Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 12, 2021

The musician's Biopic may be one of the hottest genres going today, but it's certainly not a new phenomenon. Quantity and quality both drive today's landscape as movies like Rocketman and Get On Up light up the charts and earn glowing critical reviews. In the 1980s it was La Bamba. In the 1970s it was Lady Sings the Blues, Director Sidney J. Furie's (The Boys in Company C, Ladybugs) telling of the Billie Holiday story, a story of humble and hopeless beginnings, the rise of a star, and the fall of an icon.

Eleanora Fagan (Diana Ross) is desperate to escape a directionless life in which she’s used and abused for her class, color, and body. She finds menial work scrubbing steps and dangerous physical and emotional work as an object at a brothel. When she auditions as a club singer, she impresses the manager (Sid Melton) and when she makes her stage debut she earns an enormous tip from the wealthy and handsome Louis McKay (Billy Dee Williams) which increases her confidence on the floor. She pulls in far more money than is expected of her. Her star quickly grows. Louis is fully attracted to her and obviously wants to build a loving and lasting relationship. But when Eleanora, now going by the stage name Billie Holiday, signs on with a travelling band, she experiences the rough road life, racial America, and finds herself fallen into drugs. As her star is challenged by increasing, and ultimately crippling, drug usage, one of the world’s most gifted singers finds her life teetering on disaster.

Holiday's story is one of guarded optimism as the audience roots for the struggling young girl to escape inescapable hopelessness and find an avenue not just to professional success but also personal stability and satisfaction. Unfortunately, Billie's story mirrors so many of those who came before her and so many who would follow her. The allures of fame and grasp of drugs are her downfall, but what a star she was, and how brightly she shined, at her peak. The film tells her story in detail but with endless engagement. Its absolute authenticity has been called into question, but there's no denying the energy the movie engenders and the electricity Ross generates on the screen. Fully faithful to Holiday's life or not, this film is a success of human interest storytelling that overcomes the predictable beats with superior screen presence.

Diana Ross is terrific. She delivers not just a capable performance but one of nuance and evident growth, both through the course of the movie, as expected, and even within a scene, a much more difficult proposition. But with rich material and her innate talent, she brings Holiday to life with remarkable clarity and vision for the character, from meager beginnings to rise and certainly on through her fall. She's supported by several quality performances from legends like Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor but it's Ross who carries the movie and comes to define it through-and-through. Furie's direction is a rock, too, as is John A. Alonzo's cinematography. The film is not flashy but it's excellently atmospheric, knowingly constructed for mood and emotion alike, conveying content with obvious direction and subtle nuance alike. This is a solid film all around.

Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For its Blu-ray debut, Paramount releases Lady Sings the Blues with a 1080p transfer. The image is a bit rough. Grain is not overly dense but it's also inconsistent, looking relatively fine in spots and clumping up in others. Textures are not razor-sharp. There's a mild softness at play but not enough to render more than a handful of shots problematically fuzzy. General textures satisfy for essential definition, whether faces or a variety of clothes, from ragged everyday attire to more resplendent suits and dresses. Much the same holds true for environmental output. There's a broad array of location details throughout the film, each with their own layouts and opportunities for finer object definition. Nothing stands out for superiority but neither does anything appear grossly underrealized. Colors are not particularly brilliant. There's a solid foundational depth to essential tones, but the movie does favor a slightly depressed, flat color output. Still, basics like clothes and skin are largely fine and black levels are not in any way problematic, even if they're not quite perfect. The print is in rather good shape, showing only a few points of wear and anomalies. There are no obvious encode failures of note, either. This isn't the prettiest 1080p image on the market but overall it looks more or less true to the source; can't ask for much more than that.

Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lady Sings the Blues includes a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. At reference volume the opening score plays rather quietly, without much vigor or confidence. The notes themselves are bold but the delivery lacks oomph and there's not a lot of front spread, either. Surrounds are rendered virtually silent here, too. That's pretty much the story for the entire soundtrack: timid, not a lot of front spread, practically no surround extension, and certainly no obvious subwoofer engagement. As a flat, straightforward, front-center experience it's fine. The music isn't quite so dynamic as it might could have been with superior sound engineering but it's OK as it is. Dialogue is perfectly clear, though, and center positioned. Some listeners might want to turn the volume up a little from calibrated reference.

Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Lady Sings the Blues includes an audio commentary track, a featurette, and deleted scenes. This is a standalone Blu-ray; no DVD or digital copies are included with purchase and this release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Audio Commentary: Executive Producer Berry Gordy, Director Sidney Furie, and Artist Manager Shelly Berger explore the film in detail, remembering key facets of the production. It primarily covers the broad topics but also studies anecdotes and nuanced details alike that pull the listener into the making of the movie. It's rather honest, too, and a fine compliment to the film.
• Behind the Blues: Lady Sings the Blues (480i, 4x3, 23:06): The piece opens with Ross discussing the film's place in her career and follows to cover film origins, Berry Gordy's work on the film, script and story, cast and performances (including Ross making the character her own), direction, cinematography, production design, costuming, awards and reception, and more.
• Deleted Scenes (480i, 4x3, 21:03): Included, in very rough quality, are Billie's Party, Billie and Louis Come Home, Billie and Harry, Louis Threatens Harry, 'Just Get Some Sleep,' Billie Visits Mama, and Billie Goes to Jail.

Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Regardless of its absolute adherence to authenticity or stray from it for dramatic purposes, there's no denying there's an engaging, powerful film in Lady Sings the Blues. Even though the central story feels cut-and-paste -- an individual rises from a seemingly inescapable bottom to reach the top, only to fall hard from grace -- there's a sincerity to its telling, a rawness to its emotions, a reality to characters. Ross is a revelation and Williams is terrific in a pre-Star Wars role while a fairly young Richard Pryor is a delight, as always. Neither the picture nor the sound are going to dazzle or delight but they're workmanlike, at least, and the picture quality is pretty solid overall. A few quality extras are included, too Recommended.