7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Bremen, a heavily-defended town that invariably causes many Allied casualties.
Starring: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney, Billy ZaneWar | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Czech: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, Spanish, German SDH, Czech, Korean
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Loosely based on a World War II documentary directed by legendary filmmaker William Wyler, and co-produced by Wyler's daughter, Catherine, Memphis Belle preceded Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan by eight years. Though Memphis Belle lacked the budget and high profile of an epic undertaking by a famous director, it is as well-crafted as Ryan. The script by Monte Merrick (Mr. Baseball) squeezes maximum tension out of the story of a ten-man B-17 bomber crew's final mission, after twenty-four lucky sorties without so much as a scratch. Some think the crew and the plane are charmed. Others think their number is up. The realists, including the squadron's weary commanding officer, know that in war every combatant is always in harm's way, and no one is safe. There really was a bomber named "Memphis Belle", but the film is mostly fictional. Originally, co-producer David Puttnam (The Killing Fields ) wanted to tell a story about a British crew, but when financing was obtained from American interests, the focus had to shift. For a time, the studio considered calling the plane and the film "Southern Belle", lest any of the real plane's crew object, but none did. One can certainly understand why. Though the film's airmen didn't replicate the real Memphis Belle's final mission, they did provide a compelling portrait of the courage and dedication displayed by ordinary men plucked from their regular lives and thrown into a new kind of combat against an enemy the likes of which no one had ever faced before. Memphis Belle was not widely seen when it played in theaters, and its reputation on home video has been hampered by an indifferent DVD released in 1998. The new Blu-ray version from Warner, which is very good, may help it gain the wider audience it deserves.
Oscar-winning cinematographer David Watkin (Out of Africa ) photographed Memphis Belle with a soft texture and an understated palette that was probably intended to create a historical look but no doubt also assisted in the integration of the expert effects work. (Real vintage planes were gathered from numerous sources, but some of the more dramatic shots involving flames and crashes required miniatures.) Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was almost certainly derived from a relatively recent transfer, because the last video version of Memphis Belle was the 1998 DVD, which wasn't even enhanced for 16:9. The image is very good, with fine detail evident throughout, tight focus, good black levels and contrast and, with an occasional exception like a cascade of red, white and blue balloons, a delicately pastel and earth-toned color scheme. A fine but natural grain pattern can be observed, and no filtering or artificial sharpening was in evidence. The only real negative was some instability in the opening credits, but this may be inherent in the source. At an average bitrate of 22.89 Mbps, the compression reflects Warner's usual parsimonious standards, but Memphis Belle has many quiet scenes of conversation, especially in its first half, where a skilled compressionist can conserve bits for more demanding sequences. As usual, Warner has gotten away with it. I note, however, that the total disc image occupies only 24.9 GB of a BD-50, so that the tight compression seems curiously unnecessary. The film itself occupies 22.5 GB, which suggests that it was originally authored for a BD-25, but a BD-50 was used to accommodate the Wyler documentary. Maybe Warner should take a leaf from Universal's book (or from that of its own Warner Archive Collection) and just start using BD-50s for all of its catalog titles. Then it wouldn't have to aim for average bitrates in the low twenties—and waste vast amounts of digital real estate in a situation like that of Memphis Belle.
Memphis Belle was originally released in Dolby Stereo surround, which was remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 for the 1998 DVD. That remix appears to be the same soundtrack used on Blu-ray, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA. The remix is conservative and does not attempt to "open up" the soundfield beyond the general presence provided by the single rear channel of Dolby surround, which is sufficient to create the sense of being airborne in a B-17 bomber. The sounds of fighters diving, machine guns firing and anti-aircraft bursts exploding nearby are all reproduced with sufficient force to intimidate without overwhelming the human drama inside the plane. The dialogue, while often yelled and screamed, is intelligible. Some of the scenes at the base, particularly the party held the night before the mission, provide a contrasting sense of environment that the soundtrack reproduces effectively. The score by George Fenton (Gandhi) ably supports the drama, but the tune you're most likely to remember is "Danny Boy", which recurs numerous times in both Harry Connick Jr.'s rendition and as part of Fenton's score.
Warner's 1998 DVD of Memphis Belle contained production notes and trailers for Memphis Belle, plus Copycat, Blade Runner: The Director's Cut, Executive Decision, Passenger 57 and The Right Stuff.
The closing epilogue of Memphis Belle states that over 200,000 airmen died in the battle over Western Europe and dedicates the film to "all the brave young men, whatever their nationality, who flew and fought in history's greatest airborne confrontation". Not content with presenting a bare statistic, director Caton-Jones stages a scene in which Col. Harriman forces the smug Derringer to read some of the letters that Harriman has received from grieving relatives of the men he has lost. As Derringer's face falls, we hear the voices of wives, parents, siblings groping for words to express their sense of loss, and the scene dissolves to archival footage of World War II planes falling. It's a variation on a device borrowed from Wyler's documentary but amplified by the power of dramatic license. When such license is used responsibly, as it is in Memphis Belle, it brings history to life. Highly recommended.
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