Delta, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Ira SachsRelease Date(s)
1996 (May 12, 2026)Studio(s)
Charlie Guidance Productions/Strand Releasing (The Criterion Collection)- Film/Program Grade: C
- Video Grade: B
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: A
Review
Young men struggling with their sexuality has been a theme of such films as Moonlight, Boy Erased, Call Me By Your Name, and Alex Strangelove. Some treat the subject lightheartedly, as in Love, Simon, or melodramatically, as in the British Get Real. The Delta, about a college student and a mixed-race Vietnamese refugee, treats their same-sex relationship in a semi-documentary style.
At home for the summer in Memphis, Tennessee, college student Lincoln (Shayne Gray) visits his girlfriend, hangs out with his friends, and has dinners with his family. But his mind seems elsewhere. Late at night, he drives into the city’s gay cruising grounds, but his few sexual encounters have been unsatisfying, leaving him nearly numb and emotionless.
In an arcade, Lincoln encounters Minh (Thang Chan), a young man he once had sex with while cruising. Minh says he really likes Lincoln, though their discussion is awkward and halting, with Minh the more expressive. Minh convinces Lincoln to take his family boat out on the Mississippi where the two of them can be alone. During the trip, Lincoln is more part of a guided tour than a participant, letting Minh take the lead. Their journey ends at dawn with Minh asking for a hug.
Though Minh reaches out to Lincoln, longing for a substantial relationship with him, Lincoln remains unmoved without the same emotional tie. This is where acting especially matters. Chan never conveys Minh’s compelling desire, so the viewer never feels his need.
Composed of episodes, The Delta follows Lincoln’s daytime activities and nighttime proclivities. Lincoln wanders in near-silence through dual worlds robotically, seeming to be an outsider in both. This makes it difficult to empathize with him. We understand he’s in the exploration phase of coming to grips with his sexuality, yet he’s so lacking in any kind of emotion that he never registers as authentic. Director Ira Sachs fails to allow Gray to exhibit even the slightest emotion.
At one point, Lincoln virtually disappears from the film and Minh becomes the focus. The shift is jarring, since the script doesn’t prepare us for it and only hints at what happened to Lincoln. Minh does keep us interested, but his actions in the aftermath of his liaison and brief relationship with Lincoln seem way beyond believable. The ending is not only shocking—in the sense of coming out of nowhere—it’s annoyingly abrupt. This is the kind of film you might resent after investing in its characters and story because the director throws in a baffling, hard-to-believe incident just before the end credits roll.
The acting of the two leads is unconvincing. Evidently the director failed to elicit decent performances from them. Too often, there’s an improvisational quality that looks amateurish. The film is perhaps overly ambitious since it takes on not only the sexual identity theme but the disparity of class and race as well. Minh likely would harbor resentment at how he’s been treated as a mixed-race refugee, yet this isn’t fully explored. When Lincoln goes back to his privileged way of life and his girlfriend, is it because he’s unsatisfied with his fling “on the other side of the tracks” or is he deluding himself into living his life as a lie?
Sachs does succeed in establishing the location with its fine suburban homes and its secretive areas where closeted gay men can pursue their true nature. He’s far less successful with his leads and the supporting cast who merely go through the motions and often seem to be waiting for better direction. The overall film is distancing, allowing us to observe from the sidelines and never fully immersing us in the characters or the story.
The Delta was shot by director of photography Benjamin P. Speth on 16mm film and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.66:1. According to information in the enclosed booklet accompanying the Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection, the new 2K restoration was created from the original 16mm A/B rolls from the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, which was supervised and approved by director Ira Sachs. The look of 16mm creates a raw, grainy texture. Scenes of the gay cruising areas are dark and shadowy, suggesting the secrecy of the goings-on. But often, these scenes are so dark that it’s difficult to discern details. Moments with Lincoln’s family are brighter, and those with Lincoln and Minh on the beach are shot in daylight under cloudy skies. As Lincoln and Minh sail down the river, shots of the shoreline trace their journey from the city into the country. In intimate scenes, the camera is very close to the actors. A few tracking shots reflect Lincoln’s mindset as he returns home after being out all night with Minh.
