Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Death Becomes Her Blu-ray Movie Review

Rest in pieces.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2016

Robert Zemeckis has rightly or wrongly often been labeled as a director perhaps too obsessed with the world of special effects, and in looking over his undeniably impressive filmography, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Zemeckis is at least highly interested in the high tech world which has come to define much of modern cinema. As early as the first Back to the Future, Zemeckis started to display an almost startling facility with then nascent SFX techniques, and with the stunning advent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it became clear that Zemeckis was charting a really exciting new course for at least some aspects of modern motion pictures. The rest of the Back to the Future Trilogy only reaffirmed that tendency, and subsequent films as varied as Forrest Gump, The Polar Express , Beowulf and A Christmas Carol 3D only seemed to cement Zemeckis’ status as the director most likely to trot out shiny new toys (in a manner of speaking) to keep his audiences engaged. Death Becomes Her was a technical marvel back in its day (circa 1992), and went on to win a well deserved Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but despite its immense popularity at the time of its release, it’s often been relegated to ugly stepsister status in the Zemeckis canon. The film’s Faustian tale of female narcissism is an intentional snarkfest, and that may make it less of a “touchy feely” comfort blanket for audiences who may tend to prefer the schmaltzier side of Zemeckis’ work, as probably best exemplified by The Polar Express.

One of the most horrifying memories of my adolescence was being thrust into a phone conversation with Geraldine Page by a relative who wanted to impress me with his access to showbiz legends. Somehow I managed to pull the fact that she had starred in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth out of my memory data banks and was able to converse semi-intelligently with her about that play and her role for a few minutes of extremely awkward back and forth. Williams’ paean to the harsh realities of time catching up to a once glamorous movie star provides a bit of subtext to the opening moments of Death Becomes Her, as aging legend Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep, perhaps surprisingly third billed here) sings and dances her way through a musical version of the property, now redubbed Songbird!. (Something about musicalizing Williams is undeniably funny, as fans of The Simpsons ’ sendup of A Streetcar Named Desire, appropriately renamed Streetcar!, will remember.) Songbird! is a flop of almost Springtime for Hitler proportions, but that doesn’t dull the appreciation plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) feels for its fading star. Ernest is in the audience with his fiancée Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), a rather, well, dull looking woman who has a long and somewhat tortured history with Madeline.

The concise screenplay by David Koepp and Martin Donovan quickly establishes a long running rivalry between Madeline and Helen, one that inevitably ends with Ernest leaving Helen to marry the still fairly glamorous legend of stage and screen. That pushes Helen over into near madness, not to mention morbid obesity, and the film fast forwards a couple of times to around a decade and a half later, showing both Helen’s descent into turpitude and the disintegration of the marriage between Madeline and Ernest, who, sadly, has developed a bad drinking problem and been reduced career wise to touching up corpses for funeral viewing purposes. Madeline has not gone gentle into that good (or otherwise) night, and when she and Ernest get an invitation to a book release party being held by author Helen, she becomes desperate to look her best, even though she still laughs derisively about Helen’s unkempt and overweight appearance.

Madeline and Ernest are more than a little shocked when the book party reveals a svelte and ultra glamorous Helen, one who is shown to be hilariously manipulative at exploiting the all too obvious divisions between the spouses. In the meantime, Madeline’s desperate efforts to rejuvenate her appearance ultimately lead her to the extremely mysterious Lisle Von Rhoman (Isabella Rossellini), a woman who claims to be 71 despite not looking a day over 38 (did I say 38? — I meant 28). Lisle offers Madeline the secret to eternal youth courtesy of a glowing purple potion, and after a bit of negotiating, Madeline downs the brew, morphing within minutes back to a firmer, more feminine, form.

It’s at this point that the really impressive (even to this day) CGI by Industrial Light and Magic starts coming into play, as both Madeline and then Helen (who of course turns out to have sampled the same potion that Madeline has) have a debilitating set of injuries. The potion has made them immortal, but it can’t keep little things like a (repeatedly) broken neck or a shotgun blast through the abdomen from happening, and the results are visually realistic and undeniably hilarious. Ernest’s abilities to “freshen up” corpses becomes increasingly important to the pair at this point, leading to a somewhat frenetic climax at an annual party held by Lisle for her clients (who include a whole gaggle of timeless celebrities, many of whom supposedly faked their own deaths to stay out of the limelight after their unchanging youth might have invited suspicion). Will Ernest, like Madeline and Helen before him, make the same Faustian bargain with Lisle?

Death Becomes Her is a bit too rushed at times, especially in its third act, but it contains a number of laugh out loud moments, and the three stars are perfectly in sync with the film’s very black humor. Willis does a fantastic job of bringing an addled, paunchy middle aged schlub fully to life (watch how comedically he runs hunched over throughout the film), and Streep and Hawn have undeniable chemistry with each other as two long vying nemeses who suddenly realize they only have each other to count on. The special effects may indeed be what is most (or at least best) remembered about Death Becomes Her, but the film has some very arch and substantive comedy tucked just underneath its shiny, glistening surface.

Death Becomes Her Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Death Becomes Her is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Culled from the Universal catalog, this transfer is generally decent looking, though things get off to a kind of rough start through the credits sequence where there's some noticeable image instability (watch as the camera pans down to the marquee proclaiming Madeline starring in Songbird!), as well as occasionally rough moments that are even more dupey looking than the rest of the opticals in the film (see screenshot 19). While elements don't have much actual damage, the palette seems skewed slightly, with flesh tones often tending toward the pinkish side of things. Though a lot of the nascent CGI is this film's special effects calling card, standard opticals are also in play at least some of the time, and the grain field understandably spikes in these moments, along with a resultant uptick in softness. In fact a lot of this transfer is on the gauzy side, though unlike many early Universal catalog releases, there is a healthy grain field here, though it's fairly variable throughout the presentation and flirts with compression anomalies at times (contrast screenshot 18 with a number of other ones for an indication of some of the issues on display). I have never seen the German release that has been the subject of some discussion in our Forum, but would simply state that this release is certainly watchable but just as certainly has room for improvement.

Death Becomes Her Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Death Becomes Her features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. The surround iteration opens things up for occasional effects work and Alan Silvestri's enjoyable (and Danny Elfman-esque) score, but is otherwise fairly strongly anchored front and center. The 2.0 track provides excellent fidelity and clarity, if an understandably slightly less full sounding low end. Neither track has any problems in the form of distortion, dropouts or other damage.

Death Becomes Her Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Death Becomes Her (1080p; 25:03) is a newly commissioned featurette which includes some good interviews with various production personnel, including Robert Zemeckis.


• Vintage Behind the Scenes Featurette (1080p; 8:58) offers interviews with Zemeckis and the film's stars.


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 4:13)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:05)

Death Becomes Her Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Death Becomes Her is a lot of fun, at least for those who enjoy catfights between two well armed nemeses. All three of the principal players are wonderful, and the screenplay has some piquant observations about vanity and America's youth obsessed culture. Though it's a little rushed at times, Death Becomes Her may deserve a bit of a reassessment in terms of where it falls in the overall Zemeckis canon. Technical merits are decent to very good and the new featurette is quite enjoyable, though fans are understandably upset by the lack of deleted scenes. Recommended.