7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
1943. They’d never set foot on French soil, but during WWII, four North African men — Saïd, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir — along with 130,000 other "natives" enlisted in the French Army to free “the motherland" from the Nazis. These heroes, forgotten by history, found victory in Provence and in the Vosges before finding themselves on their own to defend an Alsatian village against a German battalion.
Starring: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard BlancanDrama | 100% |
War | 83% |
History | 70% |
Foreign | 40% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
French: DTS 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Nominated for Palme d'Or and winner of Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Rachid Bouchareb's "Indigenes" a.k.a "Days of Glory" (2006) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Alliance. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on the disc. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Under fire
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Rachid Bouchareb's Indigenes a.k.a Days of Glory arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Alliance.
This is a solid high-definition transfer that looks very similar to the one Metrodome Video used for their Blu-ray release of Indigenes in the United Kingdom. The daylight scenes, for instance, look incredibly well detailed and crisp, while the nighttime footage conveys very pleasing clarity. Color reproduction is outstanding - the prominent light bluish tint looks beautiful; the yellows and grays also look rich and well saturated. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern; neither is macroblocking. I also did not see any traces of heavy noise reduction or annoying compression artifacts to report. Furthermore, blown through a digital projector Indigenes conveys wonderful depth and tightness. Naturally, there are absolutely no stability issues to report in this review. To sum it all up, while Indigenes is appearing rather late on Blu-ray in North America, it certainly looks very impressive. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, and French Dolby Digital 2.0. For the record, Alliance have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.
I was hoping that Alliance might be able to upgrade the French DTS 5.1 track from the Metrodome Video release to either a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, but it would appear that they also had access only to a lossy track ('borrowing' the TF1 transfer, which apparently comes with a French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, instead of the transfer Metrodome Video used certainly would have been a better option).
Nevertheless, the French DTS 5.1 track is actually one of the very best lossy tracks to appear on Blu-ray since the format was launched. I remember when the Metrodome Video release of Indigenes came out a couple of years ago I was quite impressed with it and speculated that if it contained a oseless track it would have probably been regarded as one of the best on the UK market. The various battle scenes, for instance, sound very good - the surround channels are incredibly well used and the wide range of dynamics rather impressive. Occasionally the bass lacks that punchy edge loseless audio typically delivers, but it is nevertheless very strong. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow.
Most unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc.
It is quite disappointing that no U.S. distributor bothered to release Rachid Bouchareb's Indigènes on Blu-ray, even though the film was selected to represent Algeria at the Oscars and went on to win numerous awards at various film festivals around the world. Now Canadian distributors Alliance have finally brought Indigènes to North America. As they say, better late than never. I like this film a lot. It is powerful and exceptionally well acted. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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