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Looking for Infinity: El Camino
R0 - Australia - Umbrella Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (23rd December 2017). |
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The Film
 "Looking for Infinity: El Camino" (2017) "Looking for Infinity: El Camino" explores the epic 500-mile pilgrimage along Spain's 1200 year-old Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of St James, a journey renowned for its enlightening, spiritually nourishing and physically challenging rewards as well as its arresting beauty. An inspirational and fascinating chronicle of a group of people all at turning points in their lives, "Looking For Infinity: El Camino" explores the truths and dedication required to seek and find one’s own path, to stick to it and derive fulfillment from the journey. An average of 200,000 people take the 750 kilometer journey from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain every year - a pilgrimage that has had a history since the Middle Ages. As it has had a long history with changing borders, landscapes, and people, there are a few possible routes to take as it is not a straighforward linear road for travelers. With that said, the people that have taken the full journey or partial journey have done it for a variety of reasons, whether it is for religious reasons, for a spiritual awakening, for a challenge, or even for simple tourism. "Looking for Infinity: El Camino" is a documentary film on the well traveled path, featuring lengthy scenes of the way - from rocky paths, to open asphault roads, to the farms along the way and the towns with communities, there is a lot to see that is far from the cityscapes and urban surroundings. The filmmakers capture not only the views but the people - from pilgrims to tourists to even the people living along the path, who have their stories to tell about why they came there and where they feel they are going. Some are off screen that feel like distant narrations, while others are on camera talking directly to the audience of their journey, sharing their philosophy, life stories, and their fears as well. Shot in high definition video by cinematographer Daniel Edwards, the images look beautiful but it somewhat feels lacking as the slightly shaky images do give a sort of unprofessional feel, rather than if they had Steadicam or Drone shots to accentuate the flow of the film. The video images do lack some of the crispness to the colors, as compared to "The Way" (2010), the film directed by Emilio Estevez that took place on the same path, which was shot on Super16 to give an accent to the beautiful colors. Musically the flow is gorgeous as well, with a score by Richard Melkonian that echoes Brian Eno's soothing ambient works with some surprises along the way. The film is filled with wonderful beauty both on screen and from the souls of the subjects but the documentary does not have a solid foundation on what the El Camino journey is. The history of the path, the wars that raged between, the uprising of Christianity and what it all meant to the path. The famous subjects that had taken the journey to symbolize it, how the area are being kept with the increasing amounts of people over the years. None of these issues are discussed, so people looking for a foundation backdrop will sorely be disappointed. But the film is set to be open minded and thought provoking. With interviews, there are discussions about life and death, happiness and sadness, war and peace, all subjects that are deeply resonating and slightly differing in the viewpoints of each person. Director and editor Aaron Leaman sets a good balance of visuals and stories, but overall the relatively short runtime of the film - less than one hour without the credits, is one that partially hurts as it feels too short for a feature documentary and too long for a short documentary. The two year journey to make the film has reached its end but the journey is just beginning for people who are also looking to take the lengthy pilgrimage from France to Spain. The film has received screenings in the United States, Australia, and some European countries. The film received its home video debut in Australia by Umbrella Entertainment. Note this is a region 0 PAL DVD which can be played back on any DVD or Blu-ray player worldwide with PAL capability
Video
Umbrella Entertainment presents the film in 1.78:1 with anamorphic enhancement in the PAL format. Shot on video, the image looks quite fair but some of the colors, especially browns are not as sharp lacking in depth with darker colors. Greens look fairly good and there are no major issues such as damage with the image. Overall it is an acceptable transfer. The film's runtime on the disc is 60:41. Note that the end credits are some of the slowest crawling credits I've ever encountered. 
Audio
English/Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo The original bilingual language track is presented in stereo. As it is a documentary the stereo separation is mostly reserved for the music while interviews are center based. The sound is very good with a fair balance between the ambient music. There are no audio issues such as dropouts to be reported. There are optional English subtitles for the Spanish portions and English HoH subtitles for the full feature, both in an off yellow font. The subtitles are well timed but it should be mentioned that there were a few spelling errors here and there, such as "go to" spelled as "goto", "will" spelled with only one L, "I've" being spelled with a quotation mark rather than with an apostrophe, among others. Someone forgot to spellcheck!
Extras
Unfortunately there are no extras on the DVD itself. No interviews with the crew or additional scenes. Not even a menu screen. More information on the film can be found at the Official Website. The official trailer is below.
Packaging
The packaging states "region 4" only, but it is in fact a region 0 disc.
Overall
"Looking for Infinity: El Camino" is as stated in the tagline an introduction into the journey of a lifetime. It is not a historical lesson on the epic 750 kilometerpilgrimage pathway but fascinating journeys for the people there, both physically and mentally. The Umbrella Entertainment release has fair video and good audio but unfortunately lacking any extras on the disc.
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