Narc was a hard hitting cop drama that introduced writer/director Joe Carnahan. It was his second movie but the first with studio distribution. Over 20 years later, it still holds up as an honest look at the dark side of law enforcement.
The 4K UHD transfer maintain the blue tint of the streets of Detroit, or Canada. Snow banks are pure white against the gravel.
The gritty grain of film comes through the shaky, handheld shots. There’s actually more grain when Tellis (Jason Patric) is sitting in a hearing or taking a shower. The run and gun foot chases pass through pitch black alleys and corridors.
Tellis’s home life offers a little bright, sunny peace but it’s short lived once he has to go back undercover with Oak (Ray Lotta). There are nice closeups of a gun dropping in pitch black and the grain of paper, showcasing how signatures on files distort the surface.
By the time they interrogate and try to frame two suspects, the warehouse becomes a deep void of darkness.
Due to the realistic approach of Narc, there is not an abundance of sound effects, but gunshots do echo in the rear speakers.
Carnahan’s intro is literally less than 10 seconds thanking Arrow for the new transfer but at least there’s no fluff
His commentary with editor John Gilroy is from the original DVD release and references when film students would listen to them. Carnahan is self-deprecating about decisions he calls pretentious, but he gets scene specific about what was going on on the set, technical setups and working with the baby and kids who are not scripted.
There are more new interviews on the Blu-ray disc, but it was not included in the review copy so I’ve focused on the 4K side.