Testament of Youth Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Testament of Youth Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 26, 2015

All of us are surrounded by ghosts. Now we must learn how to live with them.

War is both evolutionary and stationary. Technologies evolve and man finds faster, more efficient ways of killing on a larger scale, but the end result is always the same, and not even considering the physical wounds suffered on the battlefield. War's one constant is the toll it takes on the human condition, the way it, more violently than combat, even, rips apart one's innermost being. It's a pain that's often too unbearable to withstand, a suffering greater than any battlefield trauma, and a wound that cannot fully heal, even with the passage of time or the regular purging of emotions that always ends with "never again," a mantra that's repeated every time "again" disregards "never" and the vicious cycle begins anew. Testament of Youth tells the story of Vera Brittain, a real-life World War I-era feminist-turned-nurse-turned-pacificst voice of her generation. The film, directed by James Kent (various episodes, The White Queen), comes sourced from the book of the same name, penned by Brittain in the years following the war. The film is at once both sobering in its depiction of war and hopeful for a future without it.

Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander) aspires to be more than just another bride for just another man. Her father (Dominic West) has gifted her a new piano, but she rejects it as a symbol of his desire that she perform her duties as a young woman rather than follow her own path, which includes a college education. She has no desire to marry but instead wishes to follow a path that will lead to a career in writing. That all changes when she meets Roland Leighton (Kit Harington), a man who encourages her to pursue her education and writing career. The two become engaged and Vera is successful in gaining acceptance at Sommerville College, but soon thereafter war breaks out across Europe. Both Roland and Vera's brother Edward (Taron Egerton) enlist. Vera drops out of school to work as a field nurse. The war and her experiences change her life and rewrite her destiny.

Testament of Youth presents its story with an emotional simplicity that becomes not more complex but rather more sobering as it moves through war. It begins as an innocent tale of ambition and young love, two things which are, in Vera's mind, mutually exclusive until she meets the perfect guy who encourages, rather than discourages, her to pursue her dreams, a beacon of light in the otherwise darkened world in which her gender holds her back and thwarts her dreams. As she becomes wrapped up in the conflict, attuned to the very real wages of war, and finds her voice shaped not as she expected but as it must be, the story regains a sense of hope as Vera uses her experience to do what she can -- what she must -- to tell her story and do her part to assure that what she saw, what she felt, and what became of the world around her doesn't happen again. The movie plays with these outwardly simple yet inwardly complex emotions not with an abundance of cheap sentimentality but instead an artfully refined examination of core human emotions both changed and reinforced by war. There's a sprinkling of destiny to the story. Vera becomes a renowned writer though certainly not in the way, and by the subject, she imagined in her more blissful youth and ignorance to the ways of the world. It's in many ways, then, a coming-of-age story shaped by the most difficult path one can imagine for a character such as Vera, living in her time and faced with challenges that all but seem to place the weight of the world on her shoulders.

All of this happens rather fast, but it's in that suddenness that the movie finds both its launching point and foundational core. Vera is not afforded the opportunity to sit aside and ponder the consequences of her actions and those of the greater world around her. She leaves behind her dreams -- even as she's only just gotten her foot in the door -- to do what she believes to be her necessary duty and, unbeknownst to her, shape her destiny. The film pushes the audience's emotional capacity hard, necessary to convey the story's complexities in a two-hour timeframe. It threatens to alienate the viewer with too much raw emotion, but the payoff is a beautifully rich portrait of a life both reshaped and reinforced by wartime experiences. It works because it's honest, because the performances capture that emotional flow with incredible depth and understanding, and because the movie uses only the aftermath of physical violence, not the wartime violence itself, to propel the deeper emotional currents that run through it.

Testament of Youth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Testament of Youth's digital photography and mildly blown out, almost dreamy-at-times look doesn't translate to a pristine Blu-ray, but the image quality satisfies the film's requirements. Details are generally fine though often lack the sort of precise, pinpoint, tactile textures of the best transfers. General attire such military uniforms and knitted sweaters reveal a nice bit of natural fabric details. Muddy trenches and filthy, blood-soaked beds in the medical tents are as exacting as can be. Faces aren't overly complex but enjoy enough general texturing to reveal skin texture basics with relative ease. The image occasionally goes a bit smeary around edges, leaving things like natural vegetation without much more than the most basic shape on display. Colors can be a bit dreary in places -- particularly later as the film goes darker -- but the brightest shades of green and pink prove striking. Black levels push towards paleness. Skin tones appear a shade or two away from consistently healthy and optimal. A fair bit of noise and banding are evident throughout. While not much of a looker in the traditional sense, Sony's Blu-ray handles the film's specific visual structuring well enough.

Testament of Youth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Testament of Youth's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack satisfies in all areas. With almost no true up-close wartime action sounds like gunfire, the track depends on music and support elements for its most dynamic pieces. A few explosions linger around the stage over the opening titles and the shelling gets perilously close to Vera's medical tent later in the film, the latter yielding an impressive rumbly, rattly effect, but that's all there is in terms of high energy war elements. Crowd din is disappointedly held across the front early on, but a similar scene near the end enjoys a fuller, richer immersion. Light chatter lingers through the entire stage at a cavernous dining hall at Vera's university, and rain saturates the entire stage to positive, natural effect in chapter 13. Music is well defined and naturally spaced around the stage. Dialogue delivery is precise and articulate with consistent center placement and constant prioritization.

Testament of Youth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Testament of Youth contains a commentary, a featurette, and a few deleted scenes.

• Audio Commentary: Actor Kit Harington and Director James Kent offer a well-spoken and breezy yet still comprehensive track in which they discuss some of the challenges of the shoot, making the opening scene towards the end of the shoot, character depictions in the film, cast and performances, technical qualities, anecdotes from the set, shooting locations, and plenty more.
• Testament of Youth Behind the Scenes (1080p, 6:29): A look at core story lines, the real Vera Brittain, cast performances, technical construction, and themes.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): A Painless & Noble Death (1:24), Spill the Beans (0:55), A Walk in the Woods (1:43), and A Request to Miss Lorimer (1:33).
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:56).
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Testament of Youth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Testament of Youth is a strong, heartfelt, honest film that's emotionally challenging but ultimately satisfying. The film works the complexities of war and the human condition with both gruff and grace in its journey towards a central character who is the sum of her experiences, in some ways reinforced by what she sees and feels in war and, in other ways, changed. It makes for a fascinating character study that's rough but ultimately rewarding. Sony's Blu-ray release of Testament of Youth features fair video and solid audio. Supplements are average in terms of quality and quantity. Recommended.