6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his jewish roots. Each of Israel's Arab neighbors has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country as soon as partition is granted. He is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Senta Berger, Angie Dickinson, James Donald (I), Stathis GiallelisWar | 100% |
History | 40% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Quick: name a big budget 1960s American film about the founding of the State of Israel based on a best selling book, a film with an all star cast and a main character played by a blue eyed movie icon who just so happens to be Jewish himself. Easy, right? Exodus, Otto Preminger’s Oscar winning opus based on the big Leon Uris blockbuster which provided Paul Newman one of his most memorable roles. Interestingly, Leon Uris himself provided a big pull quote emblazoned across one edition of the somewhat less remembered Cast a Giant Shadow, a biographical opus by Ted Berkman which appeared a couple of years after the film version of Exodus hit theaters worldwide. It took until 1966 for Cast a Giant Shadow to make it to the screen itself, and the six years between Exodus and this film may have been just enough time for audience interest to wane in the subject, for this Kirk Douglas vehicle never really took off at the box office and is still largely unremembered to this day. It may seem odd, then, that Cast a Giant Shadow is making its debut on Blu-ray before Exodus, especially when Exodus was such an international hit and (for collectors, anyway) such a horrible experience on DVD (truly one of the worst “big” catalog releases in that format, rife with all sorts of anomalies like moiré and aliasing). It may seem even odder when it becomes obvious that despite Exodus’ own lumbering qualities, it at least managed to work up a decent amount of emotional connection to its subject, while Cast a Giant Shadow seems to be observing one of the epochal moments in 20th century— and perhaps human—history from a comfortable distance. This film shares a penchant with another movie centered on a famous Jew in the Holy Land, George Stevens’ 1965 behemoth Biblical spectacle The Greatest Story Ever Told. In both of these films, real historical events are interrupted by an almost comical set of star cameos (with none other than John Wayne doing similar service in both films).
Cast a Giant Shadow is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber Studio Classics with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. While the elements utilized for this transfer are in generally very good condition, there has been some very minor fading, leading to a just slightly brown look (especially with regard to flesh tones) some of the time. Some colors can still look quite striking, with the clear blue skies being a notable example, but reds are a little rusty and the overall look here is just slightly on the pallid side. Aldo Tonti's cinematography is one of the chief allures of this film, and the exterior location work is often pretty stunning, with great depth of field and good resolution of busy patterns like huge fields of waving wheat. There are a couple of unusually soft sequences, but at least one of them, a showdown on a beach, seems to have been lensed with a diffusion filter (see screenshots 12 and 13). Contrast is generally very strong as well, though some dimly lit scenes suffer from a lack of significant shadow detail.
While there's nothing inherently wrong with Cast a Giant Shadow's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix, I've slightly downgraded the score here due to persistent sync issues. These are very slight (a fraction of a second), but once you've started noticing them, they're all but impossible to ignore. Lip movements just don't quite match up with dialogue throughout the entire film. I had the old DVD of this film many years ago and do not overtly recall this being an issue with that release (I no longer own it, and so could not check). This may not bother some (again, it is very minor), and otherwise this track is quite strong, offering good reproduction across all frequencies, with Elmer Bernstein's stirring score sounding great and sound effects like gunshots and explosions reverberating with quite a bit of force. Dialogue is also cleanly and clearly presented.
Cast a Giant Shadow may have been made with the noblest of intentions, but wrongheaded attempts to introduce needless melodrama and a similar decision to not stick (at least mostly) to facts deprives this film of anything other than passing impact. Douglas is quite convincing as Marcus, and Berger is certainly an eyeful. The film has solid production values all around, and fans of the stars may find enough here to warrant a purchase. Technical merits here aren't perfect, but are generally well above average. Recommended.
Der Hauptmann
2017
1989
1966
1980
Limited Edition to 3000
1960
1954
Fox Studio Classics
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1967
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1968
1955
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1976