Review of Zachariah

Introduction

The back of the box for Zachariah contains the words "surreal", "unique" and "electric western" and the cast includes a young Don Johnson. Is this a recipe for success, or do those keywords conjure up 70`s drivel?

Read on to find out!

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen and certainly isn`t the best transfer I`ve seen.

The lack of resolution caused by the picture format isn`t helped by a grainy image that, at times, has an unbelievable amount of dirt on the print - we`re talking worse that the traditional Indian restaurant advert at the local cinema I`m afraid. One scene features someone wearing a silver/chrome waistcoat which doesn`t transfer to DVD at all well...

Many of the sets and locations look pretty good, although some of the interiors are a little ropey at times.

Audio

Like "Junior Bonner" released by the same distributor, the soundtrack comes in a bizarre Dolby Digital 3.0 format with a front stereo pair, no centre channel, no subwoofer and a mono read channel. However, luckily the sound engineer hasn`t re-used his horrid reverb effect in this film.

The sound format leaves a "hole" around the screen, and I would have preferred some of the sound to have been redirected to the centre channel. Like "Junior Bonner", the sound quality suffers from excessive compression of the high end treble at times, but overall isn`t too bad.

Dialogue is easy enough to understand, and the various songs reproduced adequately.

Features

The only extra on offer is a slideshow.

The film is packaged in a black Amaray case which contains a single sheet insert detailing the 9 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

The idea of a 70`s comedy rock western starring Don Johnson may appeal to some, but as far as I`m concerned this film isn`t funny, not especially entertaining, and ultimately I really struggled to maintain interest to the end.

The director has made a reasonable job of constructing the film, only to be let down by some dodgy acting, not least from Don Johnson - how he ever got another role after this I`ll never know! Many of the other supporting actors/actresses aren`t much better.

Average video and sound, plus a lack of extras are offset by the low retail price, but novelty value aside, I`m afraid that there is little for me to recommend in this release.