With a huge catalogue of films during his career. Warner Archive has a ton of films to choose from to restore and release on Blu-ray. So this time around they went deep into the archive and restored the 1940 adventure film Northwest Passage.
Synopsis: Major Robert Rogers, the tough frontiersman lead a grueling expedition to Canada in 1759 to punish a fearsome Indian tribe and seek a northwest passage to the Pacific. Langdon Towne and Hunk Marriner joined the Rangers at the Indian village, but when they head on to Fort Wentworth, they find the place deserted.
Northwest Passage is a fictionized account of Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers. Now the interesting thing is this film was Book I Rogers Rangers. The film was taken from the novel and was going to be broke up into two parts. But probably the epic scale and cost of the film made a second film not financially feasible. So while the world waited for the Sequel Book II to come to theaters, it never happened.
Spencer Tracy plays Major Rogers as a heroic tough as nails leader and is 100% believable. But in addition to the great Tracy included in this cast is Robert Young (Father Knows Best), Walter Brennan (The Real McCoys), Ruth Hussey (The Philadelphia Story), Donald MacBride (My Favorite Wife), Isabell Jewell (Gone With The Wind), and many other great performances.
The film was shot in central Idaho and the cinematography is gorgeous. As with most films of this early era the portrayals of American Indians can be deemed racist. But my feeling is it is important to see these performances, because if we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. With this film to be one of two we are left with many questions with no answers, that makes for a less than satisfying feeling as end credits roll.
Warner Archive Collection have transferred this classic adventure to Blu-ray in 1080p and is presented in 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The audio is an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. There is also the option for English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Warner Archive restoration of this classic adventure brings such clarity to this film. The colors are so rich and bright. The colors in this film looks like a something out of a bag of skittles. The crispness of this picture is so sharp and clean that you can almost smell the chicken cooking on the fire. It is amazing how great this restoration looks.
But Warner Archive didn't stop at a miraculous looking restoration and transfer, no way. They added some cool bonus features. First off they included the Theatrical Trailer and then a 10 minute vintage featurette Northward Ho! The making of Northwest Passage. That is a really cool bonus feature!
While Northwest Passage was part 1 of a 2 part film series that we never got part 2 for. This film is still an amazing and exciting jaunt through the wilderness and seeing men brave the wild, hunger and dangers all to accomplish one goal!
If you love the movies of Spencer Tracy as much as I do you need to see his performance as Major Rogers in Northwest Passage now on Blu-ray. head over to MovieZyng and order your copy today.
Out of 4 films reels (4 being the best) the Warner Archive Blu-ray of Northwest Passage receives.....
 Warners Archive Blu-ray Review ){kind=link}
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