7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Biopic of Mafia boss Lucky Luciano, covering his life from 1946 to 1962 with occasional flashbacks.
Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Vincent Gardenia, Silverio Blasi, Charles Cioffi, Larry GatesCrime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Biography | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Francesco Rosi's "Lucky Luciano" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the disc is an exclusive new audio commentary recorded by author and critic Simon Abrams. In English and Italian, with optional English subtitles where necessary. Region-A "locked".
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Lucky Luciano arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The release is sourced from a 4K master that was prepared after the film was restored in 4K under the supervision of director Francesco Rosi in 2013. All restoration work was carried out at L'immagine Ritrovata.
The end result is as bad as the 4K 'restoration' of The Damned that was just introduced by the folks at Criterion. In addition to the awful color-scheme, the entire film now has a very distracting digital appearance. In many darker areas the native dynamic range of the visuals has either partially or completely collapsed. Predictably, native nuances are either severely compromised or simply lost. In some darker areas the damage is so profound that filmic depth has been eliminated (you can see an example in screencapture #16). In daylight footage, or other footage with proper lighting, highlights are destabilized as well. Delineation and depth range from mediocre to poor, with only a few occasional examples of what the end result should have been if the restoration had been handled properly. Image stability is excellent. All visuals look spotless as well. My score is 1.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
*I have included the official restoration credits -- see screentaptures -- which reveal that Rosi approved the grading job in order to "restore the original quality of the work done by cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis." It is painfully obvious that the restoration fails to accomplish this goal. At the time when Rosi apparently endorsed the work, he was 91. He passed away in 2015.
There is only one standard audio track: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with portions of Italian). Optional English subtitles can be used where necessary.
Even though the audio has been fully restored, it is actually quite difficult to judge its quality. It is because the original soundtrack features narration as well as exchanges in multiple languages that are not carefully balanced. Also, there is some overdubbing that was completed after various sequences were shot. My feeling is that the restored audio is as best as it can be, but you should expect to hear some small yet notable dynamic and even clarity fluctuations. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in our review.
I don't think that Francesco Rosi was the right director to shoot an illuminating film about the life and legacy of Lucky Luciano. Or was this actually the original intent behind Rosi's film? I could not tell, because there are such massive gaps in its reconstruction of the famous crime boss' profile that it seems like Rosi was trying to do a different type of film. Also, when the final credits rolled, I was left with the impression that Rosi and the great actor Gian Maria Volonte were likely not on the same page because the scripted transformation and the manner in which the latter is used are equally unconvincing. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a problematic 4K master that was prepared at L'immagine Ritrovata. AVOID.
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