There is nothing like watching a contemporary film that takes place during the 1930s, kind of like a remembrance of the golden age in both reel and real life.
Kansas City is an American crime drama helmed by iconic director Robert Altman. The film explores themes of crime, racism, love, romance and politics during the 1930s, 1934 specifically.
While these themes are part of the film, the entire film’s main crux is the non-stop jazz score all throughout the film. The plot has to do with two kidnappings that take place in Kansas City. Blondie O’Hara’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight) husband Johnny(Dermot Mulroney, The Grey), a small-time robber, is kidnapped by a gang lead by “Seldom Seen” (Harry Belafonte, Odds Against Tomorrow) and his gang after he robbed one of them. Johnny is held prisoner at the Hey-Hey Club. Blondie O’Hara responds in turn by kidnapping Carolyn Stilton (Miranda Richardson, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), wife of politician Henry Stilton (Michael Murphy, Private Parts) for some form of leverage to get Johnny back. She blackmails Stilton in order to free her husband. This power play game that is going on could possibly affect his chances of being re-elected. While being held captive, Carolyn suddenly takes a liking to Blonde because of her dedication to her husband and some of the dynamics change leading to a surprise ending. And all the while, the jazz band plays on, and on, and on.
Kansas City is a throwback to the great gangster style films from the 1930s capturing the mood and atmosphere, but I felt it was overlong. It seemed like nothing was happening for much of the film, other than a ton of musical scores which padded the film. The soundtrack was produced by Hal Willner and Steven Bernstein, which featured some modern-day musicians playing the roles of 1930s jazz musicians. There was not anything detrimental to ‘all that jazz’ in the film, other than there was just too much of it and the story took a back seat to it.
Jennifer Jason-Leigh was tremendous playing a 30s style lady in Blondie. She looked and acted to some extent like Jean Harlow, who was becoming and would have become an iconic actress if not for her untimely death. During the film she acknowledges that she resembles Jean Harlow and there is a scene in the movie theater where she is watching Hold Your Man, starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable.
Steve Buscemi (Fargo) has a small role in as a political operations fixer as Johnny Flynn who is paying sketchy people to vote in the upcoming election. His role was too small and with more screen time, he might have saved the picture from mediocrity.
Arriving on Region A Blu-ray for the first time Kansas City is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films under the Arrow Academy banner. Given a fresh 2K scan provided by a company called MK2, the 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio 1.78:1 looks dynamite. The colors look bold, sharp and just vivid. The actors tend to wear mainly grey and black suits, and they do look robust. Black levels are balanced with no distortions to shadow details. Daylight scenes look the most attractive with film grain being present as well. Skin tones look perfect with great details to the characters faces in close-ups. Image-wise, this is very impressive.
Kansas City has two audio tracks, English DTS-HD master audio 5.1 and LCPM 2.0. Both tracks come in flawlessly with a lot of depth. Whichever option you go with, you will have no audio issues. The soundtrack throughout, which is the key to the film, comes in just beautifully without any issues or distortions.
As with many Arrow releases, this contains a wealth of supplements. There is an audio commentary by Robert Altman which was ported over from the New Line Home Entertainment DVD.
Another featurette, Geoff Andrew on Kansas City touches on the critic’s thoughts on the film, and focuses on Robert Altman’s cinematic career.
Also ported over is the Luc Largier introduction to Kansas City, which is in French with English subtitles.
The supplements also include Gare, Trains and Deraillements is a visual essay by Largier. This is only in French with English subtitles. This I believe was ported over from the German DVD
“Electronic Press Kit” is another excellent extra. Within the kit you will find a series of interviews and featurettes including “Robert Altman Goes to the Heart of America”, “Kansas City: The Music”. Robert Altman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte and Joshua Redman are also interviewed separately within the ‘press kit’.
Yet more, there is a“Behind the Scenes”featurette, as well as trailers and TV Spots. US, French and German trailers,
US TV Spots and an image gallery round out this immense extras package.
I really wanted to enjoy and really get into Kansas City, and I did, but not as much as I thought I would. This release by Arrow is top-notch, with superior audio and video quality and the boatload of extras. Recommended!
Kansas City
Director- Robert Altman
Cast- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Arrow Video
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date- 6/27/20