6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A young doctor causes a traffic accident in a small town and is sentenced to work for some days at the town hospital.
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner, Barnard Hughes, Woody Harrelson, David Ogden StiersRomance | 100% |
Comedy | 65% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
It's hard to recall in this polarized era, but not so long ago Hollywood could make a successful
comedy satirizing the foibles and eccentricities of city slickers and country dwellers and their
misconceptions about each other. Of course, it helps to have an appealing star at the center of the
caper, and Doc Hollywood has Michael J. Fox, still in his winning Alex Keaton/Marty McFly
mode. Fox was surrounded by a bevy of skilled character actors offering expert support,
including several bona fide stars generously ceding the spotlight. The entire affair was presided
over by an outsider to both environments, Scottish director Michael Caton-Jones (Rob Roy and
Memphis Belle). Working from a novel by
physician and comic Neil B. Shulman, which was
adapted by a quartet of screenwriters, Caton-Jones expertly guided his ensemble to create both a
modern comedy of manners and an unexpectedly touching love story that won over both critics
and audiences.
Warner treated Doc Hollywood badly on DVD, dumping a full-frame, VHS-era transfer onto disc
with no cleanup and not even a trailer accompanying it. Not until 2016 was the film available on
home video in its original aspect ratio, when the Warner Archive Collection issued a widescreen
DVD derived from a ten-year-old 1080i transfer created for broadcast. The response to that
release was so favorable that WAC fast-tracked the film's Blu-ray release. The charms of Doc
Hollywood are now available in a superb new HD edition for fans to revisit and new viewers to
discover.
Doc Hollywood was photographed by Michael Chapman, who has a cameo as the operator of a
traveling carnival's shooting gallery. It's an apt role for a cinematographer better known for the
urban grit of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull than for gentle southern countrysides. Chapman can
do
beautifully stylized lighting, as he has for Scorsese, but he can also create unobtrusive, self-effacing imagery that tells a story without calling
attention to itself. Doc Hollywood is a fine
example of the latter.
As noted above, Doc Hollywood was released on DVD in a full-frame, VHS-vintage transfer
that, for many years, was the best available presentation on home video. The success of a
widescreen MOD DVD in 2016 prompted the Warner Archive Collection to expedite the film's
Blu-ray release, which required a fresh scan of an interpositive, performed at 2K by Warner's
Motion Picture Imaging facility. MPI's color correction was guided by reference to an original
answer print on low-fade stock, followed by WAC's customary thorough cleaning to remove dirt,
scratches and print damage. The resulting Blu-ray image is beautifully film-like and impressively
sharp and detailed, with excellent blacks and an expressive palette that does equal justice to the
greenery of Grady (played by the Florida town of Micanopy) and to Dr. Halberstrom's preciously
decorated clinic, where none of the colors remotely resembles anything found in nature. The
eccentric details of Grady and its inhabitants are intricately depicted, and the nighttime scenes,
including a crucial encounter between Ben and Lou on a peaceful lake (see screenshot 25),
feature deep and solid blacks. The film's grain pattern is naturally and finely resolved.
WAC has mastered Doc Holliday on Blu-ray at its usual high target bitrate of just under 35
Mbps.
Doc Hollywood's original stereo track has been taken from the Dolby magnetic master and encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. WAC was pleased to discover, when it reviewed the mags, that the track was pristine and required no cleaning or re-EQ. When played through a surround decoder, the soundtrack expands pleasantly into the surrounds, giving breathing space to Carter Burwell's ingratiating romantic score (with key assists from Sergei Prokoviev and Patsy Kline, among others). The dialogue is clearly rendered and natural-sounding. Doc Hollywood doesn't have any big audio effects; even the auto crack-up that strands Ben Stone is played lightly for laughs, and a later collision sounds almost cartoonish. The soundtrack renders these effectively, along with the diverse sights and sounds of Grady.
The only extra is a trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:57), but that's more than appeared on Warner's 1998 DVD.
Doc Hollywood is a fable about discovering yourself and finding your place in life, which isn't
necessarily the place you first imagined. Love is part of that equation, but only part, which makes
Doc Hollywood one of those rare romantic comedies that's about something more than a meet-cute, after which the couple has to
overcome obstacles before finally coming together. The film
is full of tiny memorable details like Dr. Halberstrom's ponytail, which is identical to the one
sported by the maître d' at a pretentious Beverly Hills restaurant (played by director Caton-Jones). The film is a gem in Warner's library, and it's
finally received the first-class treatment it
deserves. Highly recommended.
Warner Archive Collection
1948
1993
1987
2011
The Director's Cut
2001
10th Anniversary Edition
2002
2002
1984
2004
Lamb of God
2013
2009
1997
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1984
10th Anniversary Edition
2006
1935
2014
1981
1964
1941