6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Jack Stanton (Travolta) is a virtually unknown Southern governor on a quest for the White House with his strong, savvy and equally ambitious wife, Susan (Thompson). Running against the odds, the Stantons need all the help they can get from their extremely colorful political team. Together, they take off on a hilarious, heart-wrenching and ultimately history-making roller coaster ride to the top.
Starring: Adrian Lester, John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy BatesDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
When Primary Colors first hit store shelves back in 1996 -- when most people still actually bought books off store shelves -- it was a big deal. It was unquestionably a fictionalized account of then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's tumultuous but ultimately successful run for the White House in the lead-up to the 1992 Presidential election, in which Clinton, dubbed "The Comeback Kid" for his resurgence in the Democratic Primary following whispers of an extramarital affair, would ultimately beat out the DNC's crowded field and unseat incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush to win the White House. But the book was not so much noteworthy for telling the story -- even by changing names and fictionalizing certain plot points -- but rather for the mystery behind its author. The book released with a credit to "Anonymous" and hit the market less than year out from the next Presidential election. The author's identity was ultimately revealed to be Newsweek's Joe Klein, Clinton won re-election, and the novel was quickly turned around into a 1998 film starring John Travolta as the Bill Clinton stand-in Jack Stanton.
Just a fun little anecdote to start the review: the movie begins playback immediately upon disc insertion and I wasn't quite ready to start watching as soon as the disc loaded. My receiver was on another input. When I switched over the movie was about 10 minutes in and I literally took one look at the screen and said aloud, "oh my goodness that looks horrible." Sigh. Universal's 1080p transfer for Primary Colors really only takes a few moments to analyze. It's a DVD era upscale and a very typical image for the studio's catalogue releases. Some fare better, some fare worse, but Primary Colors epitomizes the studio's Blu-ray backlog. It's a digitally processed mess. Grain is frozen in place, edge enhancement is obvious, clarity struggles, and details are sloppy and indistinct. The 1080p resolution only calls attention to the deficits rather than masks them. The picture does benefit from the resolution insofar as it's a little more detailed than the DVD but on a big screen the processing is greatly amplified. Clothes, faces, and locations -- hotel rooms, campaign headquarters -- are all less than visually ideal, appearing scrubbed down and showing only core definition rather than intimate detail. Colors are not particularly striking, either. The colorful banners around headquarters show a decent feel for punch but there's very little tonal nuance to be found. Clothes are lacking and skin tones are flat and unappealing. Black levels are decent enough -- there's a nice enough shot pushing in on a Krispy Kreme donut shop in chapter six with the bright neon lights contrasting nicely against fairly deep, albeit relatively flat, nighttime blacks. It's clear Universal has done nothing for the image beyond slapping it onto Blu-ray; fans are sure to be disappointed.
Primary Colors' one and only audio option is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is capable but without flair, reflective the film's fairly pedestrian soundtrack design. Music finds adequate stretch to the sides and good general clarity. Atmospheric effects in various locales, notably outdoors or inside bustling campaign headquarters, does just enough to help listeners identify an environment but not necessarily pull them in. There's not much else to the track. A few one-off effects here and there support as necessary but there's nothing that stands apart that's worthy of written attention or praise. Dialogue is clear and as the primary driver its sound placement and prioritization are vital. Whether hushed discussions, angry tirades, political speeches, or sound bites heard through television speakers, every syllable is audible and well detailed.
Primary Colors' Blu-ray release contains no supplemental content. There is no top menu; the pop-up menu offers only the opportunity to toggle subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.
Not to get into even a hastily written and terribly terse micro-treatise, but remember when politics used to be kind of fun? This reviewer was once upon a time a bonafide political junkie, but no more. Politics rarely seem to be about ideas these days. Gone are divides born of honest disagreement. The political spectrum has devolved into popularity contests and pandering in a manner reminiscent of Idiocracy rather than center on the ideals that founded a great nation. There are many reasons for that, and it's not entirely a new development in the last few years, but gone is even hearty mudslinging, replaced by cruel and unusual character assassinations and absolute hatred for individuals and entire groups of people based on single issues and sincerely held beliefs and deeply rooted consciences. There's no more room for the middle of the road, and it's strange to look back on the story of Bill Clinton, more or less portrayed in Primary Colors, and see in some ways the death of the more moderate politician and the birth of the modern political landscape. Clinton would no doubt be seen as a hard centrist these days, if not too far to the right for the contemporary iteration of the Democratic Party. While politicians like Richard Nixon lost to public scrutiny before anyone knew who Clinton was, it was the convergence of his scandals and the acceleration of new media and hyper scrutiny (albeit after his election) that seemed to launch today's political climate, a climate that described as "toxic" might be too tame. Anyway, the movie is very good but Universal's featureless Blu-ray looks bad. Audio is nothing special and no extras are included. Skip it unless it's priced very aggressively.
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