Catherine the Great Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Catherine the Great Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 5, 2020

As troubled as the recent tenure and even the attempted tenure of female politicians like Theresa May in the United Kingdom and Hillary Clinton in the United States have been, they may very well pale in comparison to what some women leaders experienced in so-called days of yore, back before there could even be the pretense of general acceptance that a “mere” woman could provide the same level of leadership and expertise as a man. In that regard, it’s kind of interesting to note that the world at large seemed to learn very little in between the reigns of two female titans, Elizabeth I of England, who sat on the throne from 1558 to 1603, and Russia’s Catherine the Great, who came along a bit later to rule from 1762 to 1796. In that regard, it might be fun for some film fans to arrange their own “mini festival” of sorts combining cinematic versions of these monarchs’ lives, since both have been the frequent subject of both large screen and (in the case of the title currently under discussion) small screen accounts of at least some aspect of their lives. Elizabeth I’s history has been (supposedly) documented, often rather fancifully and sometimes outright fictionally, in any number of films ranging from Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Mary Queen of Scots (and Mary, Queen of Scots), Fire Over England, Orlando, The Sea Hawk, Shakespeare in Love and The Virgin Queen, among quite a few others. Adaptations featuring the character of Catherine the Great may not offer the same perceived amount of still relatively well remembered titles, but there are some very interesting works in this particular list, including the famous Marlene Dietrich vehicle The Scarlet Empress, Ernst Lubitsch’s Forbidden Paradise (which he kind of interestingly remade several years later as the talkie A Royal Scandal), The Rise of Catherine the Great, and a fascinating French effort from 1930 called Tarakanova, which kind of plays out like the Russian equivalent of the “sibling rivalry” between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots in several films about that pair. Adding to the list of Catherine the Great adaptations are several small screen efforts, including Catherine the Great starring the appropriately named (and spelled) Catherine Zeta-Jones and Young Catherine with Julia Ormond, something that may make this latest television adaptation feel like it’s not necessarily needed.

This Catherine the Great has some undeniable assets: first, it features an often opulent production design which, when coupled with rather lustrous cinematography, really offers a sumptuous visual experience that is quite rare in small screen historical “epics”, but second and no doubt more importantly, it has the inimitable Helen Mirren in the title role. The film’s story turns out to be kind of a turgid soap opera, in that way a throwback to another kind of “days of yore”, namely the often ridiculously overheated historical dramas that were part of Hollywood’s Golden Age. But Mirren’s gravitas combined with a rather surprisingly vulnerable subtext at times, manages to inject at least a little life into a miniseries that, perhaps due to that very acute visual sense alluded to above, can come off as a succession of gorgeous, but often kind of lifeless feeling, tableaux.

Some aspects of this piece tend to revisit what might be called “gender based issues” that frequently show up in film versions of Elizabeth I’s life, with Catherine’s ability to rule questioned by various males around her. But the film also spends arguably too much time unspooling a series of romantic escapades for the Empress in a structure that may be at least a little reminiscent of (though rarely as viscerally entertaining as) The Scarlet Empress. Chief among these romantic interests is Gregory Potemkin (Jason Clarke), whose intermittently rocky relationship with his “queen” provides most of the “personal” content in the miniseries’ second half in particular.

The miniseries does dole out historical tidbits along the way, and it has some rather well staged if at times disturbingly graphic battle scenes. The sheer opulence of this piece is often awe inspiring, but I’m not sure it ever really manages to connect on a simple level of emotional engagement.

Catherine the Great Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Catherine the Great is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment, HBO and Sky with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexa cameras but kind of puzzlingly then includes 4K in parentheses, which I'm not sure refers to either a capture resolution (while I have tended to see 3.4K listed as a capture resolution for Arris in particular, I did find some online data suggesting the LF can capture at native 4K) or a DI resolution. One way or the other, as can probably be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review, this is typically a very sharp and impeccably well detailed presentation. Fine detail on the gorgeous costumes and even things like the palatial upholstery and wallpaper is generally excellent throughout, though there can be occasional ebbs during more heavily graded moments, notably some of the sequences skewed toward yellow. When grading isn't employed, the palette looks natural, often quite warm, and generally very well suffused.

Note: While not what I would term a "grinder" (i.e., a loud grinding sound emanates from the player when the disc is in motion), both of the discs were very noisy for me at boot up and initial play, with a kind of weird high screeching sound. It abated once things got underway, but I'm mentioning it here in case anyone else encounters it.

Catherine the Great Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Catherine the Great boasts a very nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which provides good surround activity in some of the bounteous outdoor material, as well as some of the more action oriented set pieces. Even the more cloistered confines of the palace can provide good effects, especially in terms of some of the almost echo laden hall ambience. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and Rupert Gregson- Williams' enjoyable score (which has a just slightly Middle Eastern flair at times) also sounds nicely full bodied on this problem free track.

Catherine the Great Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Perhaps surprisingly, there are no supplements of any kind on either disc in this two disc set.

Catherine the Great Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of Mirren (and who isn't a fan of Mirren?) may want to check this out for her imperious but almost "human" interpretation of this iconic role, and the miniseries has one of the handsomest production designs in my personal memory, but Catherine the Great often just struck me as beautiful to watch, but never really very involving. Technical merits are solid, but there is no supplementary content, for those who are considering a purchase.