Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Safe Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 2, 2014

Todd Haynes' "Safe" (1995) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; exclusive new conversation with the American director and actress Julianne Moore; exclusive new conversation with producer Christine Vachon; audio commentary with Todd Haynes, Julianne Moore and producer Christine Vachon; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring Dennis Lim's essay "Nowhere to Hide". In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"I've been under a lot of stress lately..."

Carol White (Julianne Moore, Savage Grace, The End of the Affair) has everything she ever wanted -- a husband (Xander Berkeley, Heat) who truly loves her, a great home in the suburbs, and plenty of friends who enjoy her company. Her life is simple and fulfilling, free of stress and drama.

But a mysterious illness changes everything. It begins with a series of mild panic attacks that gradually weaken her immune system and make her feel as if she is a lab rat used for strange experiments -- she slowly becomes allergic to different kinds of food, the milk she loves to drink, the polluted air, even the mechanical noises around her. Eventually, she completely loses the ability to even remotely control her body’s reactions.

After Carol’s doctor (Steven Gilborn, TV's The Practice) repeatedly tells her that there is nothing wrong with her body and that it is quite possible that her brain is responsible for her misery, she makes an important discovery -- the further away she is from the industrial world she has been living in, the better she feels. A late night commercial then convinces her to seek treatment at Wrenwood, a "chemical-free" community center just outside of Albuquerque.

There are some striking similarities between Todd Haynes’ Safe and Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. Indeed, these films are set in entirely different eras -- the early '90s and the early '50s -- but they both observe dangerous trends at the heart of middle-class life in America. Also, in both films there is a very important relationship between the morality standards of the time and the environment in which their characters exist.

Haynes’ film is the darker of the two. In it the suburbs are still quiet and beautiful, but America has changed for the worst. Urbanization, pollution and social inequality have pushed people further apart and transformed the majority of them into chronic consumers. On top of that a mysterious new illness is also collapsing communities across the country. (Though AIDS is not an important aspect of the story, the film’s awareness of the damaging paranoia it had fueled at the time is painfully obvious).

Moore’s character is a genuinely sick person -- though in the grand scheme of things her actual condition is unimportant as all she is trying to do is figure out a way to regain her ability to function as a normal human being in a hostile environment -- whose future appears to have been predetermined by society. She clearly needs help, but because no one can understand what makes her sick and figure out how to cure her, her sanity is questioned and eventually she is forced to isolate herself in Wrenwood. After her move life returns to normal, including in her own house, and she essentially becomes just another statistic.

Safe was made for less than a million dollars, but Haynes’ precise direction and Alex Nepomniaschy’s stylish lensing actually make it look like a big-budget production. The film also would not be as effective as it is without the hugely atmospheric electronic soundtrack created by synthesist and visual artist Ed Tomney ("The Last Gasp Ensemble" and "ENVLP").

In 1999, Safe was voted Best Film of the Decade in the Village Voice Film Poll of film critics.

In 2002, Haynes and Moore collaborated again on the beautiful period drama Far From Heaven, which pays homage to Sirk's All That Heaven Allows.

Safe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Todd Haynes' Safe arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from the original 35mm camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise management. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35mm magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

Transfer supervisor: Lee Kilne.
4K Scanning: Colorworks, Los Angeles.
Colorist: Joe Gawler/Harbor Post, New York."

It is very difficult not to be impressed by the massive improvements in detail, clarity and especially image depth the new 4K restoration of Safe has produced. Indeed, when comparing the old R1 DVD release with the new Blu-ray release the improvements in quality are striking -- daylight and nighttime footage, close-ups and panoramic shots look simply terrific (see screncaptures #9 and 17). Furthermore, there is an entirely new range of nuanced and very healthy colors and in many cases the improved color balance also contributes to the film's fantastic new appearance. Overall image stability is outstanding. Finally, there are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. To sum it all up, this is an outstanding technical presentation of Safe which will undoubtedly remain the definitive presentation of the film on the home video market. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Safe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

The audio is clean and stable. Overall dynamic intensity is rather limited, but this isn't surprising considering the fact that there are no elaborate audio effects. On the other hand, Ed Tomney's outstanding ambient score easily opens up different parts of the film (the lush electronic music actually reminds of the hugely atmospheric soundtrack Angelo Badalamenti created for David Lynch's Mulholland Drive). The dialog is stable and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, distracting background hiss, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in this review.

Safe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original Sony Pictures Classics trailer for Safe. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore - in this exclusive new video conversation, director Todd Haynes and actress Julianne Moore recall how they first met, and discuss the script for Safe, the casting process, the unique vacuum the film's main character is placed in and the unusual dilemmas she faces, what the Wrenwood Center symbolizes, the critical community's reactions to the film after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, etc. The conversation was filmed exclusively for Criterion in 2014. In English, not subtitled. (37 min, 1080p).

• Christine Vachon - in this new video conversation, producer Christine Vachon discusses her professional relationship with director Todd Haynes. Christine Vachon produced a number of Todd Haynes' films, including his directorial debut Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, and I'm Not There. The conversation was filmed exclusively for Criterion in 2014. In English, not subtitled. (16 min, 1080p).

• The Suicide (1978) - presented here is Todd Haynes' first short film, The Suicide, which was thought lost. The transfer was struck from a print which producer Michael Quinn Martin discovered recently. The film follows closely a mentally ill boy who feels lost in a suburban middle-school. In English, not subtitled. (21 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - this audio commentary with director Todd Haynes, actor Julianne Moore and producer Christine Vachon was recorded in 2001, and initially appeared on Sony Pictures Classics' R1 DVD release of Safe.

• Leaflet - illustrated leaflet featuring Dennis Lim's essay "Nowhere to Hide". (The author is director of programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center).

Safe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I suppose the best way to describe this remarkable film is to say that it is a strikingly accurate time capsule. It sees America on the verge of a massive transformation which would eventually change the way people communicate with each other and, more importantly, feel about each other. It is a very scary film as well, because all of its hidden prophetic observations have become part of our reality. Safe has been recently restored in 4K and looks magnificent on Blu-ray. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.