THE FIRM: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Paramount, 1993) Paramount Home Video

Based on John Grisham's exhilarating ‘legal beagle’ page turner, Sydney Pollack's The Firm (1993) is a harrowing thriller that delves into the backroom espionage of a prestigious law firm whose biggest client happens to be the Mafia. The film stars Tom Cruise and the all-but-forgotten Jeanne Tripplehorn as naively optimistic newlyweds whose world is about to be turned upside down. The screenplay by David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel keeps the novel's high-octane twists and turns while adding a few alterations in service of Tom Cruise's persona as the cocky hotshot. In Grisham's novel, Cruise's Mitch McDeere is out for all he can get after he discovers the firm’s tainted past. He steals from them to save his brother - money that is never recovered. In the movie, Cruise’s Mitch is a slightly nobler sort, simply in it to expose the firm for overbilling fraud, bartering with the FBI to liberate his brother, Ray (David Strathairn) from the clink with a bankrolled fresh start. Oh yes, and this Mitch also escapes legal prosecution with his reputation and ethics intact.

It is a role tailor-made for Cruise’s box office drawing power, then at its’ pinnacle as the brash, cock-of-the-walk. Herein, he’s the Harvard Law grad, thirsty for success and all the ill-gotten trappings it can buy. Even better, the picture’s modus operandi is not about Mitch’s transcendence from shallow lad to forthright crusader, but rather, in unraveling the grotesque and dark inner workings of a corrupt institution. Best of all, Pollack has stoked his pic with a myriad of fine actors to coax Cruise’s performance out from its usual comfort zone. The cast, along with a taut script by David Rabe, Robert Towne, and, David Rayfiel elevates Cruise’s performance to some of the best work of his long career. Readers of Grisham’s brilliantly conceived novel were in for a startle in 1993, as the movie deviates with a major plot twist concocted exclusively in service of that Hollywood magic infused to satisfy the conventions of American screen storytelling. Pollack, whose greatest thriller remains Three Days of the Condor (1975), gets props for another classy affair here. The Firm is exquisitely crafted, with Gene Hackman – as Mitch’s would-be mentor, Avery Tolar – a slickly put together deceiver, and Ed Harris, a.k.a. FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance, doing his usual galvanic best in the bullying, rough n’ tumble category to get Mitch to comply. Curious casting in Wilford Brimley though, slightly out of step as Bill DeVasher - the firm’s thuggish head of security. Gary Busey gets gaudy as Eddie Lomax, the dodgy dick investigating the case, with Holly Hunter as his gob-smacking secretary, Tammy Hemphill who becomes Mitch's secret weapon.

Allegorically, there are shades of Watergate in The Firm – also, Chinatown (1974) and Marathon Man (1976), impressive pedigrees from which Pollack gleans his inspiration.  However, unlike these thrillers, The Firm’s drawing power at the time (and staying power ever since) derives from a sort of masterfully wrought commercialism – the pistons of a well-oiled Hollywood machinery kicking everything into slick and stylish high gear from the moment the credits roll. So, nothing is as it seems. False fronts mask despoiled souls, roiling for power brokers whose outward reputation appears squeaky clean, but whose inner workings are seemingly too imperceptibly toxic and cancerous to be exposed. To even infer a darkly purposed conspiracy afoot in such an egocentric environ is to place one’s own sanity in peril and worse, one’s safety on a collision course with the very forces out to distort, then derail a principled man. Interestingly, Cruise’s Mitch is not exactly that guy, and yet, he grows into the part of moral high-mindedness, ditching his deficit of boast over brains (Mitch is ‘book’, rather than ‘street’ smart) as he plies his duplicitous dash to beat the Memphis maelstrom of Bendini, Lambert & Locke at their own game. Somewhere in all this is Pollack’s jab and social commentary about go-getting urban elites who measure their calculous of success in stock portfolios above personal integrity and corporate greed, run so far amuck its turpitude knows no bounds.

Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a brilliant law student at the head of his class. This earns him some hefty offers from just about every major law firm in the country. To his ever-lasting detriment, Mitch chooses Bendini, Lambert & Locke after they present him with a house, a car, moving expenses and more money than all the other offers combined as his base starting salary. Naturally, Mitch is ecstatic. His wife, Abigail (Tripplehorn), however, is a tad more circumspect about the quid pro quo expectations involved in this trade off. Abby's from old money. But wealth is a new concept to Mitch who had to struggle to put himself through law school. Mitch is determined to pass the bar with flying colors and prove himself worthy of the firm's faith in him. Their senior partner, Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) appoints another senior partner, Avery Tolar as Mitch's mentor. Very soon, however, Mitch begins to realize some of the firm's clientele are not exactly beautiful people. Avery takes Mitch to the Cayman Islands, presumably on business. However, while there he also sets Mitch up with a prostitute to use as blackmail just in case Mitch gets second thoughts about leaving the firm.

