7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
Schoolteacher and widow Anna Leonowens travels to Siam to teach its King's children. During the course of her stay, she enlightens the King as to changing times and helps him reassess his relationship to one of his several wives.
Starring: Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno, Terry Saunders, Martin BensonRomance | 100% |
Musical | 86% |
Family | 72% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Music: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is currently available only as part of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection.
Most theater geeks and fans of Glee could probably correctly pair Strouse with Adams, Bock with Harnick, Adler with Ross,
Kander with Ebb, and Maltby with Shire, but even the relatively unwashed masses would have no problem recognizing
the vaunted partnership of Rodgers and Hammerstein. These two titans of the Broadway musical achieved their renown
though a combination of both incredibly artistry, providing the Great American Songbook with untold treasures from their
musicals, and fairly rare business acumen, which preserved their creative control over their properties but, due at least
in part to their role as producers as well as composer-lyricist-librettist, above the title billing which is usually reserved for
the acting talent. Rodgers and Hammerstein had each had their own individual successes prior to teaming with each
other, Rodgers most notably with Lorenz Hart and Hammerstein with Jerome Kern, but together they seemed almost
ideally suited to remaking the American musical in their own sophisticated yet homespun combined images. From the
1943 premiere of Oklahoma! on Broadway through 1960’s stage version of The Sound of Music, Rodgers
and Hammerstein enjoyed an almost unparalleled string of successes (despite occasional lackluster outings like
Allegro or Pipe Dream), with several of their shows still acclaimed as unmatched masterpieces to this
day. Because Rodgers and Hammerstein were so hands on in the curating of their properties, it actually took over a
decade for the first of their immense hits to even make it to the screen, but 1955 proved to be a stellar year for the
team on the silver screen, with not just that show, Oklahoma!, appearing in not one but two formats (and
versions), but their follow up Broadway smash Carousel also lighting up the screen with some of the same cast
as Oklahoma!. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are all models of expert plotting and precise
characterizations, and they all benefit from the somewhat sardonic but mellifluous genius of Richard Rodgers, one which
acted as a sort of slightly bittersweet gin to Oscar Hammerstein’s effervescent tonic.
It's not easy being—blue? Or even brown, one might add. In one of the bigger disappointments in the new Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection, the sumptuous cinematography of The King and I has either not aged well or was mishandled at some point in its migration to high definition, for the color timing on this release is extremely variable and in its worst moments highly problematical. To be fair, a lot of The King and I looks pretty good from a palette perspective, if never totally inviting. Presented in 2.55:1 and 1080p (via the AVC codec), the problems are easiest to spot with regard to flesh tones, which morph almost second by second in some scenes from a ruddy brown to an oddly splotchy blue color. Look for example at Kerr's face in the opening of "Hello, Young Lovers" (beginning at around 25:15) and it's completely easy to spot the color space transition from cool to warm and back again, sometimes within mere seconds of each other. Later, when Kerr and Brynner are spread out on the floor of the King's immense palace (starting at around 1:14:55), Brynner's face looks okay (if a little brown), while just the left side of Kerr's visage is covered with a huge blue splotch. During many of these sections, blacks are tinged with a slightly purplish hue which makes them look like oil slicks. Other parts of the presentation skew more expectedly toward the brown end of the spectrum, with rusty looking reds and pasty flesh tones. However, this is a moment by moment situation with this transfer, and at times parts of The King and I look really good, if only for a little while. It's a real shame and keeps this high definition presentation from ever attaining more than (at best) an average overall appearance. Some may feel 3 stars is a bit too lenient, but I base this on the fact that at least some of the film looks rather nice, if never absolutely perfect.
As weirdly variable and problematic as the video is in The King and I, the audio is often resoundingly successful courtesy of its DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 presentation. The stirring faux Orientalism of some of Rodgers' music (notably "The March of the Siamese Children"), as well as the colorful orchestrations gracing the film, come through spectacularly clearly, with beautiful delineation of interior lines and enough breathing room in the mix to hear inside some of the glorious Rodgers harmonies. Singing and dialogue are both imparted cleanly and clearly. As with some of the other 4.0 renderings of CinemaScope features, there's some really excellent directionality when various performers speak from corners of the frame.
All of the supplements from the 50th Anniversary DVD set have been ported over to this Blu-ray release:
The King and I for all its stagebound artificiality remains one of the more consistently entertaining Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations, no doubt due to the incredible chemistry between Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. Graced with impeccable production and costume design, the film is opulent but also appealingly intimate. Unfortunately, there are some troubling issues with the video quality here, issues that keep Leon Shamroy's Oscar nominated cinematography from ever popping the way it should. This is in some ways the most disappointing transfer in the new Rodgers and Hammerstein boxed set in terms of video quality, but the audio and supplements are outstanding.
1945
1955
1956
1958
50th Anniversary Edition | Remastered
1964
1971
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1944
50th Anniversary Edition
1965
50th Anniversary Edition
1961
Two-Disc Special Edition
1954
+ Director's Cut on Blu-ray
1977
2014
2005
2003
2012
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2012
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2009