Brigadoon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Brigadoon Blu-ray Movie Review

Time Stands Still

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 2, 2017

MGM's filmed version of the hit Broadway musical Brigadoon could have turned out very differently. If the studio's then-president hadn't insisted on lower budgets, director Vincente Minnelli and producer Arthur Freed might have been allowed to shoot on location, re-creating the idyllic Scottish village of the title in a bucolic setting that would have genuinely "opened out" the story. If production hadn't been delayed to accommodate the schedule of star Gene Kelly, Minnelli might have been able to shoot in the familiar Academy ratio for which he had perfected a unique style of flowing camerawork. But by the time the cameras rolled on Brigadoon in 1953, the widescreen revolution was in full swing, and Minnelli had to use Cinemascope's heavy anamorphic lenses, whose problematic optics limited his ability to pan and move the camera without artifacts. If Freed hadn't insisted that the film come in under two hours, more of the original book by Alan Jay Lerner might have been preserved; instead, songs from the Broadway show were dropped and supporting characters who helped bring the mysterious village to life had their roles reduced to footnotes.

Brigadoon wasn't nearly the success on film that it had been on stage, no doubt in part because the magical illusion that could be delicately sustained by the stagecraft of live theater didn't translate effectively to film. Then again, even the stage version hasn't aged well. Though Broadway is saturated with revivals, no one has tried to revive Brigadoon in almost forty years (unless you count a one-night-only all-star concert performance in 2010). In an era of ever-quickening globalization, it's hard to sell an audience on the notion of a remote country town that reappears for a single day every one hundred years but somehow manages not to bump up against modernity. Indeed, even in Lerner's original book and screenplay (with songs by Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe), the village's 20th Century materialization couldn't avoid detection by a pair of contemporary travelers—but instead of being spoiled by this intrusion, the town absorbs and converts it. Try to imagine how that would work today, when the travelers would immediately be on smartphones tweeting and informing Facebook friends about their miraculous discovery.

Brigadoon is part of the MGM library owned by Warner, and its colorful imagery has now been brought vividly to life in a new Blu-ray edition from the Warner Archive Collection.

Two American businessmen, Tommy Albright (Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson), are hiking across the Scottish highlands on a hunting trip when they come across a town that isn't on any map. Brigadoon appears to be frozen in the past, which makes sense when the travelers eventually learn that the town appears for a single day every century. For the townspeople, it's still 1754, and only two days have passed since the miracle for which the local minister prayed to protect his flock from evil sorcerers roaming the country. (Of course, they weren't real sorcerers, just godless heathens tempting villagers from their Christian ways. But I digress.) By the time Tommy and Jeff discover the town's secret, Tommy has fallen in love with Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse), whose younger sister, Jean (Virginia Bosler), is eagerly anticipating her wedding that day to local lad Charlie Dalrymple (Jimmy Thompson). With one key exception, the entire population of Brigadoon appears blissfully content and at peace with their isolation, and Tommy falls in love with the town as much as he does with Fiona.

The sole malcontent is Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing), a disappointed suitor of Jean Campbell, who now yearns to see the world. But one of the conditions of Brigadoon's "miracle" is that nobody leave town. Like the title character in The Truman Show, the inhabitants' lives are strictly circumscribed. Nor can outsiders like Tommy and Jeff remain—a limitation that suits the sarcastic Jeff just fine but leaves Tommy bereft when he has to say goodbye to his newfound love. Back at home in the bustle of New York City, Tommy is distracted and unable to forget Fiona. Ending his existing engagement, he finds himself returning to the now-vacant spot in Scotland where Brigadoon will not reappear for another hundred years. But a new miracle awaits.

Brigadoon's central device of a town frozen in time has become a cultural touchstone, referenced in works as diverse as Groundhog Day, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Veronica Mars (to name just a few). On the screen, however, the artificiality of the notion weighs down the narrative, and it doesn't help that today's viewers know what's happening long before Tommy and Jeff figure it out (and when they do, their ready acceptance of the "miracle" bespeaks a more credulous age). Freed and Minnelli were right to want to shoot on location, because the story needed a wild and scenic locale to embody the idealized charm that lures Tommy away from the life he's led until now. Even if the production couldn't shoot in Scotland, where the weather proved to be unpredictable, the filmmakers had found an adequate substitute in the hills of Big Sur before MGM ordered them to stay in Hollywood. Confined to elaborately dressed soundstages with painted backdrops and inhabitants costumed for a theme park pageant, Brigadoon never truly comes alive. It remains a creation of paint and plaster rather than leaf and brook.

