Amsterdam Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Amsterdam Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 3, 2022

In the wake of the events of January 6, 2021, there has been a lot of bandwidth given over to investigating and reporting on perceived right wing extremism, and in that regard as this review is being published the current chart topping podcast Ultra by Rachel Maddow, who I'm sure some would describe as a left wing extremist, makes a cogent case that "everything old is new again", or perhaps vice versa, so to speak, as she recounts a rather well documented tale surrounding what she describes as an American fascist plot actually overtly aligned with the Nazi party during World War II. Had anyone actually bothered to see Amsterdam when it had what was by most accounts a disastrously ill attended theatrical exhibition, they may have come to the conclusion that Maddow's investigative efforts were actually late to the party (Nazi or otherwise), in more ways than one, including the obvious fact that this film pre-dates the podcast by some time. In another but perhaps even more salient way, close to a decade before the events of Ultra there was another American fascist plot being hatched, and Amsterdam fitfully attempts to weave several fictional characters into this apparently also well documented factual event. Amsterdam is almost relentlessly manic in its storytelling, and it has a list of star cameos that may not exactly reach the heights (and/or depths, depending on your point of view) of something like The Greatest Story Ever Told, but which may end up actually distracting from a rather interesting underlying story which more than obviously has relevance to the political climate in today's United (?) States of America.

Burt Berendson (Christian Bale) and Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) are former World War I buddies who supposedly served together in the same unit, and so right off the bat Amsterdam is at least slightly tweaking history, since from everything I've read, integrated battalions were nonexistent in World War I. That issue aside, both of the men suffered rather debilitating war injuries, and Burt in particular has spent his post- war career as a doctor attempting to help those with disfigurements. Burt himself has a fake eye and some really horrifying injuries to his back which require him to wear a brace. Also perhaps stretching credulity just a little bit, at least within the historical context of the film, is the fact that Harold is shown to have become an apparently successful lawyer. The film's rather convoluted and timeframe jumping tale begins with Burt and Harold reuniting in 1933 at the behest of Elizabeth Meekins (Taylor Swift, just the first but certainly not the last of the star cameos). Meekins is the daughter of the commander of the men's former regiment, and he has turned up rather mysteriously deceased, which Elizabeth is certain was no accident.

In quick succession, the guys figure out that Meekins was in fact poisoned, though when they attempt to tell Elizabeth about their findings, she is pushed in front of a passing car, killing her, and the guys are then accused of having done the pushing in the chaos surrounding the tragedy. Now already the film has been stuffed to its veritable gills with all sorts of presentational bells and whistles, along with a narrative that basically pushes the viewer along come hell or high water, but here the film suddenly darts off into an extended flashback to World War I and events that also introduce the third focal character of this piece, an artistically inclined nurse named Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), who rather incredibly likes to fashion sculptures out of shrapnel removed from soldiers' bodies.

This rather odd structural element aside, the story then ultimately returns to the "present day", meaning a somewhat unspecified post-World War I timeframe, though one assumes it's the same 1933-ish era that is shown as the film opens and which is just one of several onscreen identifiers helping viewers navigate the changing times. There's obviously some sort of conspiracy that Burt and Harold have stumbled onto, and with a coroner named Irma St. Clair (Zoe Saldaña) joining Valerie (who's still around), a sometimes rather cheeky investigative gambit then ensues, one which ultimately includes relatives of Valerie as well as a general named Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro), the somewhat unlikely name given to the even more unlikely named real life character Smedley Butler, upon whom Dillenbeck is (perhaps only tangentially) based.

Even this cursory detailing of the film's labyrinthine antics barely hints at the narrative morass that David O. Russell offers the viewer, and in fact in some ways Amsterdam seemed to me like Russell attempting to do his version of Wes Anderson. There's perhaps an obviously different presentational sensibility at play, but this is a film that can virtually bury the viewer in information and (especially) characters, to the point that it may have what might be jokingly referred to as "The Big Sleep Syndrome," in that not even the actors seem to be sure of what's supposed to be happening at times, which can mean that the audience is really out in the cold.

This might suggest that Amsterdam is a disaster, but I personally rather enjoyed it. You have to just surrender to its sometimes questionable "comedy", and it's one of those films that is almost intentionally in the viewer's face virtually all of the time. But it offers Russell the chance to exploit some really luxe production design, along with a carnivalesque atmosphere that, if not as meaningful as it might have been, is still colorful if perhaps undeniably also just a little exhausting.

Amsterdam Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Amsterdam is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini LF and a 4K DI as relevant data points. Some regular readers of my reviews may know that for whatever reason I often tend to prefer Red captures to Arri Alexa captures, but for every "rule" there's an exception, and this generally stunning presentation would definitely be one. While I'm perhaps "spoiled" in that I got the 4K UHD release of this film and so have a "comparison", this 1080 presentation fires on all cylinders virtually all of the time, with a beautifully detailed image and some really luscious colors in a rather unusually graded film. Russell and DP Emmanuel Lubezki employ a number of admittedly often used techniques, like some buttery yellows overlaying sets that are often largely brown, but there are some other more nuanced approaches that offer a wealth of pastel laden hues that are kind of in the peach realm, and all of which look beautifully suffused throughout the film. Detail levels are excellent across the board, to the point that some of the war injury material can be a bit hard to look at. I noticed no compression issues of any kind.

Amsterdam Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While the 4K UHD version of Amsterdam features a nicely immersive Dolby Atmos track, in my estimation you're really not going to be missing much if anything at all with this 1080 disc's excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track. This surround track provides ample engagement of the side and rear channels from the get go, with some of Daniel Pemberton's Mozartian wind bursts wafting through the soundstage, and with Christian Bale's narration clearly emanating from the center channel. There are a number of rather cacophonous scenes scattered throughout the film, many involving the World War I timeframe, which provide more good opportunities for a glut of well placed sound effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available, though the film does default to (again optional, if you cycle through) English subtitles for some of the foreign language material.

Amsterdam Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Welcome to Amsterdam (HD; 15:30) is a brief but enjoyable EPK with quite a few interviews and a lot of behind the scenes footage.

Additionally a digital copy is included. I was sent the 4K UHD package for purposes of this review and so can't comment authoritatively on whether this 1080 version has a slipcover. If a member purchases this and submits that spec, it will come to me, and I'm happy to approve it.

Amsterdam Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Does Amsterdam attempt to do way too much? Probably inarguably. But I'd almost prefer a film that has huge if unfulfilled ambitions rather than yet another cookie cutter enterprise. On one hand I'm not sure we should be reacting to attempted overthrows of democracy with a sanguine "oh, isn't that cute?", which is kind of what this film seems to offer, but on the other hand, maybe it is best not to take things too seriously. I'm evidently in the minority in terms of having liked this film despite its hyperbolism, but one way or the other this presentation offers really sumptuous video and enjoyable audio, and the sole supplement is fun. Recommended.