7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Colditz Castle, was the fortress to which the German High Command sent officers who had attempted to escape from conventional prison camps.
Starring: John Mills (I), Christopher Rhodes (I), Lionel Jeffries, Bryan Forbes, Guido LorraineWar | 100% |
Drama | 24% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.67:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Guy Hamilton's "The Colditz Story" (1955) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include the documentary film "Colditz Revelead" and a restoration demonstration. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The castle
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Guy Hamilton's The Colditz Story arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.
Recently restored, The Colditz Story looks very healthy on Blu-ray. There are no traces of excessive degraining and color boosting. Edge-enhancement is also not an issue of concern. Naturally, there is plenty of depth while clarity is consistently pleasing. This being said, select darker sequence exhibit sporadic softness, while a few frame transitions convey light edge flicker. Clearly, however, these fluctuations also reflect unevenness in the original elements that were used for the restoration (some of the softness is typically easy to spot where light is restricted). There are no serious stability issues. Also, it is quite clear that the film was cleaned up as best as possible. All in all, even though I do not have a DVD release of The Colditz Story in my library to perform some direct comparisons, it is quite obvious to me that this new restoration of the film is the best commercial presentation of the film to ever appear on the home video market. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, StudioCanal have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The lossless track has a limited dynamic amplitude, but this should not be surprising. Excluding a couple of mass scenes where the prisoners attempt to make a statement and anger their guards, the rest of the film has a fairly modest sound design. Depth and especially clarity, however, are very good. Also, there are no pops, cracks, distortions, and problematic hiss.
Recently restored by StudioCanal, Guy Hamilton's The Colditz Story should appeal primarily to war film buffs. I am not familiar with the book that inspired it, but the material is indeed quite interesting - until the liberation of Colditz in 1945, there were approximately 320 attempted escapes in this legendary German castle. The film claims that this is a record unequaled in any P.O.W. camp in the two world wars. RECOMMENDED.
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