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created 12/15/97.
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Barrie
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Welcome
to the second edition of my high definition column in its new
format. The intent of the column is to provide a convenient one-stop
summary of current high definition information for readers'
convenience. I aim to provide my take on selected current releases,
some guidance on near-future releases worth looking out for, and a
tabular summary of all forthcoming titles that have been announced.
I welcome your comments on the column, particularly suggestions for
any ways in which you think it can be improved without becoming
unwieldy.
Current Fare - The Best
Genre movies have always been the bread and butter of the American
film industry and no one consistently makes them better. We were
fortunate to have several fine examples in 2007, including the
western 3:10 to Yuma and the
thriller Michael Clayton.
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Michael
Clayton
(also available on
HD-DVD)
It's easy to be dismissive of polished efforts like Michael
Clayton, but its excellence is something akin to that
of a big, highly-skilled athlete - he's so good that half the
time he hardly seems to be trying. Such is the fate of Michael
Clayton. Certainly not the very best film of the
year, but a worthy contender as acknowledged in its Best Picture
nomination, the film chronicles the efforts of a legal firm's "fixer"
(George Clooney) who must defuse a potentially explosive
situation when the firm's top litigator (Tom Wilkinson)
unexpectedly puts a $3 billion case in jeopardy by suddenly
switching from advocate to whistleblower. The film is incisively
written by Tony Gilroy, who also directs unobtrusively yet
propels the narrative forward with urgency so that the two-hour
running time seems much less. The flashback structure employed
works well, as it so often does in the thriller genre.
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Michael
Clayton is a bonanza of fine performances from Clooney's
on-the-edge portrayal of a man living a fine balancing act yet
somehow always in control to good work by Sydney Pollack as the
legal firm's chief executive. In between, Tilda Swinton and Tom
Wilkinson provide strong support as an opposing counsel and as the
firm's top litigator respectively. Warners' BD and HD releases
(1080p, 2.40:1) offer a noticeable improvement on the DVD with deep
blacks now apparent and the previous digital noise almost completely
absent. The image detail is not a poster boy for either BD or HD,
but it is impressive. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track does a thoroughly
workmanlike job on the dialogue-heavy track, but does unfortunately
allow James Newton Howard's fine score to fly somewhat too much
under the radar. The main supplement is an audio commentary with
writer/director Gilroy and his brother and the film's editor John
Gilroy. Several deleted scenes (with optional commentary) round out
the discs.
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The
Brave One
(also available on
HD-DVD)
The Brave One is another
worthy genre example. Directed by Neil Jordan and starring Jodie
Foster, it seems on the surface like any other revenge film
along the lines of the Charles Bronson Death
Wish outings except with a female rather than male
protaganist. In the hands of Jordan, however, it becomes a much
more complex animal. The film delves deeply into the traumatic
experience that seeing one's partner murdered before your eyes
can have on one's own perception of self - the isolating and
even self-changing effects that can make one a person almost
unrecognizable to oneself and capable of acts that one would
previously never have thought possible. Jodie Foster does a very
realistic job of capturing such changes in the character she
plays, a New York public radio show host.
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There
is sudden and at times graphic violence in The
Brave One, but it's never gratuitous and always remains
subordinate to the reactions of Foster's character to them. As a
secondary benefit, Jordan takes us on a fascinating tour of New York
locations seldom visited in the movies. It seems that as Foster's
character moves deeper into unknown personal territory, so does she
find herself in areas of the city increasingly unfamiliar to us.
Gradually zeroing in on Foster's character is a New York homicide
detective, persuasively played by Terrence Howard. The film's
conclusion brings the two together in an unexpected twist that
provides a initially surprising but ultimately satisfying ending.
Warners' HD release (HD and DVD combo format) captures the look of
the film admirably, ranging from the soft-filtered beginning to the
more hard-edged middle and ending that reflect the Foster
character's altered view of life and her environment. Image clarity
is excellent and facial close-ups (of which there are many) are
particularly impressive in terms of flesh tone accuracy and skin
detail. The Dolby TrueHD audio provides an admirable sonic
experience with extensive subtle use of the surrounds for ambience.
The supplements include a mediocre making-of piece (in hi def) and
some deleted scenes.
A good spy story is always welcome and we've been fortunate to have
had several fine examples released in high definition in 2007 - the
superb The Lives of Others (on
BD from Sony) and two others that focus on the history of the CIA.
Of the latter two, anyone who has not seen The
Good Shepherd should seek it out (available on HD from
Universal), but of more immediate interest is The
Company, a miniseries originally broadcast on TNT and now
available on a two-disc BD release from Sony.
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The
Company
Of course no one should expect historical accuracy from films
and The Company is no
exception although its story does use a series of real events
involving the CIA as the basis for its narrative of ferreting
out Soviet double agents within the intelligence agency. The
program consists of three parts, each of which is progressively
better in terms of narrative tension, historical and geographic
scope, and the quality of its ensemble acting. Starring are
Chris O'Donnell as a young recruit to the agency, Alfred Molina
as his mentor, and Michael Keaton as the agency's
counter-intelligence specialist. Molina and Keaton, who anchor
the expansive saga, are both very good, but are matched by a
number of lesser-known performers who inhabit the series'
numerous supporting roles.
