Hi Defness: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Sergio Leone's second masterpiece (behind "Once Upon A Time In The West, of course) was a disc I picked up on a whim... partly to test the limitations or advances within the Blu Ray format on a movie that's over 40 years old. After all the recent hullabaloo over William Friedkin's transfer of his early 70's film "The French Connection" to the hi-def format, which acted as a massive warning flare that the tampering of older films transferred to Blu Ray could impart some division lines between aficionados and filmmakers, I was curious to see the results for myself on a film even older than Friedkin's. So it's with great enthusiasm that I proclaim the transfer of Leone's western as a blockbuster effort. Not only has the sound quality been bolstered, but the lavish, cluttered and dry images of Leone's gritty landscapes are crisp and clean representations.


Honestly, I don't know if anything could really ruin the look and feel of "The Good The Bad and The Ugly". I've seen the film a handful of times, twice on the original DVD released in the early 2000's, but mostly through the awful pan and scan version that routinely run on TBS or other cable stations. It always seemed to be the film that I'd catch at 3 'o' clock in the morning while suffering from sickness or insomnia. The bar for Hi-def was set very low.


For all intent purposes, if there's a 60's/70's filmmaker destined to gain more from the advances in DVD production, it would be Leone. As a visualiser who works in the extremes, Blu Ray just makes sense. Whether its the protracted opening in "Once Upon the West" or the lazy introductions of his three principal characters in "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" (which takes up to 40 minutes), Leone's camera alternates between long shot and extreme close-up with the ease of a piano player hitting all the right notes. This hi-def version accentuates the shadows of the long shot and envelops us in the wrinkles and scars and sun-burned flesh tones of the close-up like never before. I know I've used this saying before and it probably loses its effect with each Blu Ray post, but certain scenes in my Blu Ray copy of "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" made my jaw drop. The gravel beneath their feet becomes a second character. The stained walls and decrepit wood that clutters so many of the sets vibrates with personality. Watching this film now is an immersing experience in the best sense. The real mystery now remains: if this is the potential for future films, why would I ever want to watch TBS again?

Hi Defness: Angel Heart

There's no real reason for choosing Alan Parker's baroque noir as the second Blu Ray film to discuss on this blog. I'd seen it once years ago, and it just sorta called out to me while scrolling through a list of recently released Blu Ray titles. Watching it now, years later, and in the midst of Mickey Rourke's second coming as an actor, "Angel Heart" doesn't deserve it's diminished status as the film that almost received an X rating due to its steamy sex scene between Rourke and actress Lisa Bonet- and I have to report, the scene is just as erotic and weird as I remember it. There's lots to love about Alan Parker's film, especially due to its downright steamy atmosphere and casual disregard for playing the noir genre by the rules.


Locating itself in 1955, "Angel Heart" uses the established noir genre for about 30 minutes before jumping off the deep end, bartering in eerie dream images, abandoned wintry coastlines and psychic paraphernalia instead. Hired by a dark suited man named Louis Cypher (Robert DeNiro), Chicago private investigator Angel (Rourke) soon finds himself in the deep bayou country of New Orleans tracking the whereabouts of an elderly big band singer. Complicating things are the dead bodies that routinely pop up after Angel questions them. Then there's the sultry presence of Lisa Bonet as the possible daughter of the missing man. In hindsight, one can easily brush off the image-change Bonet was trying to facilitate in 1987. Reinventing herself from the iconic status of the oldest Cosby daughter into a sexually voracious voodoo practitioner with a sex scene drenched in dripping blood was probably more of a hurdle back in '87 then it would be now where celebrity status is bathed in blood and sweat daily. And her intentions are clear from the first time we see her: as she washes her hair on an outside faucet, the water runs down and wets the thin shirt around her body, leaving nothing to the imagination. It's times like this I'm especially grateful for Blu Ray.

And that's the real reason for this post. Any film lover will probably already know the outcome (and twist) of "Angel Heart". A film such as "Angel Heart" feels refreshing on Blu Ray. A good deal of its running time is located indoors, along the dank French Quarter 'antiqueness' where the shadows and physical age can usually be hidden on standard editions. In Blu Ray, those black corners and sunlight steeped window valances that spray light around the room act as a second character. You can feel the atmosphere in the frame. Likewise, the film's early moments as Rourke swaggers around downtown Chicago take on a blistering quality as the various billboards and signs in the background pop with vibrancy. Both locations, New Orleans and Chicago, serve as diametric opposites in Angel's dogged pursuit of singer Johnny Favorite and the Blu Ray format does justice to both.

Hi Defness: Heat

If any filmmaker was destined for HD, it's Michael Mann. I can remember not understanding the complaints leveled against him when he went completely Hi-def with "Collateral", "Miami Vice" and (most recently) "Public Enemies". People who did not see these films shown on a digital projector were certainly missing the visual boat. Mann is a filmmaker who uses the fluorescent city to his extreme advantage. The aerial scene in "Heat" (pictured below) as the camera begins on a long shot of downtown Los Angeles at night, then slowly arches downward to track one lone van crawling through the industrial section of town, is a feast of light and dark. Until watching it on Blu Ray over the weekend- when I let out an 'oh my god' after seeing how much detail is present in the transfer- I'd never realized the glorious potentials of Blu Ray. Granted, my HD-DVD choice about 15 months ago was the wrong one, but Blu Ray seems to trump even that format in clarity and sound. I certainly don't remember my sparse copies of HD-DVD movies looking/sounding this terrific.



So back to the aforementioned scene. It's the little details that Blu Ray accentuates in "Heat". Only having seen this film on standard copies before, the array of colors picked up at night is startling. As the van moves down the street, one can see green lights in certain doorways and blue lights in other portions of the frame. Whereas the image before had been flat, this HD transfer vividly calls out the obscured lighting that (probably) had no intention of being noticed before. For a film geek such as myself that revels in the details, I'm in cinematic heaven.


The other noticeable difference in the Blu Ray version of "Heat" is the way this new format defines the human body. In the picture above, as Det. Hannah (Pacino) talks on the phone against the backdrop of downtown Los Angeles, his figure looks and feels set apart from the background.... something that standard DVD is just unable to differentiate. The shadow of Pacino's body (and every other actor) flows into the rest of the image. In HD, depth is revelatory. For the 3rd time, "Heat" has served as my introductory choice for a new technology. This time, my anticipation is matched by pristine quality. I may never leave the couch again.

Admissions of Guilt

I can admit it. I made the wrong choice. HD-DVD is probably not the hi-def choice of the future, and this e-mail I received from Netflix today states the slow turning of the tide to Blu-Ray:

<< Dear Joe, You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

Thank you
Netflix Management>>


Sucks. Oh well. The shitty thing is, now I'm itching to buy a Blu-Ray player. I can't stand the idea of my home theater system and projection screen not producing Hi-Def results. I just need to take a deep breath, avoid spending more money and live with it for the next few months. RIP HD-DVD.

HD-DVD Reviews: Mel Gibson in Hi Def (Twice)

Whether by subconscious motivations or just sheer coincidence, the latest two HD DVD movies I watched both star the artist formerly known as 'Mel Gibson'. It's a jolt to the system to see Mel in full glory on my small screen "acting" and not caught up in the recesses of whatever madness is driving him to create pseudo-crap like "Apocalypto" or making an appearance on TMZ due to outlandish, drunken racial slurs.

The Road Warrior

Outstanding film in every aspect and probably my favorite of the post-apocalyptic genre film (even more so than "Mad Max"). With oil prices rising over $100 a barrel recently, its not hard to imagine this film's manic sense of desperation coming true in the future. And while the narrative is pressingly contemporary (leather-clad scavengers dueling it out in a sun-scorched desert for any traces of gasoline or weapons), the visual aspect of George Miller's "The Road Warrior" are, quite simply, beautiful. Thinking back on the "Mad Max" series, it's hard to visualize noticeable amounts of color in the series besides desert brown and yellows, but in HD DVD, the images are impressive and the wide-open landscapes become even more frightening. And the climactic chase scene (running close to 17 minutes and logistically superlative for the DIY production of Miller's work ethic) stands out as a remarkable feat due to this version's attention to color, image definition and lack of pan-and-scan deterioration. This is the best HD DVD I've seen yet.

Payback

Actually, now titled "Payback: Straight Up; The Director's Cut", this 1999 film has been re-edited and re-scored by writer-director Brian Helgeland after the studio (and stand in director Mel Gibson) conducted a fairly thorough hatchet job of the film upon initial release. Far meaner and more linear than the original, Helgeland has done a good job with shuffling the picture back into something more in line with his original intentions. I liked the film on first release, and found it even more enjoyable on a second viewing. The odes to Boorman's "Point Blank" are still rife, and with name-drops courtesy of genre films such as John Flynn's "The Outfit" and Mike Hodges' "Get Carter", Helgeland's revenge drama plays out like a sinister doppelganger of those earlier crime classics. But, its Helgeland's style (washed out and faded with blue tint) that doesn't come across well in the Hi-Def format. This is actually only a notch above standard definition and certainly not worth the effort for sheer visual quality. Part of this may be because Helgeland was forced to re-edit the picture based on old film instead of the digital masters, but this is definitely not a showcase for the vast improvements that HD-DVD can bring to the average viewer's living room.

HD-DVD Reviews

Batman Begins

The best "Batman" movie of the series, "Batman Begins" suits the HD-DVD transfer magnificently. Director Christopher Nolan juggles a multi-time narrative with panache and the settings (the ice mountains of an Asian country, a shadowy dojo, the dark nether-regions of an infested urban metropolis) glisten with clarity. This is quite a nightmarish vision and, certainly, a dark movie in more ways than one. With the Hi-Def transfer, the dark is opened up and it avoids the splotchy shadows that invades your typical 'black' on film. The sequence towards the end of the film, when Scarecrow (played to hammy villianness by Cillian Murphy) unleashes his psychotic image-inducing gas on Gotham is especially vibrant in the way Hi-Def layers the pixel quality for full maximum effect. Bottom line, my last viewing of "Batman Begins" was in the movie theater in 35MM and this film just looks better on HD.

Wyatt Earp

Another terrific transfer belongs to Lawrence Kasdan's epic 3 hour plus western, "Wyatt Earp". While a litttle too much time is spent on the early days of Earp, the visual quality is outstanding. It's pretty damn hard to beat the wide open vistas that most westerns place front and center, but with "Wyatt Earp" this was my first experience of seeing these expansive landscapes in the new format. There are several shots here that blew me away with color and definition. A seemingly throwaway shot, there's a simple lateral pan outside of a cabin where a flower garden is growing and the color is breathtaking. It's the small moments like these that make me appreciate the precision of Hi-Def.

Lady In the Water

M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady In the Water" pretty much got hammered about the box office due to bad word of mouth from audiences and critics. I'm definitely in the minority, but I've always thought it was a moving and entertaining fairy tale. But between this venture and the failed "The Village" from a few years earlier, these two films have pretty much sidelined him as a major player in Hollywood. As far as the Hi-Def transfer goes, it's largey unremarkable. I notice very few differences between this version and the standard DVD format. Christopher Doyle's cinematography seems ripe for Hi-def exploitation, but the film's images feel flat and desaturated. Shyamalan is known for his creative use of color, and even that's barely explored in the transfer. Disappointment.

HD DVD Reviews x 3

Black Rain

Released in 1989, Ridley Scott's "Black Rain" is certainly one of the action movies parodied in "Hott Fuzz". You have an exotic setting, a male police friendship that borders on the homosexual, and a climactic fist fight in the rain that culminates the 2 hour and 5 minute running time. But seriously, as for the movie itself, I can't remember why I liked it so much. Maybe because when I first saw it, I was 13? I wonder how this film holds up on VHS or standard DVD because this is a very dark (literally, low-lit) muddled looking film even on HD. Part of the success of HD is the way it deepens the color black so one doesn't get that murky, pixillated feel. That feature pretty much saves "Black Rain". As usual, Ridley lights the entire film through lenses, fog machines, fluorescent lights and neon lights. The HD transfer is very good as it illuminates some of the murky images and allows the shadows of the film to become their own character while giving texture to the neon sets of Hong Kong (which feels like remnants of his "BladeRunner" sets). As for the movie, ehh. But it looks damn good.

Blades of Glory

That same logic goes for "Blades of Glory". I'm sure everyone knows my disdain for Will Ferrell comedies by now,but I will say this is a magical looking transfer. This is probably the crispest and most eye-popping HD DVD film I've seen yet. Too bad there's not much going on as far as entertainment value. You get Ferrell, Will Arnett and Amy Poehler doing their same tired sch tick. Still, the print is gorgeous, detailing individual faces in the backgrounds of the various scenes and really exposing the film's vibrant colors.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High

I'm still waiting for the perfectly rendered take on my high school days. The "Dazed and Confused" crowd has their own; the 60's have "Diner" and "American Graffiti". For the 80's not only do you have Judd Apatow's incredibly loving "Freaks and Geeks" saga, but "Fast Times At Ridgemont High". Believe it or not, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" got its own HD DVD transfer. It's been a while since I've seen this, but I can't imagine it looking any better. As with the transfer of most 80's flicks to HD, there's very little upgrade the company can perform on the image itself. HD quality, once again, crispens the background and textures the colors. "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" performs well on the HD format. The detail of the mall is brought out in vivid depictions and it heightens the colors of the characters' wardrobes. But honestly, the one reason to see this is the Phoebe Cates pool scene in HD.

HD DVD Review- Out of Sight and 12 Monkeys

Out of Sight

We start with the better transfer of the two titles mentioned. Steven Soderbergh's nouvelle-vague like noir, released in 1998, became an instant favorite of mine. I loved the sexy performance of Jennifer Lopez (than a relative unknown outside of "Selena" fans) and her chemistry with George Clooney, I loved the little freeze-frames that Soderbergh used to Godardian proportions, and I loved the film's shifts between humor and violence. It all felt so vivid. And the HD transfer enhances that experience. While "Out of Sight" isn't the absolute best HD print I've seen so far, it does convey a sense of picture upgrade that's interesting. Perhaps Soderbergh's style- that desaturated, hand held look that feels passe by now- limits some of its upgrade potential, but the warm colors of Miami juxtaposed against the whites of winter Detroit do feel much more expressed in this HD-DVD. But perhaps the strength of the transfer lies in the finale, when the shades of light, dark and color really impress. For those who know, the film's denouement takes place during a robbery of a large mansion (owned by an almost unrecognizable Albert Brooks). The warm interiors of the house jump out with clarity. I certainly don't remember noticing this in the original version. The film's lost none of its initial charm, and the high defness only reminds me how great of a movie this is.

12 Monkeys

I wrote earlier on this blog that it'd been awhile since I'd seen "12 Monkeys" and remember 'flipping for it'. I'm not sure why I flipped so much, because this was a chore to get through. Perhaps I hadn't seen Chris Marker's "La Jetee" yet, which is why I found something special and mind-blowing in Terry Gilliam's post modern make-over of Marker's sublime sci-fi classic. Well, I've seen the original and while that film holds so much beauty and emotion (in still images, no less), Gilliam's film is...maddening. Gilliam is a director I never understood. His films profit in cluttered settings, obnoxious characters, and a stream-of-conscious dialogue that makes me nauseous. I've yet to make it through "Brazil" (and tried about 3-4 times), couldn't finish "Tideland" and almost walked out of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". His films just don't appeal to me. Then you have "12 Monkeys", a film that features all of the characteristics above and makes me even hate Madeline Stowe for inhabiting a character who yells almost every one of her lines. Then there's Brad Pitt, playing a mental patient who almost drove me nuts by his blathering and showy performance. Honestly, I usually have a good barometer on the films I see, and how I once praised "12 Monkeys" is beyond me. Now, for the HD transfer itself? Equally as shitty. There's very little upgrade in the picture quality, at times looking worn and smudged. I wondered if there was something wrong with my player until I went online and read some HD DVD excerpts on this film. It's not my player, but just a generally lazy transfer that has no redeeming HD qualities. Skip this one for that (and so many other) reasons.

HD-DVD Review: Bullitt and Army of Darkness

Bullitt

Peter Yates' 1968 crime classic is a personal attempt to define the limitations of HD. I was curious as to how a classic print would stand up in the Hi-Def format. It's been over 10 years since I'd seen "Bullitt" (on a crappy VHS copy no less) so my initial impressions of how this film compares on HD are probably highly overstated. Still, this is a beautiful looking print. The clearest examples of this version's sharpness come in the many exterior shots of San Francisco, which makes the superbly crafted and largely lauded car chase sequence especially exciting. The buildings in the background are given definition, the cars that dart in and out of the frame look sparkling, and the various gaudy colors of people's Sunday best really jump out at you. Once again, as in "The 40 Year Old Virgin", Hi-Def visualizes the film's color more than ever. Watching "Bullitt" in HD reminded me of the old, exaggerated colors of "Duel In the Sun", a film full of images that feels like they're burning off the edges. And I mean that in a good way. The disappointment of "Bullitt's" Hi-Defness comes in the interior scenes. I didn't notice any real definition when the film turns to set and studio. Also, some of the nigh time scenes in the beginning of the film fail to register on anything more than DVD quality. As in other HD features, the deep blacks and shadows of the film are heightened. In "Bullit", they feel grainy and worn. Perhaps this is the overwhelming deficit of bringing older films into the HD format.

A quick word about the film itself.... I'd forgotten how modern the story feels, right down the climactic airport chase that surely influenced Michael Mann's runway finale in "Heat". Also, this is a brilliantly conceived take on violence in the movies, sporting a complex realization of cops and their guns. When McQueen finally does pull his gun in the last five minutes of the film, it's quite startling. The film cues that extraordinary moment with a tense cut to the gun and a blast of music across the soundtrack. Expecting somewhat of a relief in the film's final minute as McQueen returns home, instead, director Yates closes in on McQueen washing his face in the sink, visibly regretting the bloodletting. A slow zoom into McQueen's gun as it rests in its holster on the table closes out the film. "Bullitt" makes clear that this is something very heavy for bad ass cop McQueen, and it inverts the confident attitude of its protagonist. Bullitt is dealing with something real now, and its quite a refreshingly poignant way to close out a film much praised for its car chases and brutish posing.

Army of Darkness

Sam Raimi's "Army of Darkness" is the next HD challenger. No disappointments here. Picture quality is impressive and, unlike "Bullitt", the night time scenes pop off the screen. Really, if you're a fan of the Evil Dead trilogy, then you gotta have this on HD-DVD. Nevermind that it's probably the third most quotable film of the 90's (tailing behind "The Big Lebowski" and "Swingers" of course), but in HD, the Harryhausen-style animation still impresses and you get to see Bruce Campbell flail about in vivid picture quality. The drawback to this DVD (and "Bullitt") though is the extreme lack of extra features. No commentary, no deleted scenes... just the bare-bones movie. If one can live with that, then buy away.

HD DVD review: The 40 Year Old Virgin

This is probably an underrated choice to test my new-found limits of HD DVD, but what better way to determine the parameters of new technology than with a film that shouldn't pop on screen. Well, even in HD, "The 40 Year Old Virgin" is a complete visual surprise. I'm learning that HD creates stunning clarity in the background of films. Judd Apatow's comic masterpiece only benefits from the crisp colors of HD, drawing out the cluttered sets of action figures and busy backdrops of the electronics store or speed dating locale. Two of the most impressive scenes in this film (due not only to the sharp writing, of course) include the following: 1) the scene when Paul Rudd and his buddies take Andy (Steve Carell) to a night club towards the beginning of the film. I'm not sure if I just never looked for the blend of colors before or if Hi Def 'heightens' my sense of picture quality, but the way the neon lights illuminates the screen feels intoxicating, like we're watching a Shaw Brothers picture. It was probably meant to be campy, but in HD, it becomes something altogether different, adding to the giddiness of the scene. 2) the Elizabeth Banks seduction scene. I mean, really, we don't need much more than Elizabeth Banks tearing up the scenery in this succession of images to create a memorable moment, but in HD, the campy backdrop of her apartment come bustling towards you. There's the fluorescent fish tank, the multi-colored pillows on her bed, the green light emanating from her bathroom- it all feels as carefully constructed and as painstakingly lit as a Stanley Kubrick film. Okay, maybe I'm waaay off base here, using first the Shaw Brothers and now Kubrick in my description for a Judd Apatow comedy, but the bottom line is that colors of movies have never felt so vivid. Hi Def leaves nothing non-descript in the background, opening us up to 3-D worlds on screen. That, so far, is the biggest win of this technology.

Enough gushing about that. The disc itself is loaded, but nothing different from the standard disc. The one advantage to HD-DVD is it's easy pop up menu function. Unlike standard DVD's, you don't have to exit out of the film to access the menu. It also features a great round table commentary track with the film's stars, and if you expect the "in this scene I used an anamorphic lens to frame everything...", think again. It's commentary just as loose, nasty, and anecdotal as the film.

Welcome to the New Generation

So I went ahead and did it. I purchased the Toshiba HD DVD player today. It was a measured decision- I know HD and Blu ray are still fighting it out for format supremacy, but for $299, its an investment I decided to make. Pretty much everything I've read (and boy have I read alot over the past 6 months) seems to feel that no clear cut winner will emerge for the next year or two. If I can get the most out of this player for 2 years, then that'll suit me. This player makes standard DVD's look INCREDIBLE. I popped in Malick's "The New World" and Michael Mann's "Miami Vice". This is the way movies were intended to be watched. You can see when someone blushes or the color goes out of their face. You can pick up little signs on bus stops, read street signs and differentiate the color patterns in clothes. My eyes were continually darting around the edges of the screen trying to decipher images that I hadn't noticed before. Amazing. And like I said, that's just for standard DVD's. Upconvert is ok, but even if this format loses out, it still crispens my old DVDs like never before.

I did purchase 1 HD-DVD movie, "Goodfellas". My old copy is one of the first generation DVD's and it was time to upgrade. Holy shit.... this is a Scorsese film like you've never seen, full of deep blacks and shadows that cascade around the characters faces. Honestly, HD opens up the world beyond the characters on screen, fulfilling the setting around them with vivid clarity. I'm not trying to talk anyone into a rash decision (like I may have done), but HD quality is the way to go. Do the research for yourself and if $299 is affordable, then I recommend it.

Stay tuned for HD DVD reviews and thoughts.