7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Daniel Blake is a 59-year-old widowed carpenter who must rely on welfare after a recent heart attack leaves him unable to work. Despite his doctor's diagnosis, British authorities deny Blake's benefits and tell him to return to his job. As Daniel navigates his way through an agonizing appeal process, he begins to develop a strong bond with a destitute, single mother who's struggling to take care of her two children.
Starring: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Sharon Percy, Briana Shann, Dylan McKiernanDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Ken Loach's "I, Daniel Blake" (2016) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc inlcude an original trailer for the film; collection of deleted scenes; Louise Osmond's documentary "Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach", audio commentary featuring the director and screenwriter Paul Laverty; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by critic Girish Shambu and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Daniel
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This digital transfer, supervised by Ken Loach, was created in 2K resolution on a Northlight film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. Final color correction was performed using Baselight. The 5.1 soundtrack was remastered from the original digital audio master file using Pro Tools HD.
Colorist: Gareth Spensley/Monlinare, London."
The use of natural light is quite pronounced throughout the entire film. As a result, there are some minor fluctuations in terms of depth and clarity. (Anyone familiar with director Loach's style is unlikely to be surprised by this). This being said, delineation and fluidity are outstanding. The color balance is also very convincing, though it needs to be said that overall there is a tendency to favor slightly cooler but still natural primaries and nuances. There are no purely digital anomalies to report in our review. Image stability is excellent. (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).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
As it is the case with the overwhelming majority of Ken Loach's films, the original sound design of I, Daniel Blake incorporates a wide variety of organic sounds and noises and its overall dynamic intensity is rather modest. Also, you should not expect to hear any meaningful surround movement. The dialog is very clean and stable, but my guess is that some viewers will end up using the optional English SDH subtitles because some of the accents are quite thick.
There isn't a shortage of pundits and politicians in the United States that love to praise the supposedly humane socialized welfare systems of European countries like the United Kingdom when they try to push their agendas. However, Ken Loach's latest film, I, Daniel Blake, reveals a very different reality that makes it absolutely impossible to argue that the government is the best entity to guarantee a wide range of social benefits for the people. To be honest, however, this isn't exactly groundbreaking news. There are multiple reasons why it has always been the case -- study the history of the countries from the former Soviet Bloc that attempted the same experiment and you will discover a very long list of illuminating reasons -- but the most obvious one is that if the government has the ultimate power to guarantee benefits, then by default it also has the same ability to restrict or flat-out reject them under various manufactured pretexts. This is essentially what the main protagonist of Loach's film discovers after he suffers a heart attack and government officials go to work to force him out of the system. Criterion's recent release of I, Daniel Blake is sourced from a very strong 2K master that was supervised by Loach. RECOMMENDED.
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