4K UHD Review: Kino Lorber’s Rules of Engagement (KL Studio Classics) 

Part Wartime Thriller.  Part Courtroom Drama.  All William Friedkin.  Rules of Engagement is the sort of morally complex studio film we rarely get nowadays.  The film gets a stacked 4K UHD edition from Kino Lorber. 

The Film 

One cannot simply watch Rules of Engagement without, pun not intended, engaging with its topic of military action in impossible morally grey split-second decisions.  Director William Friedkin forces you to confront ugly truths about war no one likes to discuss.  Even away from the violence against civilians or the fog of war, it’s the murder in the protection of US interests that Friedkin manages to make omnipresent without ever discussing the topic.  

Colonel Terry Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) after a rescue mission at the Yemen US Embassy goes awry.  Childers is arrested and going to be court-martialed for killing women and children.  Though he denies the charges saying he was acting within the rules set by the military, the evidence shows otherwise.  Childers without much hope enlists the help of his old friend and Military Lawyer Hayes Hodges (Tommy Lee Jones), whom he saved in a questionable action in Vietnam.  As the trial proceeds Hodges must rise to the occasion if he is going to help Childers prove his innocence.  

Friedkin never lost the bite and the provocateur label throughout the entirety of his career.  Even the later Paramount-era, never felt like he was floating on laurels.  Here he smacks you in the face with the violence of war and impossible flash decisions.  Only Friedkin could have a star like Samuel L. Jackson open by shooting an unarmed soldier in the head to convince another to call off an attack.  That’s the tone and Rules of Engagement never veers from it through the entire film.  It’s that grey moral compass that allows the film the back-and-forth Rashomon-style narrative unfolds effectively.  

Beyond Jackson who’s fantastic (as per usual the actor is incapable of a bad performance) the work from co-star Tommy Lee Jones is as effective.  The only note is that it is impossible to conceive of Jones playing a “middling lawyer” or someone who isn’t at the top of his field.  The film mentions it multiple times, even having Jones’ Hodges mention it but the actor is just too good at being stoically effective (see The Fugitive, The Package, hell even No Country for Old Men) to be anything less than effective.  Add in effective turns by Guy Pearce, Bruce Greenwood, Phillip Baker Hall, and Nicky Katt, which gives Friedkin a stacked deck of effective performances.  Though the creditability of Baker Hall and Jones being father and son is PUSHING it.    

The script with a major rewrite by Stephen Gaghan plays with that possibility with creditability because of the seriousness it takes an emphasis on the character work and less on the action.  The film is more of a courtroom thriller than an action film and plants its flag.  However, Friedkin makes sure that the action scenes are intensely effective in the short bursts they happen in.  There is a minimum of rah-rah patriotism that can be found in films in this genre.   

The biggest gripe is the way that the film settles things with a big red bow leaving no question of who is morally just and who is morally corrupt.  Regardless of the fact that women and children were murdered.  That aside Rules of Engagement is still a thought-provoking courtroom thriller with effective performances and sharp direction. 

The Transfer

The all-new HDR Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative is a masterful vision of a 35mm film.  The film has never looked more refined or accomplished than in 4K.  The Dolby Vision encoding makes the subtle image pop.  The transfer is wonderfully verbose in its color reproduction and sharpness of the image.  The cinematography by William A Fraker and Nicola Pecorini is a noir-flavored dusky look that is perfectly transitioned to home video.    There is nary a scratch or blemish on the image.  The HDR mastering also benefited the black levels and contrast with a subtlety that ensures there’s no crushing of the blacks and the detail within the contrast is near perfect.  Kino Lorber has delivered a flawless 4K UHD transfer of the film.  

The Extras

They include the following;

DISC 1 (4KUHD): 

• Brand New HDR Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative
• Audio Commentary with Director William Friedkin

Disc 2 (Blu-ray): 

• Audio Commentary with Director William Friedkin
• A Look Inside: Interviews with Cast and Crew 
• Behind-the-Scenes Featurette 
• Theatrical Trailer 

DISC 1 (4KUHD):

The archival Audio Commentary with Director William Friedkin is from the original DVD release.  Friedkin brings his patented direct, honest, and blunt approach to the track.  He begins with his thesis for the track and just how proud he is of the film – additionally, he feels you should not listen to this track because the most important opinion is that of the viewer.  Some of the details include how he always brings his background in documentary and the techniques to bring a “reality” to all of his projects since The French Connection; where he filmed the opening of the film – including all the extras were casted with military and real North Vietnamese actors; a discussion of why he does not storyboard; how he approaches, and the benefits of using digital editing; how he constructs the soundtrack for the film – making it all in post, including dialog; the reasons why he made the film; the access to the military he had during the production; the various locations they used in place of Yemen as they could not film there – and why they chose those locations in Morocco; the negotiations they went through with the Moroccan King; the fact that he feels that this isn’t Anti-Arab but Anti-Terrorist; a larger discussion of the various historical accounts of Embassy Attacks in various countries; a larger discussion of various production details of the Embassy Attack – including the various troubles they had during it; a larger discussion of how they approached the court martial itself; and much more.  Friedkin does some describing on screen but the director imbues it with his thoughts on the scenes, directing, acting, writing, and politically where the film stands. 

Disc 2 (Blu-ray):

A Look Inside: Interviews with Cast and Crew (13:11) – this collection of interviews is an archival featurette from the original DVD Release.  Director William Friedkin, Screenwriter Jim Web, star Samuel L Jackson, star Tommy Lee Jones, actor Ben Kingsley, and actor Bruce Greenwood all discuss the development of the script, the reality that Friedkin wanted to bring to the film, the production, working with Friedkin, the modern military – and the film’s dissection of the theater of war and the legality of it all, and more.  

Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (22:37) – This making-of-featurette is an archival piece from the original DVD release.  The featurette goes through the story, character, military training, and more in this fairly thorough making-of.  The making-of has a wealth of b-roll behind-the-scenes footage.  It features interviews with director William Friedkin and military advisor Dale Dye, as well as stars Samuel L Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Archer, and Ben Kingsley. 

Rounding out the special features are trailers for Rules of Engagement (2:21); The Last Castle (2:24); Black Moon Rising (1:30); The Package (2:15); Blown Away (1:35); Changing Lanes (2:26); Twisted (2:03); Suspect Zero (2:14); To Live and Die in L.A. (2:08); BUG (1:22)

The Final Thought 

Rules of Engagement is provocative entertainment.  Kino Lorber’s 4K transfer is a marvel.  Recommended.  

Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD Edition of Rules of Engagement is out now