Once more into the breach. Equipment: For Region A domestic and import discs, Playstation 3 console. For Region B import discs, OPPO BDP 83. Display: Hitachi P50V701, 16:9 Standard 2 Aspect Ratio setting, Day (Dynamic) picture setting, reset by eye by author using Lawrence of Arabia film still in Kevin Brownlow's David Lean biography as guide. And the Hitachi set crapped out for good after I completed the viewing notes for this column, so I am again compelled to mention this blog has a tip jar, alas.
Alice (BFI Import)
Surrealism-inflected Czech animator Jan Svankmajer has made a good number of outstanding, and eccentric and savagely beautiful films, but this cracked consideration of Lewis Carroll is considered his defining work by many, and not without good reason; the juxtaposition of Carroll’s gentle but sly oddball sensibility with the adapter’s often more visceral eccentricities makes for a uniquely bracing end product. This BFI Blu-ray looks pretty great. A key detail: the film is narrated by the title character (played by Kristyna Kohoutova) in a tight live-action closeup of her mouth, and the chapping on her lips increases and decreases visibly from narration sequences to narrations sequence. The tea party scene is particularly incredible, and what this high-def transfer captures so beautifully besides colors are the textures that are so important to Svankmajer’s art: Fur, paint slathered/dabbed on wood/cardboard, etc.—A+
The Big Country (MGM/UA Walmart exclusive)
This 1958 William Wyler semi-epic is the kind of picture that makes some people sit up and say, “Now THAT’S a Western,” but you know us auteurists and quasi-auteurists, even those of us who love, say, Dodsworth: when it comes to this genre, we put Mr. Wyler in line WAY in back of Ford, Hawks, Mann, Boetticher, et.al., and even then, when we get started we prefer The Westerner. But as I frequently say, this is a Blu-ray Consumer Guide, not a movie one, and this disc is beautiful. There is grain here, and the contrast between particular shots is pronounced in an interesting way that reflects the process of shooting such big-ticket action pictures; there’s a discernable difference between actual location master shots, wherein you can see the actors starting to sweat, and the close-ups where they appear more made-up, “composed,” as it were. Check out the initial confrontation between Peck’s and Carroll Baker’s characters and the hooligans led by Chuck Conners for a pertinent example. Another interesting wrinkle in the home-theater high-def realm. It doesn’t detract from the overall, you know, majesty of the viewing experience. —A
Big Jake (Paramount)
A lesser latter John Wayne Western, and not exactly a paragon of narrative sleekness either; fiery opening notwithstanding, it takes a while to suss out just what the heck it’s actually ABOUT, anyway. A bold, zesty, colorful picture, which boosts some, um, interesting detail, e.g. Richard Boone’s big, sunburned nose. Also, a pissed-off middle aged Maureen O’Hara looks even more pissed off (but not more middle-aged, bless her) in high-def. For Duke nuts with Blu-ray players, a must. For everyone else, optional. B+
Black Moon (Criterion)
From my notes: “Damn, this twilight opening looks good! Agh, she killed a hedgehog! What’s up with that? There’s crappy radio reception. A commenter who sounds like Glenn Beck! Whoo-hoo! It’s all Hour of the Wolf, and La Chinoise and shit! Makes ya look at Malle a little differently, huh?” Louis Malle’s scrappy indie—a film he made, he said once, because he wanted to shoot something at his French countryside house—is another Alice In Wonderland rethink, this one a post ’68, post-apocalyptic one. It is more successfully (and mordantly) eccentric than the other Malle film we’ll be getting into later in this column….and I haven’t really made up my mind about the whole thing yet, and maybe never will. Which is a good thing in my book. As for the disc, I don’t think “nearly unbelievable” is going too far with respect to sizing up its image quality. Less fulsome observers may settle for revelatory. This is one of those things worth checking out strictly on that basis. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sven Nykvist’s color work look better on home video before. Particularly striking ARE the aforementioned twilight scenes. Dusk is hard on high-def; if you don’t do the compression right, you’ll get a video-noise effect that’s distractingly smeary, particularly on some flat-panel screen. Here the image is clean as a whistle throughout, and gorgeous. Also from my notes: “REALLY REALLY BEAUTIFUL!” A+
The Cat O’Nine Tails (Blue Underground)
I’m not sure what the house is responsible for the high-def transfers of early Argento films that are going to Arrow and Blue Underground, and frankly I’m not sure if it’s a transfer issue or a material issue, but I’ve been noticing what strikes me as an odd consistency in the grain structure in the Blu-rays from both companies I’ve looked at of Deep Red, this film, and now Tenebre, recently from Arrow. That is, the grain is pretty heavy, to the point sometimes of looking like speckling. A good example on this particular disc comes about thirty minutes in; check out the hood of the blue Corvette in the scene, it looks speckled with white. Not to get all Jeff Wells or anything but I find this kind of distracting. I didn’t notice this so much on the excellent Blu-rays, from both Arrow and Blue Underground, of Argento’s Inferno, nor on the superb Arrow Blu-ray of Phenomena. But it is occasionally frustrating, to the point where it’s a bit of a fly in the ointment with respect to my enjoyment of the film. —B+
Crack in the World (Olive)
