Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 5, 2019

Note: This version of this film is available as part of The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 1.

One of the little tidbits that was revealed in a passing comment by Charles Cohen in a supplement included on The Great Buster: A Celebration was that Cohen Media Group had acquired all but one of Buster Keaton’s silent films some time ago, and that the entire catalog was being brought up “to 4K standards”. I posited in our The Great Buster: A Celebration Blu-ray review that Cohen’s comment might augur well for future Keaton film releases from Cohen Media Group and/or Cohen Film Collection, and that prediction has now come true with this first volume aggregating two of Buster Keaton’s all time classics, The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Both of the films in this first volume of Keaton films from Cohen have had previous Blu-ray releases courtesy of Kino. For a summary of this film's plot mechanics (no pun intended), as well as for the opportunity to compare screenshots, I refer you to my colleague Casey's Broadwater's review of the previous release:

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray review

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Both The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.32:1. I'll make some generalized comments about both transfers (which will be included on both reviews), before moving on to individual comments. Casey gave very high marks to the transfers on the previously released Kino Lorber versions, and while I know readers may sometimes feel like these scores "should" be objective criteria that are standardized among different reviewers, the fact is they aren't, and I personally would have given slightly less generous scores to the Kino versions, so some may want to take that into account when "comparing" my scores for these releases versus Casey's assessment of the Kino versions. The first thing some data miners may notice is that the aspect ratio on the Cohen version of The General is very slightly narrower than on the Kino Lorber version, but I have to say you'd be hardpressed (or at least I'd be hardpressed) to point out any significant framing "problems" due to this variance. The tinting that Casey mentioned in his review of The General and which can be easily spotted in several of the screenshots Casey included is not replicated on the Cohen release. One of the biggest differences videophiles will notice on these Cohen versions is the virtual absence of any of the damage Casey noted in both of his reviews of the Kino versions. Scratches, nicks, unstable frames and other distractions have been either outright eliminated or vastly ameliorated on these new Cohen versions.

While Steamboat Bill, Jr. enjoys an upgrade as The General did, this version still exhibits some of the slightly blown out, poor contrast issues that Casey noted in his review of the Kino version, and indeed this version looks generally brighter all around than the Kino version did, though this version lacks the somewhat digital appearance that the Kino version had. There are noticeable fluctuations in brightness and densities, which are easily discernable when there are darker elements in the backgrounds. Those anomalies aside, this offers what to my eyes is at least a marginal uptick in detail levels, especially in midrange and close-ups. As with the presentation of The General, I noticed no "transition" issues in this 24 fps progressive presentation, and motion appeared fluid and natural. Grain is a bit heavier in this presentation than was evident in The General (even if the overall brightness of this version may tend to mask it at times), but everything resolves naturally. As alluded to above, different reviewers often mean different scores, and my bottom line is I personally found this to be a better overall presentation than the Kino version, despite the fact that my score for this version and Casey's score for the Kino version are the same.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. feature DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks offering Carl Davis' sumptuous orchestral scores for the films. The Kino releases each had several different scores from which to choose, and this is one area (along with supplements) where some fans may feel the Cohen offering comes up short. That said, the track offered here is beautifully full bodied and offers sterling fidelity for Davis' often very evocative music. Both tracks exhibit substantial warmth and nicely expressive dynamic range. For the record, a Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also available.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Cohen has released this first set of Keaton films on one disc, and so the supplements are not necessarily tied only to one individual film.

• Reflections on The General (1080p; 5:28) offers a collection of brief talking heads commenting on the film. Some of them, like Ben Mankiewicz, are amusing if not overly insightful, while others, like an extremely animated Quentin Tarantino, may strike some as being unnecessary.


• Buster Keaton: The Luminary (1080p; 5:19) offers many of the same interview subjects talking about Keaton in general, as opposed to Keaton in The General. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)


• The General Restoration Trailer (1080p; 1:46)


• Steamboat Bill, Jr. Restoration Trailer (1080p; 00:53)

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Casey gave Steamboat Bill, Jr. an overall top score as a film, while I'm putting it at an ever so slightly lower level, since I personally don't feel it consistently hits the heights of The General. That said, this is another tour de force for Keaton's almost jaw dropping abilities to stage a set piece (or several). The video side of things here isn't quite as consistently pleasing as with The General, and some may want to parse the screenshots of this review and Casey's review to see how they feel about the differences which should be more than evident. Highly recommended.