6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A visiting city reporter's assignment in Savannah, Georgia, suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a wealthy antiques dealer, whom he befriends.
Starring: John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jack Thompson, Irma P. Hall, Jude LawThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Mystery | 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)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Clint Eastwood's 1997 adaptation of the bestselling Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is one of the director's box office flops. Weakly reviewed, the film grossed less than its production budget. The consensus seemed to be that Eastwood failed to capture the distinctive atmosphere of John Berendt's mostly true tale of murder and voodoo in Savannah, Georgia, a town where (at least in Berendt's account) eccentricity was not just tolerated but celebrated. Time has been kinder to Eastwood's Midnight, which benefits from superior performances by a cast including both professionals and local residents, as well as from richly atmospheric location photography and a production design that always provides something interesting to look at. Newly transferred for this Blu-ray release by the Warner Archive Collection, the film is ripe for rediscovery.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was shot on film by Jack N. Green (Serenity), who gives the Savannah locations a rich, warm depth with a palette dominated by deep greens and browns accented by frequent splashes of red to indicate both the holiday season and the passions brewing beneath the town's relaxed charm. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility has newly scanned an interpositive at 2K, followed by MPI's typically meticulous color correction. The result is a richly detailed and film-like image that does equal justice to Savannah's lush vegetation and Jim Williams' equally lush mansion, with its rooms bedecked in paintings and antique bric-a-brac. Blacks are deep and solid, and shadow detail is plentiful, so that the crucial sequence where Williams and Kelso meet Minerva in the cemetery to enlist the spirit world in Williams' defense achieves the intended interplay of shadow and visibility. In the courtroom scenes, expressions on the faces of individual jurors can be seen, as they react to the legal maneuvers by Williams' down-home attorney and the officious prosecutor (played by Bob Gunton). The film's grain pattern is natural and finely resolved. WAC has mastered Midnight at an average bitrate of 31.99 Mbps, which is slightly below its usual target but still generous, and the encoding has been capably performed.
Midnight's theatrical 5.1 soundtrack has been re-encoded for lossless DTS-HD MA. The mix is as understated as the directorial style, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to hear. The surrounds are typically alive with the sounds of the environment, whether it's the quiet hum of small-town streets, the murmur of guests at Jim Williams' famous party, the crowded cabaret where The Lady Chablis performs or, perhaps most memorably, the nocturnal rustling and chirping of the cemetery where Minerva communes with the dead. Dialogue is consistently clear and properly localized. The atmospherically jazzy score is by Eastwood regular Lennie Niehaus, but the soundtrack benefits from numerous Johnny Mercer tunes with vocals from a wide array of talent, including Kevin Spacey and Alison Eastwood.
Warner has released two DVDs of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, one in 1997 and a
second in 2010 as part of the "Clint Eastwood Collection". The same extras appeared on both
discs and have now been ported over to Blu-ray. The trailer has been remastered in 1080p.
A director given to flashy camera moves and fast editing rhythms might have created the kind of
sinister atmosphere that Midnight's fans seemed to be expecting at the time, but Eastwood's low-key approach has the virtue of normalizing
the story's outré personalities, treating the oddballs of
Savannah as ordinary folk. He relies on Kelso's reactions to supply the outsider's perspective,
and Cusack delivers a characteristically understated performance that is exactly what the film
needs. WAC's superior Blu-ray presentation is highly recommended.
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1999
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2015
Warner Archive Collection
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Warner Archive Collection
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2019