The English 2.0 LPCM Mono soundtrack was restored by Criterion. English subtitles are an option. Dialogue is clear, though in some scenes ambient noise makes it difficult to understand. Thang Chan speaks with an accent and his limited knowledge of English makes for an odd cadence and rhythm to his dialogue delivery. This tends to sound amateurish and is distracting until we get used to it. The absence of a score often hurts the film, as when director Sachs shows the shore of the Mississippi as the boat sails by. This would have been a good opportunity for music to enhance mood.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection include the following:
- Audio Commentary with Ira Sachs
- New Interview with Sachs, Conducted by Film Critic Keith Uhlich (22:30)
- Vaudeville (54:56)
- Lady (27:12)
Audio Commentary – Director Ira Sachs says The Delta is about the past and the present. He grew up in Memphis, left for college in 1983 and returned 15 years later to make The Delta. The film starts quietly because Sachs wanted to show the isolation of being a gay person. The film is composed of scenes of actual local color and staged scenes. Sachs shot in certain areas where he knew gay teens hang out together and can be themselves, and although they are out in the open, they also have an illicit feel. Lincoln becomes a different person in different situations. The director met Shayne Gray at a club at 3 AM. The actor originally cast to play the part disappeared the day before shooting and Sachs was desperate. After the role was explained to Gray, he agreed to be in the film. By starting with a sexual scene, Sachs lets the audience know immediately what the film is about. Thang Chan was raised in Vietnam. After Sachs met him and learned about his background, he incorporated much of it into the script. Because of Chan’s limited knowledge of English, he had to learn his lines from a tape recording. Re-writes were difficult for him. He was “self dramatizing” in the best possible way. Music was created by Michael Rohatyn in different styles as required by Sachs, but there was no traditional score. The second time Lincoln goes to the cruising area, the audience is more invested in the character. Lincoln and Minh are similar in their sexual orientation but they have different opportunities. Sachs points out shots that were intended to elicit an emotional feeling. Minh is good at seduction, a powerful tool for someone who has very little in his life. He has his tricks and they work. The film is about consequences—the effect of people’s lives on others. Sachs doesn’t explain the film’s final scene because he wants the viewer to put together what’s come before to understand what happens.
Interview with Ira Sachs – Sachs speaks about his creative intentions for The Delta, his first feature film, and how his earlier shorts shaped that film’s storytelling, visual elements and approach to character. As a junior in high school, Sachs abandoned acting in favor of directing. He wanted realism in cinema. To him, Hollywood films had a veneer of artificial formality. He was inspired by the films of John Cassavetes, who created his own dramas in a realistic fashion. In New York, Sachs fell in with an artistic crowd and took two film courses. He felt that the mostly queer performers in Vaudeville were cinematic and focused on a community with a subtext of danger. Sachs is interested in social filmmaking with a “strong narrative arc.” His short film Lady reveals a performer in everyday life. Sachs used black & white and color to distinguish between the subject’s two lives. Bisexuality offers fluidity and blurs lines, but Sachs insists that the character of Lincoln in The Delta is gay. Sachs says Twin Peaks and Splendor in the Grass are “the two greatest adolescent movies that I know of.”
Vaudeville – In this 1991 short directed by Ira Sachs, a traveling theatrical troupe made up primarily of gay and lesbian performers mirrors the troubles of a political and social community through its tight-knit existence.
Lady – Directed in 1993 by Ira Sachs, this short film stars Dominique Dibbell in a camp portrait of a performer that poses the question, “Is she a woman playing a gay man playing a woman?” The performer’s gender and sexuality remain intentionally obscure.
Booklet – The enclosed accordion-style booklet contains the essay Across the Lines by Michael Koresky, color photos from the film, cast and production credits, and information about the master.
The Delta is an ambitious first feature. It attempts to deal with closeted and open homosexuality, class, and race, but touches only slightly on the latter two. Director Sachs gets uneven performances from Gray and Chan. Gray seldom veers from looking as if he’s an observer rather than a participant in his own life. Chan has plenty of personality, but there is virtually no screen chemistry between the two leads, which is essential to the story. The film is a semi-documentary look at a young man living two lives but responding more strongly to his passion for men. It offers an interesting look at a major city’s forbidden nighttime rendezvous spot and those who frequent it, but ultimately lacks a clear point of view.
- Dennis Seuling