Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Over Ireland Blu-ray Movie Review

There's no more beautiful place on earth than Eire, as 'Over Ireland' makes abundantly clear.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 25, 2010

There’s probably not a more preternaturally beautiful land on the planet than Ireland. Even more interestingly, perhaps, is Ireland’s cultural sway on Western art, music and literature, an impact surely inversely proportional to the island country’s relatively minute size. Both of those elements come into play in the excellent aerial travelogue Over Ireland, another in the long series of Over titles which air regularly on PBS stations (especially during pledge drives), and which have made up a major part of niche distributor Topics Entertainment’s catalog. The Irish gift for gab lends itself rather well to Over’s penchant for flowery narration, and while narrator Brian Munn’s lilting brogue waxes lyrical, with such evocative phrases as “the sea scribbles lines of white next to the cliffs,” it’s really the visuals that make this an outstanding hour or so of entertaining visions.

Even Irish clouds are beautiful.

As with most of the Over offerings, Over Ireland is broken down into various regions, this episode’s emphasis being on the distinct provinces on the island. It’s fascinating to regard the town and region names in the first province, Munster, (not to mention the province name itself) to begin to realize the cultural impact the Irish have had on all of us. Munster is home to such vaunted locales as Killarney, Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, all of which lent their names either poetically or literally to other subjects and artifacts throughout history.

From Munster we move on to Leinster, home of Kilkenny, Wexford, Athlone and Dublin, among other beautiful locations. Connaught is up next, with the strange, rocky edifices of the Aran Islands, Galway and Sligo. A brief interlude down Ireland’s longest body of water, the famous River Shannon, takes us through Lough Ree and Lough Derg. Finally, we explore Ulster, one of the more tragic areas due to “the troubles,” but one which is obviously graced with an abundance of gorgeous sights.

Though the focus on all the Over episodes is squarely on the visual, Over Ireland is a bit unique in that it ever so briefly delves into the island nation’s almost mythical history, a history that still dwells among the present day skyscrapers and farming communities. In fact there’s virtually not shot that doesn’t include an ancient castle or fortress, or moving back even further in time, a burial mound from the Celts, bringing history literally alive before the viewer’s very eyes. There are also passing references to the Irish impact on writing, courtesy of such greats as William Butler Yeats and George Bernard Shaw.

One of the things that will be perhaps remarkable, if not completely surprising, about the bulk of Over Ireland is the ubiquity of water, whether it be the frigid, pounding waters of the Atlantic, or the countless rivers which tend to bisect Ireland’s larger urban districts. There’s virtually not shot within the 60 minutes of Over Ireland that doesn’t have some kind of water coursing through it. Though Ireland is obviously known for being green, a result one would expect of all the incessant hydration, Over Ireland actually makes it quite clear that there are some surprisingly barren and craggy outposts throughout the land, including some remarkable rocky edifices off of the coast.

This episode is also helped along by a mostly excellent, contemporary celtic-tinged score by Rojo, otherwise known as Ronan Johnston, a well regarded producer and writer in Dublin. While some of the synth string sounds are frankly on the cheesy side, when Rojo sticks to reels and jigs, accented by acoustic piano and some great rhythm guitar, it ups the enjoyment factor of Over Ireland immensely. Listening to the plaintive sounds of an Irish whistle as the mist and clouds thrust and parry between the verdant hills often makes Over Ireland a feast for the senses.

Over Ireland Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As with most of the Over series on Blu-ray, Over Ireland receives a decent to excellent transfer in 1080i via a VC-1 encode. This piece is strongest in terms of color and general overall detail. Long shots resolve very well most of the time, showing a depth of field that can be awesome, with such items as far off birds seemingly miles away readily visible. Colors are strong and lifelike, with very well saturated blues and greens throughout the piece. There is some annoying artifacting some of the time, typically on things like overly busy rock facings, where a good deal of shimmer flashes on and off.

Over Ireland Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Over series really hasn't moved into the high definition era aurally speaking, typically offering a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 track, something Over Ireland also offers. There's not a whale of a lot of ambient sound mixed into the omnipresent music. In fact, ambient noises were rare enough that I actually noticed them, in scenes like a soccer match where the players calls were heard, or a flyover of a boat when the engine's roar was faintly noticeable. Mostly this is just Munn's narration, front and center and clear as a bell (if lilting in that wonderful Irish way), and Rojo's score. There really isn't even dramatic stereo separation here, but the recording has excellent fidelity and dynamic range.

Over Ireland Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As is usual with these budget priced Topics offerings, no supplements are included.

Over Ireland Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Over Ireland is one of the better Over episodes I've seen, due to both the inherent beauty of the land and the poetic narration of Munn and enjoyable score of Rojo. It might have been nice to have had a narration-free audio option, so that "return visits" could have just been with the music, but other than that and the occasional artifacting noted above, this is a solid effort in this series, and armchair travelers should be delighted by it.