7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Amidst the British Empire's conquest of Africa, a young officer must fight to redeem himself after being accused of cowardice by fellow officers.
Starring: John Clements, Ralph Richardson (I), C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Allan JeayesDrama | 100% |
Romance | 37% |
War | 33% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Nominated for Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Zoltan Korda's "The Four Feathers" (1939) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer; new video interview with the eldest son of director Zoltan Korda, David Korda; early promotional film focusing on the London Film Productions' studios at Denham; and a new audio commentary by British film historian Charles Drazin. The disc also arrives with a leaflet featuring an essay by Michael Sragow. Region-A "locked".
Massacred
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Zoltan Korda's The Four Feathers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35mm internegative preserved by the BFI National Archive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
Telecine supervisor: Russell Smith.
Telecine colorists: Trevor Brown/Ascent 142, London; Martin Zeichner/Technicolor, New York."
The high-definition transfer has retained all of the key characteristics a Technicolor film has - colors are thick and well saturated and contrast levels well balanced. During close-ups detail is pleasing, though often affected by the color saturation mentioned above (see screencapture #4 and the red glow around the gloves). This unique relationship between detail and color, however, is not a byproduct of any serious transfer-related anomalies. Furthermore, sharpening corrections have not been applied. I also did not see any traces of problematic denoising. Naturally, film grain is present throughout the entire film, though at times it is slightly thicker than usual. There are no serious stability issues to report in this review either. My only complaint here is related to the presence of some extremely light color pulsations that occasionally pop up around the edges. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A 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, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from an optical track negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated station."
Generally speaking, the dialog is crisp and very easy to follow. Miklós Rózsa's music score has also benefited from the loseless treatment (though I expected a slightly better range of dynamics). Some mild hiss, however, occasionally has a tendency to stick out. This isn't unusual for a film that is over 70 years old, but with modern technology at least some of the more prominent hiss could have been toned down a bit. Still, the English LPCM 1.0 track serves the film well.
Zoltan Korda's The Four Feathers is arguably the best adaptation of A. E. W. Mason's popular novel. Shot in beautiful Technicolor on location in Sudan, it is an old-fashioned adventure film that has literally been given a new life by the folks at Criterion. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed also features a new and very informative audio commentary by British film historian Charles Drazin. RECOMMENDED.
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