7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A documentary on the history of the sport with major topics including Afro-American players, player/team owner relations and the resilience of the game.
Starring: Ossie Davis, Paul Roebling, Studs Terkel, Eli Wallach, Adam ArkinSport | 100% |
Documentary | 93% |
History | 76% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Eleven-disc set (11 BDs)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
This is the Blu-ray debut for 'Baseball.' Its supplemental follow-up, 'The Tenth Inning,' was previously released to Blu-ray in 2010. It, too, is included as part of this set.
Baseball's story is America's story. And in a world that is increasingly globalized and with the sport's popularity extended, and still extending, far and
wide, it's also in many ways, now, the world's story. Through times of war and peace, prosperity and depression, segregation and integration, the
sport's
narrative closely reflects that of the world around it. Ken Burns' sublime documentary Baseball builds the paralleling stories from the sport's
founding in the mid-1800s on through to today's stories of heroes and villains, of victors and the vanquished, and reveals how the "perfect game's"
ebbs
and flows on the field so closely parallel those that take place beyond the white lines. Though it is now a quarter-century old,
Baseball remains the unquestioned, definitive look at the game's history and its place in, and parallels to, America's history.
PBS brings Baseball to Blu-ray with a newly remastered 1080p transfer that is gorgeously filmic and true to the film-sourced roots. There are, of course, almost countless examples of still photographs and vintage film footage of varying qualities; the older they are, the less clarity and stability and the more decay they reveal. The video score does not reflect these elements; age has taken a toll on vintage footage to be sure but there's a certain benefit the raggedness brings to the film, conveying a sense of time passed and distant history yet still vividly captured and presented within the sport's larger history. Rest assured, though, that the interview clips and other content filmed specifically for Baseball look terrific. There's a natural grain structure in play, evident in these scenes as well as atop old photographs, that give the picture that desirable film-quality appearance. The picture is inherently sharp with no appearance of artificial tampering at work. Colors are appropriately bold, certainly not so vivid as they may be for a Hollywood production but giving a warmth and depth to tones that are in evidence in interviews and shots of ballparks where natural greens are breathtakingly crisp and brilliant, for instance. Black levels are healthy; interviews are often conducted with severe shadows on one side of the face and in these examples black levels prove stable and shadow detail is superb. Within the film's natural constructs there's almost nothing to dislike; it's a winner.
Baseball features a pair of DTS-HD Master Audio lossless soundtracks, one each in the 5.1 and 2.0 channel configurations. Both are front heavy, the 2.0 track obviously for its lack of surround channel integration and the 5.1 for its relative adherence to the front end. Indeed, there are no serious and certainly no regularly occurring sojourns into the rear channels for this one. The big difference between the two is a fuller, more fluid sound field in 5.1. There's a feel for finer instrumental clarity and flow, even when considering merely the gentle piano score that is so prominent throughout the run. Dialogue positioning and fidelity are superior in the 5.1 presentation. The 2.0 track sounds a bit harder-edged and a little more booming. It lacks the 5.1 track's finesse. Dialogue is not quite as clear and precisely imaged in 2.0, either.
Baseball includes no supplements on discs one through nine but discs ten and eleven include the extras from the original The Tenth
Inning Blu-ray release. See below for a listing of what's included and please click here for full coverage. Each disc does begin with
an identical video montage set to a soothing piano rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." It's a terrific intro, but it's not
skippable.
This set ships in three standard Blu-ray cases, with discs one through six in the first case, discs seven through nine in the second, and discs ten and
eleven in the third. The cases ship inside a non-embossed slip box. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase.
Disc Ten:
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game -- it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again." That's one of the most beautiful monologues in movie history, courtesy of James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams. It's also a perfect reflection of what Baseball is all about: the game, the world, the life around it, all intertwined and inexorably connected. There's a symbiosis in the parallelism which Burns captures in one of the most complex, yet also touchingly elegant and accessible, documentaries ever crafted. This new Blu-ray set is disappointingly absent any bonus content beyond that which was already released with the Tenth Inning set, but the newly remastered 1080p video and lossless soundtrack options are excellent. Baseball earns my highest recommendation.
A film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
2010
1991-2000
2004
2010
2014
IMAX
2000
2016
Ken Burns
2016
Collector's Edition
2016
2011
First: The Official Film of the London 2012 Olympic Games
2012
2010
2007
2005
2003
2001
1998
1997
1994
1993