Altitude, out now

A normal school day… until Russian paratroopers land outside the school, and kill the teacher…

It’s a very long time since I last saw John Milius’ 1982 “it couldn’t happen here” action thriller, which sees a group of high school students acting as the Resistance against an invading force of Russians, Cubans and others but it holds up better than I expected. The parallels with the French Resistance during the Second World War are clear and Milius doesn’t let the viewer look away from the consequences of the teens’ actions, both on themselves and the community around them. There has been a lot of argument about the film’s politics over the past decades but the current Ukraine conflict brings a lot into focus.

It’s a good cast – there’s a lot of up and coming faces amongst the teens, while stalwarts such as Powers Boothe and Harry Dean Stanton have critical roles. The 4K scan brings out the fine detail and the colours well – the opening autumn shots really sell the normality of the situation – with some grain visible. The 5.1 soundtrack opens out the soundstage, particularly at the front, although rolling tanks are given extra menace as they approach from behind.

The extras add up to about an hour and give a contemporary look at the creation of the film, but I’d been hoping to see the retrospective feature length documentary that’s on overseas discs here – all the rest has been available for some time.

Verdict: An interesting watch, that has a few too many resonances for the present day. 7/10

Owen Morris