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Aside
from the series' captivating story, the series also scores in
respect to its effective use of location shooting, an evocative
music score, and especially its superb make-up. Seldom has a film
managed to age its key players so effectively and realistically as
has The Company. Sony's BD
disc allows all these aspects to shine through clearly - not a
perfect visual experience (1080p, 1.78:1) due to some minor
sharpness inconsistency, but certainly overall one of the
best-looking ones for a made-for-TV program that I've seen. The PCM
5.1 uncompressed audio is equally impressive, offering a surround
experience that is intense when appropriate but effectively subtle
at other times. The supplements are restricted to two featurettes
dealing with the genesis of the film and the making-of details. They
total a little more than a half-hour and are interesting as far as
they go, but one is left wanting more.
Current Fare - The Rest
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The
Invasion
(also available on
HD-DVD)
Once upon a time, Jack Finney's novel "The Body Snatchers"
translated into the superb, understated 1956 film Invasion
of the Body Snatchers. Increasingly diminishing
returns resulted from remakes such as 1978's Invasion
of the Body Snatchers and 1994's Body
Snatchers. Now we have The
Invasion, a 2007 incarnation from Warner Bros. that
vies with the 1994 version for the title of "worst Body
Snatchers on film". Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig are both
wasted in a film that doesn't know whether it wants to be a
cerebral thriller or just another conventional car chase flick,
and in the end just fizzles out like a dud firecracker.
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The
Washington D.C. locations are a welcome change from New York and Los
Angeles when it comes to disaster-based films, but that's about it
for highlights. The Warner HD version that I looked at (1080p
1.85:1) offers little to complain about and equally little to get
thrilled about; it's a very nice transfer with very good image
detail and colour fidelity, but no visual pop. Similarly the Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 track works well in dealing with subtle ambient effects
as well as the more obvious action sequences. The supplements
(presented in 1080i) consist of four featurettes that are
superficial and entirely forgettable.
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The
Jane Austen Book Club
The Jane Austen Book Club
is a film with an interesting premise. Five women and one man
form a book club to discuss the novels of Jane Austen as a way
to ease the current personal difficulties of one of the group.
As each novel is discussed, it soon becomes clear that the
issues of Austen's well-known characters mirror many of the
group members' own concerns. The film benefits from a uniformly
impressive and likable ensemble cast (Kathy Baker, Maria Bello,
Marc Blucas, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, Jimmy Smits, Lynn
Redgrave, Hugh Dancy) and is a pleasant time-passer, but the
whole thing is just a little too pat in terms of the convenient
similarities in the film characters' issues and those of the
Austen characters. One recognizes the narrative artiface
involved, but its obviousness is off-putting enough so that the
film has little repeat viewing potential.
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Thus,
the disc a good rental at best. If the film itself is but a trifle,
its BD presentation from Sony is superior. The 1080p 1.78:1 transfer
is very film-like and complements the content well, drawing little
attention to itself. Yet if you focus on it specifically, its
clarity, shadow detail, and colour fidelity qualities are obvious.
Similarly the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio shines, whether in respect to
the dialogue or the numerous surround ambient effects. The disc's
supplements are also superior, particularly the audio cast and crew
commentary and four featurettes (though not presented in high
definition).
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The
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
(also available on
HD-DVD)
The problem with The Assassination
of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is not the
film itself. Once the film's slow and muddled beginning (during
which Jesse, his brother Frank and a gang of misfits prepare for
one last train robbery) is over and the film's intent becomes
clear, it's a fascinating experience watching Brad Pitt's Jesse
James, a man of conflicting emotions and impulses, become
obsessed with eliminating gang members that he sees as disloyal
at best and a danger to himself at worst. Robert Ford, at first
a young man who virtually hero-worships Jesse and seeks his
approval to validate his own life, becomes increasingly wary of
Jesse's feelings towards him and the path towards the eventual
murdering of Jesse becomes inevitable.
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Affleck does a superb job portraying Ford; his facial emotions speak
volumes and the subtle changes that he gradually introduces to fit
his character's increasingly fragile mental state as the film
progresses are a pleasure to behold. Sam Shepard provides an
effective if too-brief portrayal of Frank James (if only Jesse had
seen through Robert Ford and treated him as dismissively as Frank
does at the beginning of the film). The film is handsomely
photographed by Roger Deakins and the spare music score by Nick Cave
and Warren Ellis really captures the film's melancholy mood. The
standard definition DVD's rendition of the film was quite
satisfactory give what that medium is capable of, but the HD version
(1080p 2.40:1) is barely so, given what a high definition
presentation can deliver. It does improve on the image detail
somewhat, but it has not excised the edge effects that were at times
apparent on the DVD and video noise is apparent in some of the
darker scenes. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is actually quite
good, but I couldn't get past the anemic gunshots. They sound like a
duel of cap pistols. Any mono Warner film of the 1930s or 40s sounds
much better in this regard. The only supplement on the disc is a
lengthy documentary on the life of Jesse James, with little on the
making of the film itself. That a special edition is coming in the
future seems obvious to me and one would be well advised to wait for
it rather than jump at this version. |
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