relies on a crackerjack adaptation of a well-known crowd-pleaser, and the screenplay by Hollywood and Broadway aces David Rabe, Robert Towne, and David Rayfiel is worthy of the adoration Grisham’s fans give the book. The thriller elements are probably the best thing about the movie, and there’s rarely a false note to Mitch’s motivations or reactions to his circumstances. The screenwriters are confident enough to stray from the book and, probably at the studio’s insistence, if not Cruise’s, the character of Mitch is sweetened a bit, and allowed an upstanding resolution from his predicament that the book didn’t offer readers. It may be a compromise of sorts, and definitely allows us to identify with Mitch more toward the end, but it in no way compromises the fun entertainment value of the film from start to finish.
Sydney Pollack, as eclectic a director as they come, serves up the material with some of the intensity of his classic Three Days of the Condor while never allowing style to get in the way of substance. If anything, The Firm is a throwback, and really bridges the gap, between the traditional Hollywood way of shooting a thriller and the MTV-style of fast editing so beloved by directors like Tony Scott… where it’s less about the substance, and more about the style of being chased endlessly (with lots of explosions of course). Whereas in today’s thrillers a handheld camera whirls non-stop to capture action while editors attempt to make sense of it all for the audience, here the camera is at the service of the story and characters.
If The Firm feels a little flaccid as an action picture, it more than makes up for it as a drama. It’s a fine film, maybe not a classic or masterwork in any sense, but still a valid entertainment that holds up decades after its theatrical release.
Scores
Movie
4/5
Video
4/5
Audio
3/5
Bonus Features
0/0