Blu-Ray Review: ‘HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN’

As fans of cult film and the multiple subgenres that fit within, Hobo With A Shotgun is a blockbuster title for us.  Not only from a movie perspective but because of Jason Eisener, a fan, getting to make a feature length film of what originated as a simple trailer made on MiniDV tape.  Magnolia Home Entertainment brings home the Hobo at his final stop, our homes.  Read beyond the break for the review of the Blu-Ray which, I can tell you upfront, might be one of the best Blu-Rays of the year.

The Film:

Back in 2007, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino opened up a search to amateur filmmakers to create grindhouse trailers for fake movies.  Among them, Jason Eisener and Rob Cotterill answered the call.  Ever since, most film fans of grindhouse/exploitation cinema that have an internet connection know the title name and David Brunt’s infamous one-liners.  The trailer entered the competition and won with it simultaneously gaining fans and momentum on YouTube.  With all the ingredients there, Jason & Rob went about securing financing.  Fast forward to 2010, Jason Eisener – a first time feature direct0r – had cult filmmaker Karim Hussein as his Director of Photography with film legend, Rutger Hauer playing the lead character.

Rutger Hauer plays the main character, a man with no name…just a hobo, who rides into a place called Hope Town from the rails of the train.  However, there is no hope for this town as it clearly has the word “hope” overwritten by the word “scum”.  Criminals run rampant and vary from dirty cops to a pedophilic Santa Claus.  These are just minor players, there is a top criminal by the name of Drake and his two boys, Ivan and Slick.  They run the town and revel in the fact that it is a lawless town.  The Hobo is trying to save up enough cash to start his lawnmower business by buying said lawnmower.  Instead, after getting fed up with the crime that surrounds his environment, he cashes in his nickels and dimes for a shotgun to clean up the streets.

What you get is an over-the-top romp that rolls around in the exploitation attributes that we have grown to love.  Eisener knows exactly what he is doing with the film as he panders to the cult film and exploitation audience.  However, instead of selling this type of film to us, he is celebrating it using a modern version of the blueprints that were popular back in the 70’s.  Hobo With A Shotgun is one of the most colorful films I have seen of late.  Imagine Mario Bava lighting if he came out of the 1980’s.

While I think that the film sometimes fails to create some of the great line deliveries of the fake trailer, as Hauer delivers his own rhythmic delivery, this could be because I watched that fake trailer so many times back in 2007.  When I heard the lines delivered differently, it kind of brushed up against me in a wrong way.  However, there is no disputing that Hobo With A Shotgun is a modern cult classic that effectively delivers the entertainment.

The Disc:

The presentation of the film is pretty stellar.  Shot on RED cameras, the source is digital.  While there seems to be some blocky artifacts and pixelation that pops up on some scenes – particularly the end hospital scene where the sets are drenched in red – the rest of the film looks great.  The film is high on saturation, which looks to be done in post – explains some of the pixelation.  Also, it looks like digital grain was added in post as well to the feature film as some special features are lacking said grain.

The 5.1 DTS-HD soundtrack is boisterous.  Effects are played at a louder level than the dialogue with the music enveloping you into the action on the screen.  Where Magnet/Magnolia hits a home run is by jamming this Blu with tons of special features.

Shotgun Mode – If you decide to watch the movie in this mode, you will be prompted by crosshairs to watch some behind the scenes footage.  Albeit for two prompts, which are funny, all the BTS footage is great as you get a peek in how it was filming this.  Highly recommended for those of you that love to see what happens on set.  You also have the option of just watching the clips independently either all in one sitting or individually.

Commentaries – You have a commentary with Eisener (Director) and Hauer that explains the production and how it all worked out.  The commentary paints Hauer as a spiritual man who believes in filmmaking and is really honest.  He doesn’t sugarcoat any thing he says and that only makes your appreciation of the man grow more.  The commentary with Eisener, John Davies (Writer), Rob Cotterill (Producer), and David Brunt (“Hobo” from the fake trailer) is also very entertaining.  They focus more on how they got the project going and how they executed the film.

‘More Blood, More Heart: The Making of Hobo With a Shotgun’ – This is a 45 minute documentary that includes a majority of footage that is not in the aforementioned Shotgun Mode.  It looks like it was shot with a Canon T2i so everything looks above average for a Making Of.  If you are interested in filmmaking, check this out.

Deleted Scenes & Alternate Ending – Not too many deleted scenes are here.  There is a montage of little bits that were deleted as well.  Also, the Alternate Ending reveals what could of happened to Abby, the hooker with the heart of gold that the Hobo later teams up with.

Rounding out the disc are Video Blogs which were on YouTube & hosted on the Hobo Tumblr blog, along with a Camera Test Reel – which shows what formats they were planning on utilizing for the film.  Also, you get a couple of Fangoria Interviews conducted by Michael Gingold, a HDNet Featurette for the film, the original Hobo With A Shotgun fake trailer form 2007 as well as the fake trailer for Van Gore – which was a contest winner that Eisener, Brian Trenchard-Smith and Joe Dante judged for promotion of Hobo, check out our interview with the creator of that fake trailer here – as well as the Canadian TV Spots and the Redband US Theatrical Trailer (Not the one that debuted on AICN).

Overall:

If you are a fan of the film, which you should be, this is one of the best Blu-Ray discs this year due to all the content they jammed in here.  Magnolia Home Entertainment did an awesome job capturing what I think is an important film for the genre not just because of the film, but because of the behind-the-scenes story as well.

Film:

Disc: