Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

3 Women Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 28, 2015

Winner of Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Robert Altman's "3 Women" (1977) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The supplemental features on the disc include an archival interview with actress Shelley Duvall; exclusive new video piece featuring editor and producer David Thompson; archival stills and photos; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic David Jenkins and excerpts from Altman on Altman, illustrated with original stills. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Pinky and Millie

Robert Altman’s 3 Women is loosely divided into three parts, the third being the shortest but most intriguing one. As the title suggests, the film is about three women, but the majority of the time the camera follows only two of them.

In the first part, Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek, Carrie, Get Low) meets Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall, The Shining, Time Bandits). Pinky is a naive girl from Texas, who has recently moved to a small town somewhere in the California desert. She quickly gets a job in a senior care center where she is introduced to Millie, a tall and ambitious therapist who is particularly good at answering questions. Millie is also an import from Texas.

Millie is asked by her supervisor to show Pinky around. By the end of the tour, Pinky already dreams of being like Millie -- elegant, authoritative and respected. A day later, she is convinced that Millie is the best person she could have met in California. And when Millie suddenly asks her if she might be interested in sharing an apartment with her, Pinky nearly passes out.

In the second part, Millie introduces Pinky to her friends -- the young men hanging around the pool in front of her building and a group of older men in a bar on the outskirts of the town who like getting drunk and shooting things. Millie also quickly introduces Pinky to the building’s owner (Robert Fortier, Incubus), as well as his pregnant and unusually quiet wife, Willie (Janice Rule, Invitation to a Gunfighter, Gumshoe), who likes to paint. Not long after the two women become roommates, Millie invites Willie’s husband to spend the night with her -- and thus immediately breaks Pinky’s heart.

In the third part, Millie, Pinky and Willie undergo serious character transformations. Each woman also discovers something important about the other two that ultimately changes the way the three see the world they share.

3 Women is a fascinating film about reality, dreams and identities. As unique as the main characters are, they are simply small pieces in a big puzzle that remains unfinished after the end credits roll -- which is precisely what makes the film so intriguing, as plenty is left to the viewer’s imagination.

The film, which director Altman once admitted came to him in a dream, is fluid but unusually intense, beautiful but ambiguous, inconclusive but thought-provoking. Its goal isn’t to shock the audience with an original twist that logically links its scattered pieces, but entice it with its strange story and provoke a reaction.

Some of the most beautiful dreams I’ve had during the years are the ones that I could not deconstruct. I would remember them, but not how they started and why they ended. I would only recall some of the unique sensations they brought and for a short period of time abandoning my identity and becoming someone else. I believe that 3 Women can be described best as that kind of a beautiful and intense dream in which for a short period of time identities shift and a new world emerges.

The acting is superb. Duvall is stunning as the naive Millie who lives in her own universe where everyone supposedly gravitates around her. Spacek’s dramatic transformations are incredibly effective, especially the final one. Rule is also excellent as the mysterious Willie.

Note: In 1977, 3 Women won Best Actress Award (Shelley Duvall) at the Cannes Film Festival. A year later, the film also won BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

3 Women Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Robert Altman's 3 Women arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video.

This upcoming release of 3 Women is sourced from a new 4K restoration completed by Twentieth Century Fox and looks drastically different next to Criterion's release. Rather predictably, when there is plenty of natural light fine detail is superior -- edges are better defined and grain more evenly distributed and resolved (you can see the difference if you compare screencapture #2 and screencapture #12 from our review of the Criterion release). Contrast levels are also better balanced. Unfortunately, the film now has a color scheme that favors a strong range of yellows and as a result large parts of it have unconvincing shadow definition and look rather unnatural. (A very similar shift in saturation, with yellow again being the prominent color, is also present on the recent masters Fox produced for Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise and Bob Clark's Porky's). During the darker/nighttime footage the fluctuations in terms of shadow definition are quite substantial (to see the difference, compare screencaptures #10 and 17 and screencaptures #24 and 27 from our review of the Criterion release). Overall image stability is outstanding. Lastly, there are no large debris, scratches, damage marks, or stains to report in this review. All in all, I much prefer the better balanced color scheme and superior looking darker footage on Criterion's release. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).

3 Women Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The lossless track is excellent. During the woodwind solos separation is outstanding, while the gunshots in the desert sound notably crisp and clear. Balance is very good. The dialog is stable, clean, and very easy to follow. There are no pops, distracting background hiss, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in our review.

3 Women Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for 3 Women. (2 min).

• Galleries -
  
  1. Behind the Scenes
  2. Cannes Film Festival
  3. Promotional Images

• David Thompson on 3 Women - in this new video interview, David Thompson, editor of Altman on Altman and producer of BBC's Robert Altman in England, discusses Robert Altman's life and legacy as well as the production history, style and key themes of 3 Women. The interview was conducted excursively for Arrow Academy in May 2015. In English, not subtitled. (38 min).

• Shelley Duvall Interview - in this archival piece from 1977, Shelley Duvall is seen accepting the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and quickly addresses her character, Shelley Duvall, as well as Robert Altman's working methods. In English, not subtitled. (6 min).

• Booklet - illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic David Jenkins and excerpts from Altman on Altman, illustrated with original stills.

• Cover - reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh.

3 Women Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arrow Video's upcoming Blu-ray release of Robert Altman's 3 Women is sourced from a 4K restoration of the film completed by Twentieth Century Fox. While there are some obvious improvements, I actually prefer Criterion's presentation of the film because Fox's restoration introduces an entirely new color scheme that I don't find particularly convincing. This being said, 3 Women is not yet available on Blu-ray in Region-B territories, so this release should be easy to recommend to folks residing there.