Marie: A True Story

 (1985)

Marie: A True Story Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Pay the man, get out of prison. It's a sweet deal for the Tennessee officials who let killers and rapists go free for a price. And who would have the guts to defy the state's power elite? No one, except a courageous single mom named Marie Ragghianti. This gripping film tells the true story of a woman who became head of the Tennessee parole board, then stood up to lies, threats and murder to blow the whistle on her bosses — and send many of them, including the governor, to the pen.


For more about Marie: A True Story and the Marie: A True Story Blu-ray release, see Marie: A True Story Blu-ray Review published by Randy Miller III on September 4, 2024 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.0 out of 5.

Director: Roger Donaldson
Writers: John Briley, Peter Maas
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Jeff Daniels, Keith Szarabajka, Morgan Freeman, Fred Dalton Thompson, Lisa Banes
Producer: Frank Capra Jr.

» See full cast & crew

Marie: A True Story Blu-ray Review

Tennessee titan.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III, September 4, 2024

An energetic, politically-charged melodrama with the unfortunate stink of a bad Lifetime movie, Roger Donaldson's Marie -- whose "A True Story" subtitle is really more of a tagline -- swings for the fences but misses more than it hits. It features an engaging premise and a solid cast led by Sissy Spacek and Jeff Daniels with an early supporting role for Morgan Freeman, yet the script, pacing, and especially the music run noticeable further behind. It desperately paints our titular heroine (Spacek) as a near-martyr who endures unimaginable hardship on the road to justice, trading in subtlety and character depth for one crazy twist after another. Entertaining? Yes. Intelligent? Well...



To the film's credit, Marie lets you know within minutes where it stands on the manipulation scale: its hollow opening scene features the put-upon housewife trying to calm her fussy baby while inattentive husband Dave (Vincent Irizarry) watches football with The Guys™, only glancing over occasionally to demand another beer. When she pours it down the sink instead, he physically assaults her before throwing Marie out into the cold night, where she can her their baby cry from inside but is unable to help. That's the kind of movie Marie is, and it mostly stays in the same gear from here on out after she leaves him and takes all three kids, moves back in with her wheelchair-bound mom (Collin Wilcox Paxton), and hustles as a waitress while earning a dual-major degree in English and Psychology. Upon graduation, Marie quickly lucks into a well-paid political job as the state's Extradition Officer courtesy of college friend Eddie Sisk (Daniels), who works as legal counsel for Governor Ray Blanton (Don Hood), and soon falls into the role of Chairman of the Governor's Board of Pardons and Paroles. In both positions, Marie is not-so-subtly reminded to "stay in line".

The actual true story behind Marie -- one in which three prominent political figureheads ended up in prison for their "clemency for cash" scandal -- tells us no, Marie absolutely did not stay in line. Her courage reminds us that corrupt people in power aren't necessarily invincible, and such sentiments are tailor-made for a good, sturdy film adaptation. Marie is halfway there at best, as its most effective narrative highlights are cast aside for heavy-handed twists and too much focus on her family. During one rather lengthy subplot, Marie's youngest son nearly dies from a lung infection brought on by a pistachio shell he swallowed several months earlier; it's effective as far as base-level melodrama goes, but shouldn't have been dwelled on as much. Such detours might normally ground a character... but here, they eat up screen time that should've been devoted to missing details from the central plot and, as a result, the scope of Marie's crusade takes a hit. In short, it feels like two separate films fighting each other and both of them lose.

Nonetheless, Marie has its moments. The lead performances are capable (Morgan Freeman sadly doesn't do much, though he'd make a big career move two years later in Street Smart), portions of its narrative move along at a good clip, and it's inarguably gripping at several key moments. But this is the kind of film that you know isn't all that great even before hindsight takes over, with key elements of its flow -- the pacing, the script, that awful on-the-nose music by Francis Lai, who has done much better work -- crippling most of the goodwill it manages to drum up.

Unabashed fans of the cast and crew may feel otherwise... but either way, Marie is now ripe for rediscovery thanks to Warner Archive, who have given the film their usual white-glove treatment as far as A/V quality goes. The unfortunate lack of contextual extras and, of course, the film's limited appeal don't make this the strongest blind buy around, but established fans will want to indulge whether or not they own the boutique label's own 2010 DVD.

Marie: A True Story Blu-ray, Video Quality  

Warner Archive presents Marie in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio on this 1080p transfer, whose restoration source was not identified on the press release but looks to be a 4K scan of the original camera negative. Simply but, it's smooth and clean but does not appear to have been subjected to any extraneous amounts of noise reduction, as it sports a grain structure that looks entirely accurate to films from this era. As such, fine detail is rarely razor-sharp but readily apparent, with colors and contrast doing more of the driving in dimly-lit and nighttime sequences. Most anything shot outdoors in the daytime is obviously a visual standout, with many a scene entirely dependent on natural light due to the film's quasi-documentary approach to its cinematography. No dirt, debris, or other damage could be spotted along the way, and the film is supported well by its high bit rate encoding which regularly stayed in the mid 30Mbps range on the occasions I checked. Occasional amounts of macro blocking could be spotted on solids and subtle gradients on more than a few occasions; that's my only real complaint here, but it's not distracting or even all that noticeable in motion. Overall, this is a largely great effort and presumably a leap beyond the boutique label's earlier DVD edition.

Marie: A True Story Blu-ray, Audio Quality  

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix offers a clean and trouble-free presentation of Marie's one-channel source material, splitting it equally to your left and right speakers for a decently wide but still very natural sound stage. Clean and crisp dialogue leads the charge here, not surprisingly, with group conversations and sporadic scenes of heightened emotion sounding a bit fuller and more dynamic in direct contrast. This is one clear example of a mono presentation exceeding expectations by a decent margin, never sounding narrow or hollow except for very rare occasions where small portions of the on-location audio could have benefitted from ADR. Overall, this is a fine effort with perhaps a bit too much room for that on-the-nose original score by Francis Lai, but perhaps I'm only complaining because I didn't like it.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offering during the main feature, although a few glaring typos are present.

Marie: A True Story Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras  

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with original poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. Sadly, there are no bonus features on board aside from the film's original trailer, which is a disappointment given the source story.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:44) - This enjoyable vintage promotional piece for Marie, dramatically narrated by Peter "Optimus Prime" Cullen, can also be seen here.

Marie: A True Story Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation  

Roger Donaldson's Marie is only half of a pretty competent political thriller based on true (and truly engaging) events. Unfortunately it's dragged down by Lifetime-grade melodrama including too much family time, which might normally provide a bit of grounding for its central story but, in this case, only distracts from the film's all-too-hidden strengths. Performances are mostly good, however, so I'd only recommend this sight unseen to more fervent fans of the cast. Warner Archive's Blu-ray has their usual strong A/V merits, but the lack of extras really hurts this time around.

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Marie: A True Story Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Warner Archive Announces July Releases - May 28, 2024

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