7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
Richard Chamberlain stars as Australian lawyer David Burton, who takes on the defense of a group of aborigines accused of killing one of their own. He suspects the victim has been killed for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Burton, plagued by apocalyptic visions of war, slowly realized his own involvement with the aborigines...and their prophecies.
Starring: Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, David Gulpilil, Frederick Parslow, Vivean GrayDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Peter Weir's "The Last Wave" (1977) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage promotional and production materials; new programs with director of photography Russell Boyd and producer Jim McElroy; archival program with with director Brian Trenchard-Smith; and a lot more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.84:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Last Wave arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment.
The release is sourced from an exclusive new 4K master that was prepared on behalf of Umbrella Entertainment in Australia. However, I do not know what elements were used and/or referenced while the master was completed.
The film very clearly looks healthier now, which does not surprise me because the old German release we reviewed back in 2012 was sourced from a master that was completed during the DVD era. Naturally, delineation, clarity, and depth are all improved. However, the density levels on the new master fluctuate quite a bit. Some of these fluctuations are introduced by unique stylistic choices, but there are technical issues that contribute to them as well. (I will explain below). The color scheme is different, favoring new ranges of yellow hues that I have noticed on many recent 4K projects from Umbrella Entertainment. While I feel that the overall color balance is mostly fine as it is, I have to point out that the old master has ranges of nuances that are missing on the new 4K master (see screencapture #11). I don't see any traces of problematic digital adjustments. However, grain exposure is problematic. Why? Because there are a lot of visible compression artifacts that destabilize the grain and produce anomalies (see screencapture #20). As a result, in certain darker areas, but also in some quite well-lit daylight footage, the benefits of the new 4K master become awfully difficult to appreciate. Image stability is very good. There are no distracting debris, cuts, warped or torn frames, but some tiny white specks remain. All in all, currently this is the best presentation of the film that I have seen on Blu-ray, but I also think that without the encoding anomalies and a few other minor inconsistencies we could have had a vastly superior end product. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
Clarity and stability are very good. However, dynamic intensity remains modest, even in areas where I hoped that a new master will introduce some minor but noticeable improvements. The old German release that we reviewed in 2012 had a good 5.1 track as well, but I don't know if it was endorsed by Peter Weir. There are no technical anomalies to report in our review.
Peter Weir's The Last Wave needed a proper Blu-ray release and I am glad to see that Umbrella Entertainment produced a brand new 4K master for it. However, I have some reservations about the color grading on the 4K master, especially after viewing the exclusive new program with director of photography Russell Boyd in which he clarifies that the outdoor footage was intended to look very natural -- or at least this was his preference when he lensed the film back in the '70s. Also, the technical presentation reveals compression artifacts, which should have been avoided with specific encoding optimizations. I still think that the release is worth picking up because now the film looks very healthy and there is a lot of very interesting exclusive new and archival bonus content on it, but maybe the folks at Umbrella Entertainment should consider making each entry in their new series, Sunrburnt Screens, a two-disc set to optimize the technical presentation of the main feature. RECOMMENDED (but with reservations).
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