8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.3 |
A director decides to hit the road disguised as a hobo. Along the way, he finds himself in more trouble than he ever imagined.
Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin PangbornDrama | 100% |
Romance | 44% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" (1941) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; audio commentary by actor and filmmaker Terry Jones; video appreciation by writer and broadcaster Kevin Jackson; the documentary program "The Preston Sturges Stock Book"; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by screwball comedy expert Peter Swaab, plus archive pieces by Geoff Brown and Preston Sturges, illustrated with original stills and poster designs. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
"What do you know about garbage cans? When'd you eat your last meal out of one?"
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.38:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"The HD master for Sullivan's Travels was created from a 35mm dupe negative by Universal Digital Services and delivered by Hollywood Classics. Additional picture and audio restoration work was carried out using a combination of software tools and techniques at Deluxe Digital - EMEA, London.
Film restoration supervisor: James White.
Film restoration for Deluxe Production: Mark Bonnici, Graham Jones, Tom Barrett, Clayton Baker.
Special Thanks: Peter Schade, NBC Universal."
The high-definition transfer has been struck from a pre-existing master and rather predictably there are some sporadic fluctuations. To be perfectly clear, there are portions of the film that look quite good, with image depth in particular being far superior when one compares the Blu-ray release with the R1 DVD release Criterion produced back in 2001 (see screencapture #2). However, it appears that Universal's master also had some built-in sharpening, and while it is easy to see that various adjustments were made to rebalance the image, light to moderate traces of the sharpening are still quite easy to see throughout the entire film (see screencaptures #13 and 15). When the most obvious traces emerge the film could look quite harsh, and halo effects are very easy to spot. Furthermore, minor scratches and some dirt are also retained. They never become overly distracting, but their presence is impossible to ignore when one views the film on a larger screen. There are also parts of the film where compression artifacts and in some cases light chroma-like effects pop up (see screencapture #7). There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections. Lastly, overall image stability is good. All in all, the Blu-ray release clearly represents a good upgrade in quality over the existing R1 DVD release, but it is also obvious that there is room for plenty of important improvements. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. For the record, Arrow Video have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The dialog is crisp and stable and the music well balanced. Some extremely light background hiss occasionally sneaks in, but it never becomes distracting. Dynamic intensity is limited, but this should not be surprising considering the age of the film. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in this review.
In my opinion, Sullivan's Travels is Preston Sturges' best film. It is witty, funny and poetic but also painfully honest in its dissection of America's socio-political reality of the Great Depression era. In many ways, the film's visual style also feels strikingly modern. I think that Sullivan's Travels must get the same type of treatment Sturges' The Palm Beach Story and Frank Capra's It Happened One Night received to look as good as it should, but Arrow Video's release does represent a strong upgrade in quality over previous releases of the film. RECOMMENDED.
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