8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Elizabeth Bennett, a spirited and independent young woman, is the subject of her mother’s obsessive goal to marry off her five daughters to the wealthiest gentlemen available. But Mrs Bennett’s plan is compromised with the arrival of the proud and enigmatic Mr Darcy, as he and Lizzie embark on one of the most famous romances in history. Based on the novel by Jane Austen.
Starring: Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Susannah Harker, Julia Sawalha, Alison SteadmanRomance | 100% |
Drama | 43% |
Period | 43% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
BDInfo
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
If you’ve ever been to Europe, you know that any given city—and especially any given smaller towncan often look like something out of a storybook or perhaps more appropriately a history book. But there’s really nothing quite like Lacock, a sylvan little village a couple of hours outside of London, England, where time seems to have literally stood still for centuries. Almost the entire town is owned and managed by Britain’s National Trust, and visiting there can be somewhat akin to entering a time machine and seeing what life was like before such modern conveniences as –shingled roofs (many of Lacock’s structures bear those iconic thatched roofs). My wife and I took our teenage sons to Europe last summer (and lived to tell the tale), and while the highlight of our journey for me was probably our days in Normandy, where we visited many small villages my late father had helped to liberate (as Commander of the U.S. Army’s 9th Division), my wife points to Lacock as one of her personal favorites because—Colin Firth roamed those very streets during the filming of the still incredibly popular 1995 BBC rendition of Jane Austen’s immortal Pride and Prejudice. Lacock, because of its very evocative and “frozen in time” ambience, has of course been repeatedly used for location shoots for everything from Cranford to Harry Potter , but perhaps the village’s most well remembered “appearance” is in Pride and Prejudice. In fact many of the women who were on the tour my family took to Lacock were oohing and aahing as the guide pointed out various places they might recognize from Pride and Prejudice, while most of us menfolk dutifully rolled our eyes and wondered why we couldn’t look like Colin Firth in his prime. Despite manifold iterations of Austen’s timeless tale, for some reason the 1995 version really seemed to reach out and touch vast quantities of viewers and has remained one of the most fondly remembered versions of the story, despite generally well regarded (and in some cases much more lavish) productions like the one starring Keira Knightley.
Pride and Prejudice is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and A&E Networks Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The press materials accompanying this release are mum on whether this newest release of the venerable property underwent any new mastering, though a cursory (and completely unscientific) comparison of bitrates between the two versions suggests that this is a new encode, as bitrates are on the whole (though not uniformly) slightly higher on this release. That said, a side by side comparison I did in preparation for this review revealed no overtly obvious differences in appearance between the two versions. As Svet noted in his review of the first release, this was sourced from the original Super 16 negatives, and is a considerable uptick in clarity and detail from previous home video versions. I refer you to Svet's excellent analysis for more details, though I would mention one additional and potentially minimally troublesome aspect, and the reason that I have marked down my video score by a half point: grain structure, while natural looking and certainly not artificially scrubbed in any way, is still noticeably variable throughout the presentation. Look, for example, at the difference in grain structure between the first and the third screenshots accompanying this review for just one example. The restoration featurette ported over from the previous release specifically talks about the difference in grain between the A-rolls and B-rolls, but in the context of how those differences were ameliorated by returning to the negative. That said, there are still these slight but quite noticeable anomalies.
As with the previous Blu-ray release of Pride and Prejudice, this release offers a perfectly serviceable LPCM 2.0 track which boasts excellent fidelity and which renders both dialogue and the wonderful Carl Davis score cleanly and clearly. Again as with the previous release, no problems of any kind are noticeable on this enjoyable, if somewhat narrow sounding, track.
All of the supplements from the previous Blu-ray edition have been ported over to this release. Additionally, there are several new featurettes included here, indicated below by an asterisk (*).
If you're a guy and are married or in a relationship, chances are you've already sat through at least one viewing of this particular Pride and Prejudice. My hunch is many of you should prepare to do so again, at least if you want to maintain some semblance of domestic bliss. This new release offers the same excellent video and audio of the first Blu-ray release, while presenting a quartet of enjoyable new featurettes. Highly recommended.
2005
Masterpiece Classic
2015
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1995
2007
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2011
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2004
2001
2007
2005
BBC
2009
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1998