First Love Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

First Love Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 10, 2024

Joan Darling's "First Love" (1977) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the release is an exclusive new audio commentary recorded by star William Katt and critic Lee Gambin. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Ridgedale College does not exist. However, it is a place everyone who has gone to college and grown older would instantly recognize. Its social environment, which gives it its identity, is the same in all colleges across the country. It enables young men and women to begin relationships that always profoundly alter their lives. Some of these relationships survive the college experience and evolve into stronger bonds that create families. Some quickly disintegrate and leave permanent scars.

Joan Darling’s film First Love is about one such relationship that elates and scars two college students as they learn what it means to be in love. Not what it means to make love, which is something both understand very well, but to be in love, which is something they have not experienced before. They are not the same age, but this is not why their expectations of what it must mean to be in love are different. This is a crucial detail that the film repeatedly brings up.

At a small restaurant, while having dinner with friends, Elgin (William Katt) notices Caroline (Susan Dey), who arrives with an older man (Robert Loggia) treating her like a queen. It is love at first sight, so powerful that shortly after, while following his heart, Elgin enrolls in a new course to be close to Caroline. Then he gets closer, initiates contact, and the two begin dating. The more time they spend together, the more obvious it becomes to both that there is a real emotional connection between them, so after they make love, Elgin reveals to Caroline that he wants to marry her.

But instead of solidifying their relationship, the confession instantly shatters it.

It forces Caroline to reveal that she cannot simply walk away from her older partner because they are in love too and have already made plans for the future. Feeling hurt and angry, but above all utterly perplexed by Caroline’s revelation, Elgin retreats, and while discussing the unexpected development with his best friend, David (John Heard), decides to fight like a man to preserve his “first love”. Success comes easier than expected. However, rekindling the magic of the unshattered relationship proves an impossible task.

The simplicity of the narrative is quite misleading, or at least it can be if one focuses on the light humor that permeates it, which admittedly is not difficult. However, behind the light humor is a very accurate depiction of the inevitable realization that any “first love” is a big and far-reaching educational experience. In other words, despite all the talk about sex, romance, and love, First Love is about the transition from adolescence to adulthood, which the college experience always initiates.

The second half is particularly interesting because it is where the most illuminating contrasts emerge. Here, Elgin and Caroline frequently step out of the college bubble and begin discovering that the emotional satisfaction they expect from their “love” requires sacrifices and commitments that are not as easy as advertised. Unsurprisingly, their impatience to secure what they desire scars them, while the unavoidable erosion of their naivety permanently alters their expectations for the future.

Darling’s direction is confident yet encouraging improvisational freedom that is easy to detect and very effective. During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, a lot of good, similarly themed films were shot this way. It is the only way they could have worked as intended because the drama and important illuminating contrasts they must produce cannot become thought-provoking if they appear carefully scripted and managed. Darling’s director of photography was Bobby Byrne, who lensed such big hits as Smokey and the Bandit and Sixteen Candles.

Apparently, First Love was prepared to be Paramount’s first mainstream X-rated film. However, the plan was scrapped and First Love acquired an R rating.

First Love Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, First Love arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release introduces a recent new 4K restoration sourced from the film's original camera negative and completed at Paramount. The 4K restoration is a thing of beauty, one of the best I have seen this year. I do not know what party prepared it, but I would not be surprised if it was revealed that it is the same party that delivered the 4K restorations of The Big Bus and The President's Analyst, both of which I consider to be 'reference quality'. Obviously, First Love has a difference stylistic appearance, so the native quality of its visual is different too, but the accuracy with which both are reproduced in 1080p is pretty incredible. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Color balance is outstanding as well. All primaries and supporting nuances are properly set and remarkably healthy, so in many areas the visuals boast the type of quality that usually native 4K content reveals. Image stability is excellent. Finally, I did not encounter any age-related imperfections to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

First Love Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

As the opening credits appear, it quickly becomes obvious that the audio has been fully restored as well. Indeed, even though the film does not have action footage with a great deal of dynamic variety, the outdoor and group footage plus the music create plenty of wonderful nuances that make an impression. Clarity, sharpness, and depth are outstanding.

First Love Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by star William Katt and critic Lee Gambin. It is a lovely commentary offering plenty of recollections about the production of First Love and the era in which it was made, so if you enjoy the film, find the time to listen to it in its entirety.

First Love Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Every first love is an educational experience that is never forgotten because it materializes with a great deal of naivety that inevitably disappears. All of us have bits of this experience stored in memories, which we cherish for the rest of our lives. It is irrelevant whether they are 'good' or 'bad' memories because they reconnect us with a time when we all believed that the best of our lives was ahead of us. Joan Darling's film is about two college students who have their educational experience surrounded by friends searching for their first love. It is a small gem begging to be rediscovered. Kino Lorber's release introduces a fabulous recent 4K restoration of it prepared at Paramount. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.