Patriot’s Day: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Based upon the dramatic real-life manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers, this powerful action-thriller follows Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg) as he joins brave survivors, first responders, and investigators in a race against time to find the bombers before they strike again.
It’s no secret how I felt in the past about films based on real life tragedies. At the time I didn’t think that movies like that should be made because it just seemed like they capitalized on the pain of the people involved but the one film that made me start to look at these films differently was Deepwater Horizon. It truly opened me up to watch more movies like that just because of the way that they handled the story. This one was no different. I will be honest and say that this was one of the hardest movies to watch however and it’s mainly because I remember seeing the tragedy unfold on live TV. Throughout the moments of terror I was taken back to that day and I couldn’t help but be filled with emotions all over again. One of the biggest punches to my heart was seeing a kid being pulled away from his father by Police and the father not knowing where his son is. Even with the movie being difficult to sit through at times I did feel like they handled the story fantastically and instead of exploiting the horrible situation they celebrated and paid tribute to the people that were affected by it all. Wahlberg, I felt was more suited to this role than in Deepwater Horizon and that’s probably because he’s a Boston native. The kind of closeness to the city really shows as he’s on screen and the moments when he breaks down were heartbreaking to say the least. As of now this is one of my favorite recent “true story” films and I do recommend checking it out but be prepared for some pretty tough moments. 8/10
4K Presentation:
Unlike many of the more recent 4K movies I’ve seen this one looks like there are some great improvements with this one. You can see so much detail in various scenes where the majority of them are shrouded in darkness and when you see characters up close you can easily see the detail in everyone’s face. The only place that there were no improvements at all was with the surveillance footage that was mixed in to the film but in all honestly I didn’t expect it to upgrade that kind of thing. Fantastic title to watch in this format for sure.
Special Features:
The Boston Strong: True Stories of Courage – This was an amazing feature that included interviews with Dr. Jeffrey Kalish, Dun Meng, and Sgt. Jeff Pugliese.
The Boston Bond: Recounting the Tale – A cool look at the cast and crew interacting with the city as well as some interviews.
The Real Patriots: The Local Heroes’ Stories – Director Peter Berg talks a bit about the film and then we are given a few short interviews of people within the city.
The Cast Remembers – Several cast memebers talk about where they were and what they were feeling when the Boston Marathon Bombing happened.
Actors Meet Their Real Life Counterparts – John Goodman and Jimmy O. Yang meet the actual people they played in the film, Ed Davis and Dun Meng.
Researching the Day – This feature looks at what was involved in trying recreate the tragedy.