Still, the film has its charms, especially the graceful ballets choreographed by Kelly for himself and Charisse, the pageantry of the village celebrations and Van Johnson's Jeff, a skeptical devotee of the modern age whose mordant observations provide an essential counterweight to the story's flights of fancy. Songs by Lerner and Lowe are always a delight, and Kelly's rendition of Brigadoon's most famous number, "Almost Like Being in Love", is as good as any of the song's subsequent covers. In the film's brief Manhattan sequence, Minnelli's direction is brisk and lively, as if inspired by the director's liberation from the constraints of shooting in a faux-arcadian woodland setting. Tommy may end up turning his back on the big city, but Minnelli obviously loved it.

Brigadoon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Brigadoon's Cinemascope photography is the work of four-time Oscar winner Joseph Ruttenberg, the cinematographer of The Philadelphia Story and Mrs. Miniver (and, later, Minnelli's Gigi). The film was shot on the finicky stock known as Ansco Color, which was used for only a handful of Hollywood films but was prized by director Vincente Minnelli for its color rendition. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, an interpositive of recent vintage was scanned at 2K by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging Facility, followed by color correction using archival Ektachrome photographs as a reference, plus WAC's customary cleanup to remove dirt, scratches and print damage. The resulting image is brilliantly colored, so that the lively costumes and production design seem to burst out of the frame, especially the bright reds that are a Minnelli trademark. The clarity of this Blu-ray image isn't always a friend to the production's artificiality, often revealing (and even emphasizing) the limits of a soundstage simulation of the Scottish highlands, but it's good for the many crowd scenes in which Minnelli floods the frame with villagers breaking into song and dance. There's a distinct grain pattern throughout, but it's been finely and naturally resolved. The only real criticism of the image—and it's one that's inherent to the source—is the shifting hues in the many dissolves that are another Minnelli trademark. MPI appears to have done its best to smooth these optically created transitions. WAC has mastered Brigadoon at its usual high average bitrate, here just under 35 Mbps.

Brigadoon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Brigadoon was released to theaters in stereo, which is how the film was initially presented on DVD by MGM and Warner. But for its 2005 DVD version, Warner created a new 5.1 mix from the studio recording sessions, plus original dialog and effects stems. The four-track stereo print master was consulted for reference, with the goal of replicating the original sonic style and mixing philosophy. That same 5.1 track has been retained for Blu-ray, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, and it's a beautiful experience with a rich orchestral presence and a clearly articulated immediacy to the singers' voices. Stereo separation is distinct and pronounced, with voices routinely following the movement of characters onscreen between left and right sides of the frame. The dialog is lifelike and clearly rendered. Lerner's melodies were orchestrated and supplemented by MGM's in-house orchestrator, Conrad Salinger.

Brigadoon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

MGM released Brigadoon on DVD in 1997 with no extras except a booklet. Warner re-released that disc in 2000, but then remastered the film for a 2005 DVD with a new soundtrack and new extras that have been ported over to WAC's Blu-ray. WAC has remastered the trailer in 1080p.

• Deleted Scenes (480i; 2.35:1): These four musical number were cut prior to release.


• Come to Me, Bend to Me (3:29)
• From This Day On (4:38)
• Sword Dance (3:00)
• There but for You Go I! (Audio Only) (4:15)



• Trailer (1080p; 2.55:1; 3:45): MGM was the master of hard sell, playing up the creative connections between Brigadoon and An American in Paris (same star, same director, same producer).

Brigadoon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When Brigadoon appeared in theaters, Lerner's and Lowe's greatest triumph still lay ahead of them. My Fair Lady debuted on Broadway in March of 1956, where it ran for six and a half years and spawned a multi-Oscar winning film. (A new Broadway revival is planned for 2018.) Brigadoon doesn't rank in the same category, but WAC's new Blu-ray offers a near-definitive presentation and is highly recommended for fans of the film.