Mitch learns two of the firm's senior partners who were working in the Caymans have died under mysterious circumstances. Enter FBI agent, Wayne Tarrance, informing Mitch of the firm's illegal money-laundering practices. He also threatens Mitch with imprisonment for his part in their activities unless Mitch helps expose Bendini, Lambert & Locke by copying some of their illegal documents and handing them over to the FBI. Mitch is in a catch 22. If he exposes the firm, he will have betrayed the attorney/client privilege and be disbarred, if not killed by the Mafia first. If he defies the FBI and keeps the firm's secrets, Mitch faces going to prison as a co-conspirator in their illegal activities he knew absolutely nothing about at the onset of his career. Mitch does have one ace in the hole: his brother, Ray, currently serving time for illegal drug possession. Mitch blackmails Tarrance. If he expects him to rat out the firm, Tarrance must first get a release for Ray and pay to his account $750,000. After some legal haggling, Tarrance reluctantly agrees to these terms. Unbeknownst to Mitch, Tarrance’s plans are to parole Ray just long enough to get Mitch to comply; then, arrest both brothers, sending Ray back to prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

On Ray's advice, Mitch turns to private investigator, Eddie Lomax (Gary Busey) to get some dirt on Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Sensing a stool pigeon in their midst, Oliver sends William Devasher (Wilfred Brimley) to take care of the problem. Devasher's men murder Lomax while his secretary, Tammy Hemphill is hiding under his desk. Tammy vows to avenge Eddie's murder by helping Mitch copy the files Tarrance needs to bust the firm's illegal practices wide open. Tammy also helps Ray elude recapture by the Feds. Ray escapes to the Caribbean with the $750,000 where he and Tammy plan to start a new life. In the meantime, Abby learns about Mitch and the prostitute. Her pride is wounded. Alas, as she plans to divorce Mitch, Abby comes to realize the tight spot he is in. She feigns taking Avery up on his offer of seduction in the Caymans'. Returning to his bungalow in search of evidence, Abby drugs her seducer. The firm has had enough. Suspecting Avery of collusion, Devasher orders a hit squad to the Caymans. Abby narrowly escapes Avery's bungalow with the necessary files just before their arrival. She returns to Memphis with the proof Mitch needs to indict Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Devasher hunt down Mitch to an abandoned warehouse where he narrowly escapes before Tarrance ends the bloodshed in a hailstorm of bullets. Bendini, Lambert & Locke are exposed for mass corruption. Abby and Mitch depart with a U-Haul bound for Boston from whence all their troubles first began.

The Firm is nail-biting and taut entertainment. Sydney Pollack's direction is fast paced, holding close to Grisham's text in spots, while wildly departing from it in others. Although Grisham's Mitch McDeere is a bit of a brute and a scamp, his filmic reincarnation is much more in keeping with Cruise’s ensconced persona as the toothy all-American. Henceforth, Mitch is a good guy trapped by bad circumstances. Gene Hackman is seductively sinful and cynical as the sexually promiscuous, seemingly, devil-may-care Avery. Busey, Tripplehorn, Hunter and even Brimley click as they should. The jury is in. The prosecution rests. And the verdict is that The Firm is a winner!

The same can be said of Paramount’s new 4K UHD Blu-ray. The standard Blu from 2014 was a very solid effort. But this new ultra-hi-def affair easily bests it in virtually every way. Sporting a robust color palette favoring warm tones, exquisite amounts of fine detail, superbly rendered contrast, and bang-on reproduction of film grain, appearing indigenous to its source, viewing The Firm in projection in 4K is like watching a 35mm print lovingly curated for its opening night splendor.  Paramount really has done the heavy lifting on this catalog release. The 5.1 DTS from the Blu gets ported over to 4K without an upgrade. Just as well, as the 5.1 does an excellent job for a movie built entirely around dialogue-heavy scenes, intermittently augmented by Dave Grusin’s score and very minor SFX. Regrettably, and as before, Paramount gives us NO extras. Bottom line: while The Firm is certainly deserving of at least an audio commentary, the focus here is on the way the movie looks and sounds…and, in a word, the results here are ‘magnificent.’ Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

0