6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Pete Sandich and buddy Al Yackey are daredevil aerial forest-fire fighters. Pete finds true love with Dorinda but when he takes one risk too many, he discovers that fate has other plans for him than a long and happy life with the woman he loves.
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Brad Johnson (II), Audrey HepburnDrama | 100% |
Romance | 72% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
At the time of this review, Always was available on Blu-ray only as part of the StevenSpielberg Director's Collection. It is now separately available. Always was released during the same year as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and both its smaller scale and its modest box office were judged harshly against the expectations associated with a film directed by Steven Spielberg, whose name was now firmly linked to blockbusters. Always had a few big effects, but it was an intimate character story, almost a romantic comedy (with a few key differences). The film was beautifully photographed and had a lovely score by the reliable John Williams, but where were the thrills? Always is a remake of Victor Fleming's 1943 film A Guy Named Joe starring Spencer Tracy, for which Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss discovered during the shooting of Jaws that they shared a passionate devotion. After many years in development, the film went into production with a script by Jerry Belson (who had developed The Odd Couple for TV and was one of the many writers who worked with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind) that updated the story from World War II to the present but left the outlines of the original story intact. In both his casting choices and direction, however, Spielberg accentuated the story's humor so that the result plays like a kind of rom-com-in-reverse. Always begins with an ideally suited, perfectly matched couple who are deeply in love and already together. With great warmth, occasional humor and much sadness, they then spend the rest of the film saying goodbye and learning how to move on.
Always was one of the last films shot by Danish cinematographer Mikael Salomon (The Abyss) before he switched entirely to directing. Although the usual criticisms of Universal catalog titles are certain to be leveled at this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, fans of the film have reason to celebrate, as the Blu-ray is a huge step up from Universal's 1999 DVD release of Always, which was probably its worst treatment of a Spielberg film on that format: non-anamorphic, with a pale image and far too much aliasing and video noise. The Blu-ray is another story entirely. The greens of the forest, yellows and orange of the flames and reds of the fire retardant are all strong, as are the various shades of blue light that mark Pete and his plane both before and after his crash. The white of Dorinda's dress during the party scene pops out of the frame, as it should, against the smokey brown and yellow background of the firefighter crew surrounding her. Hap's outfit, which came from Audrey Hepburn's personal wardrobe, has an even brighter white glow. Even the red of Marg Helgenberger's hair (in this film, she's what passes for a "plain" girl) is distinctive. Detail is plentiful throughout, although there's somewhat less of it in darker shots where the lighting has been deliberately manipulated to differentiate areas of the frame (a long scene in the cockpit of a plane near the film's end is a noteworthy example). This phenomenon has always been part of the film and is not a fault of the transfer. The film's grain pattern is readily evident, and Universal's frequently heavy hand with digital manipulation is not evident in the final results. The miniature and optical effects used to create some of the flying scenes look remarkably good, with only occasion softness caused by the optical duplication. Universal has mastered Always with an average bitrate of 31.998 Mbps, which is excellent and serves the elaborate scenes of aerial action admirably.
Always was released in Dolby Stereo Surround, and there were also 70mm prints with a six-track mix. The 1999 DVD had a Dolby Digital 4.1 track, which was presumably taken from the unmatrixed Dolby Surround master. The source for the Blu-ray's 5.1 track, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA, is unknown, but it sounds terrific. The flying scenes are the showcase, as the Fire Eaters dive past and into burning trees, scraping their wings (and more) against branches and hearing flames lick at them from all sides. The sound mix puts the viewer into the pilot's seat, which, depending on one's taste for such things, can be either exciting or unnerving. The scenes with the ground crews are equally powerful, with the sound of uncontrolled blazes all over. Scenes near the film's end involving a water escape (I don't want to be more specific for those who haven't seen the film) are equally enveloping. The dialogue is always clear, which is critical for a film with such a literate script. Spielberg's musical alter ego, John Williams, supplied the carefully calibrated score, which traverses the film's complex emotional territory with the composer's characteristic delicacy.
Except for a trailer (480i; 1.85:1; 2:18), the disc has no extras. Universal's 1999 DVD was similarly bare except for a few production notes and cast and crew bios (although it did have an extra trailer that isn't on the Blu-ray).
Despite its title, Always is a film drenched in nostalgia for things past—for an older style of movie-making, for an ideal of romantic love that, even by the standards of 1989, might be considered corny; for the excitement of a new relationship before it gets complicated by marriage, family and the practical details of building a life together. It's dangerously simplistic to reduce the interpretation of a film to the details of its director's biography, but Spielberg himself has often said that he could not have made certain films except at particular times in his life, and Always appeared in the same year as his divorce from his first wife—not an inappropriate time in an artist's life to be dealing with themes of letting go and moving on. This new Blu-ray presentation by Universal is by far the best the film has ever looked and, even aside from that easygoing standard, is a fine presentation of the film. With the caveat that Always isn't for everyone, highly recommended.
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