Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Three Ages Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 9, 2023

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Cohen Media Group's The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 5 release.

After having brought out The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 1, The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 2 and The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 3 in relatively short order starting in 2019, Cohen Media Group then slowed down quite a bit before it finally released The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 4 over a year later in 2020, and that interim between releases has only been extended with this latest effort. I in fact had assumed Cohen was done with Keaton since it had been so long and the label had begun a "new" (for it) set of releases featuring another titan of cinema even earlier than Keaton in the form of both Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: Robin Hood / The Black Pirate and Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: The Three Musketeers / The Iron Mask. But the good news is that Cohen evidently isn't through with Keaton yet, and this double feature offers two of the silent master's best remembered efforts.

As with the other Buster Keaton films Cohen has been releasing, Three Ages had a prior release on Kino Lorber, and those wanting a plot summary and technical analysis of that release are encouraged to read both Casey Broadwater's Sherlock Jr. / Three Ages Blu-ray review and Brian Orndorf's later Three Ages Blu-ray review (which itself links back to Casey's review).

Three Ages Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Three Ages is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. While the back cover offers an interesting "for this restoration, five elements were compared, with a second generation duplicate negative being used for the majority", two text cards before the actual presentation offer even more information, to whit:

The Keaton Project was launched in 2015 by Cineteca di Bologna and the Cohen Film Collection to restore all the films made by Buster Keaton between 1920 and 1928.

For the restoration of Three Ages, five elements were inspected, digitized and compared -- three of them deposited by Cohen Film Collection at their Columbus vaults, while the remaining two at the Centre national du cinema et de l'image animee in Paris.

All discrepancies detected during comparison were attributable to the two existing original camera negatives from which all subsequent elements were struck. For the restoration, a second generation dupe negative was selected as main element, whereas a dupe positive and a second dupe negative of later generations were employed to coplette three missing shots, including the very last of the film.

For the reconstruction of the missing main title and the intertitles the font and layout of a 1923 original Metro Pictures Corporation card were used as a reference.

Restoration was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and completed in 2022.

This newer version of Three Ages trumps either of the Kino Lorber releases in my estimation, but that isn't to suggest that the many issues associated with those previous versions have been eliminated here. Indeed, there are still really significant signs of age related wear and tear, especially in what were probably the first and last reels, where emulsion damage and print through are more than noticeable, and where there can also be pretty unignorable flicker. That said, I'd give the edge to this transfer in terms of (relative) clarity and at least in close-ups of smatterings of fine detail. Grain is somewhat variant, due at least in part to the glut of old school opticals.

Three Ages Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Three Ages features what I'd call a "jaunty" chamber score by Rodney Sauer, who plays piano, accordion and percussion and who is joined by C.L. Morden on violin and Molly Sauer on trumpet. DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options are offered, and they both reproduce the score without any issues whatsoever. I personally actually preferred the sound of the solo piano better on the stereo version, but your mileage and/or listening pleasure may or may not vary, of course. Both tracks feature some appealing dynamic range and excellent fidelity throughout.

Three Ages Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements associated with this film are included.

Three Ages Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This version of Three Ages sports what I consider to be better looking video than the Kino Lorber release(s), along with a fun score offered in lossless audio, but the lack of supplements continues to be Cohen's Achilles Heel, when stacked up against the Kino Lorber versions. Recommended.