John Sayles’ City of Hope is a portrait of a mid-sized American city and its complex politics, told through the interweaving narratives of its citizens. An old apartment block stands in the way of a major commercial development. Its owner, Joe Rinaldi, feels pressure to torch the apartments to allow for the new development, backed by crooked Mayor Baci and policeman O’Brien. Joe’s estranged son, Nick, soon becomes a pawn in the power politics of the city by virtue of a botched robbery. Following the arrest of two teenagers, idealistic city councilman Wynn finds himself torn between what he thinks is right, and what his Black constituents want.

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Video Quality

City of Hope debuts on Blu-Ray in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio from a master that looks exquisite. Sony takes the lead on the remastering of all of their titles, and given the quality, it would not surprise us to learn that this was given a fresh master in recent years. The rich natural film grain resolves favorably without swarming or clumping while providing vital detail in every frame. Every unique area of the city comes through with stark clarity, especially in the texture of the buildings, the clothing, and the production design.

The cinematography of Robert Richardson has a bit of a hazy quality at times, and this disc replicates the flourish with great care. Highlights get very bright but never veer into blooming, and black levels are deep without any significant blocking or compression artifacts. Some dimly lit scenes do not fare as well, but this is mostly a limitation of the production. Facial features are detailed with makeup deftly textured alongside natural skin tones. There are splashes of color within the locale and lighting that make an impression with the hues naturally saturating the frame. This upgrade is a welcome sight and has been handled with care by Sony.

Audio Quality

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment delivers a Blu-Ray with a DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that capably handles this material. The environmental effects are effortlessly defined and given a thoughtful rendering in the speakers. This is a somewhat subdued track, but intermittent heightened moments keep things sonically bustling. Dialogue emanates clearly without being drowned out by the score from Mason Daring or any environmental effects. Sony has done a great job with this one. There are optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles provided.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Filmmaker John Sayles provides a steady commentary track that is very informative in which he discusses the production of the film, the location shooting, the larger idea behind certain scenes, working with the performers, the score from Mason Daring, the look of the film by Robert Richardson, and more that is well worth a listen.

Final Thoughts

City of Hope is a layered effort from John Sayles that tackles the complexity of power and subjugation within a community. With the amount of narrative threads introduced, not every strand gets the full attention it deserves, but everything works together well to create an engaging portrait. One of the standouts of this feature is the amount of talent on screen from future stars to those who would never break through. Everyone brings an authenticity to their character that makes this movie work as well as it does. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray with a great A/V presentation and solid commentary track. Fans of John Sayles will be thrilled to finally have a worthy presentation of this on disc. Recommended

City of Hope can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.