6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A spectacular tale of conflict and passion in a savage era!
Starring: Tony Curtis, Yul Brynner, Sam Wanamaker, Brad Dexter, Guy RolfeHistory | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
1962 should have been a foolproof year for an historical epic, even if the “history” was somewhat fanciful and highly fictionalized. After all, the previous several years had seen a glut of big budget, all star affairs that broke box office records, films as diverse as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, King of Kings and El Cid, the last two of which debuted the previous year in 1961. And in fact 1962 gave birth to the film that many still consider the paradigm of the historical epic, David Lean’s iconic Lawrence of Arabia. And yet something went at least a bit haywire with 1962’s Taras Bulba, a sprawling J. Lee Thompson film (produced by Harold Hecht, who took an above the title billing for his trouble) based upon a Nikolai Gogol story that had been filmed several times previously. Perhaps because the story had fictional elements to begin with, elements that scenarists Waldo Salt and Karl Tunberg, further played with, Taras Bulba didn’t seem to have the immediacy of some of its cinematic predecessors. Perhaps the setting—the steppes of the Ukraine, then under Polish control—was simply too distant to generate much audience interest. Perhaps the uneasy mixture of “noble savage” Cossacks and martinet Polish religious and military authorities failed to strike a chord in contemporary viewers. All of these probably contributed to Taras Bulba’s failure at the box office, but I’d like to suggest another, more immediate, reason: hats. Yes, hats. As in headwear. Taras Bulba features some of the silliest hats in film, “fashion accessories” so absurd at times that it’s hard not to giggle when, for example, star Yul Brynner (as the titular Taras Bulba) is intoning portentous dialogue while sporting what appears to be a discarded pair of women’s underwear adorning his bald pate. This is of course posited (mostly) in jest, but there is a resolutely wacky side to Taras Bulba that was no doubt unintended. The basic story elements are here for a rousing historical romance, with Tony Curtis (as Taras’ son Andrei) and Curtis’ then wife Christine Kaufmann as star-crossed lovers caught in a Romeo and Juliet scenario as Brynner’s Taras fights to reclaim the Cossack steppes from the invading Poles. But with a number of ill conceived elements, including some laughable rear projection, weirdly sped up horse riding sequences, and only transitory emotional impact, Taras Bulba is an epic which (to coin a phrase and evoke an image from the film itself) fails to jump the chasm, jumping a figurative shark instead.
Taras Bulba is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber Studio Classics with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. Elements here are in very good shape for the most part, with typical age related issues cropping up now and again, including things like blemishes, scratches and minus density. The grain field looks untouched, but is still rather variable given the prevalence of opticals scattered throughout the film. There's some frankly surprisingly shoddy matte and rear projection work in this film that the Blu-ray's resolution tends to make even worse (see screenshots 7 and especially 17 for two examples). Color is quite nicely saturated, but like the grain suffers from varying registration issues throughout the film. At times, reds ring true and flesh tones are ruddy and natural looking, but at other times things can vary from flesh tones looking pallid to veering toward the brown end of things, while hues like reds tend to assume a more orange-brown tone. The exterior footage is often quite dramatic and provides ample depth of field. There are no signs of any problematic digital intrusion on the image.
Taras Bulba's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks very capably supports everything from the film's dialogue to the sometimes busy foley effects (especially in the battle sequences) to Franz Waxman's epic score. Prioritization is very good to excellent, and the track has no problematic drop outs, overly intrusive hiss or other major problems. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is quite wide.
Taras Bulba simply doesn't have the gravitas an epic film of this ilk typically offers, and in fact its own bizarre comedic moments completely undercut what is one of the film's strongest aspects, its kind of dour, fatalistic (and very Russian) ambience. Brynner and Curtis are fine, and Kaufmann is beautiful, but the film rarely engages the emotions and simply plays out as a very colorful pageant most of the time. Waxman's music is an earful, though, and helps to elevate the film above its more pedestrian tendencies. While no underappreciated classic, Taras Bulba is big, noisy and quite boisterous. Despite its manifest flaws, Taras Bulba comes Recommended.
1965
1958
Warner Archive Collection
1952
2017
Flesh and Blood
1985
1971
North West Frontier
1959
1935
Intolerance / The Mother and the Law / The Fall of Babylon
1916
Limited Edition to 3000
1947
Season 3 / Robin Hood
1986
1949
2013
1964
1952
1958
Warner Archive Collection
1955
2015
2010
Birkebeinerne
2016