The quality of certain Olive masters hasn’t always been anything to write home about—to call the disc of Preminger’s Such Good Friends serviceable is almost overstating the case, frankly—but let’s face it, the label’s work largely indicates what the market will bear, as it were, so…anyway, I was a little surprised with how well I liked the look of this. DVD Beaver rates it pretty not-great, and I can see their point, but as I watched, I thought, Wow, this doesn’t look bad at all. It’s certainly not the most pristine in terms of pinpoint sharpness, but it does have substantial detail and color. As with certain other non-pristine Blu-rays in my experience, the overall look brought the Proustian rush of Saturday afternoon projections in the late ‘60s at Bergenfield’s Palace Theater. For those not familiar with said experience, I’ll say that it looks like good/decent vault print projected at proper brightness levels. But what’s with the soundtrack? There’s a lot of irritating discrepancy between the dialogue and music levels, aargh. Be advised, though, a lot of the disaster stuff is stock footage! There’s noticeable video noise at the world-turned orange finale. And there’s also chipmunk stock footage. And apparently the aspect ratio’s off, 1.78 rather than 1.85, but it’s not much of a bother. Lot of caveats for a disc I’m gonna recommend. What can I tell you, I’m a sucker for halfway decent cult items in high-def. —B
Don’t Look Back (Docurama)
Cool. Grainy. Scratchy. But awesome; beauteous documentary clarity. Dylan, what you’d call a legendary performer, to be sure. And a classic document, too. God, the London journalists are assholes, and as those of us who follow such things are well aware, the situation didn’t get a whole lot better when actual “rock critics” came into existence. But there was some improvement. Anyway, if you ever gave a damn about Dylan or the ‘60s or anything, you really ought to invest in this, as it seems a definitive home version. — A+
Drive Angry (Summit)
This proud-to-be-idiotic grindhouse pastiche really IS as dumb as it wants to be, and as bombastic, and is thus moderately impressive. The image quality on the disc is such that it almost (ALMOST) makes one wish one had a 3D display, Blu-ray player, etc. But this gets the job done without stereoscopic enhancement, and is a demo-disc hoot. —A
The Fall of the Roman Empire (Anchor Bay U.K. import, Region B locked)
Regulars of this blog know what a big Anthony Mann fan I am, and how highly I value this understated, elegiac epic. So of course they won’t be surprised that I sprung for a Blu-ray of it first chance I got, regardless of unpopular prices/exchange rates. And I’m glad I did. This looks real nice. There’s just a little color registration issue in some of the long shots, which is likely a materials issue or even a source issue stemming from anamorphic lens distortion or something. Nothing particularly major/distracting though. There’s a little shine/brightness in female lead Sophia Loren’s skin tones from time to time, she’s pretty heavily made-up and her natural olive complexion is covered and very white in certain shots. But the overall impression this gives is of just what a great VISUAL film this is throughout, always. Every shot is an impeccable composition and the flow from image to image is just breathtakingly effortless seeming. The diffused light in the forest battle about 50 minutes in is as spectacular an effect as Kurosawa himself ever captured. Everything holds together, remains solid, and as for beautifully telling details, check out the whites and pale blues of mad emperor Christopher Plummer’s eyes. —A
Hair (MGM/UA)
Talk about movies that don’t get better with age. You can see what director Milos Forman wanted to do with this—create something that seemed as free and loose and spontaneous as he imagined the American ‘60s counterculture might have been, should have been, whatever—but the intransigent material bests him. Thus, this 1979 film is a curio that just gets curiouser. This looks okay, nice autumn-in-Central-Park tones. But it doesn’t PLAY at all. And Treat Williams’ wig, or whatever it is. And that dude who ended up replacing terry Kath in Chicago. And it’s still better than Across the Universe. But not as inadvertently funny. —B-
Hannie Caulder (Olive Films)
This far-less-comedic-than-usual Burt Kennedy picture, a brisk 1971 revenge Western with a career-high performance from Raquel Welch (poor woman is set upon by Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin, all at their skeeviest) and a turn by Robert Culp that makes you wish he’d been way more prominent as a film actor, doesn’t look too shabby at all. A clean, detailed image for the most part —little video noise on the sand in a desert ride sequence but nothing to complain about past that on the visuals. The soundtrack is another matter. It’s even more all-over-the-place than that of Olive’s Crack in the World Blu-ray, with music WAY louder than dialogue throughout. It’s almost impossible to find a consistent volume level where you can hear the dialogue clearly but not be overpowered by the score. I’m an old hand at remote manipulation but that’ no way to watch a film and this disc gets docked down to its current grade from what might have been a solid B+ on that account. So: —C-
Heavy Metal (Sony)
A VERY handsome presentation! Too bad the film itself still kind of stinks. Well, mostly. Haven’t looked at this since its theatrical release, which I recall through a certain cannabis haze as a bit of a disappointment best exemplified by the fact that the title song was a solo turn by the member of The Eagles nobody gave a shit about. When was that, 1981? Yep. This time around, I notice a lotta what they call “Canadian content,” that the “Harry Canyon” segment set a lot of precedent for The Fifth Element, which Element largely picked up and ran with a lot better. And goofy art direction and limited animation and a lot of edgy-for-the-‘80s content, which subsists of lovingly drawn giant female breasts. Oh well. The aspect with the most entertainment value is John Candy’s voice work in the “Den” segment, in which he says things like “There was no way I was gonna walk around this place with my dork hanging out” in his Jerry-Mathers-as-The-Beaver tones. The disc is very crisp looking and the soundtrack, ostensibly an important aspect here, is solid.—B-
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