Rating summary
| Movie |  | 3.5 |
| Video | | 3.5 |
| Audio | | 3.5 |
| Extras |  | 2.0 |
| Overall | | 3.5 |
To Be or Not to Be Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 19, 2020
Shout Select has reissued Mel Brooks's To Be or Not to Be (1983) as part of the boutique label's eight-disc box set, The Anne Bancroft Collection. Casey Broadwater covered the first edition of the film in 2009 as part of Fox's nine-disc box set, The Mel Brooks Collection. His comprehensive review examines each movie's transfer, audio presentation, and extras.
A Nazi musical!
To Be or Not to Be Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
This is a duplicate of the Fox disc with the same menu, a/v, and bonus features. To Be or Not to Be appears in its originally projected ratio of 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. The transfer holds up pretty well but would clearly benefit from a new scan. Fox has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 27953 kbps.
Fox has supplied twenty scene selections.
To Be or Not to Be Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Audio options include an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround remix (3648 kbps, 24-bit), the original Dolby Surround 2.0 stereo mix (lossy with 48 kHz and 224 kbps), and language dubs in French (mono), Spanish (mono), and Portuguese (lossy 5.1).
Subtitling options include English SDH and subs in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese.
To Be or Not to Be Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Brooks and Bancroft: A Perfect Pair (14:49, 1080p)
- How Serious Can Mel Brooks Really Get? (2:46, 480i)
- Profiles - vintage interviews with Mel Brooks (2:39), Anne Bancroft (2:03), and Charles Durning (2:33).
- To Be or Not to Be: That Is the Trivia! - feature-length trivia track.
- Mel Brooks Trailers - bonus trailers for High Anxiety (2:41), History of the World: Part I (2:48), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1:14), Silent Movie (1:53), and Young Frankenstein (2:39).
- Trailers - an original theatrical trailer (3:21) and a Portuguese trailer (3:24) for To Be or Not to Be.
- Isolated Score Track (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 2267 kbps, 24-bit)
To Be or Not to Be Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
For whatever reason, Fox has never given To Be or Not to Be an individual release so you'll need to purchase the Bancroft and/or Brooks box sets to get it. Between Black Friday and the new year, I've often seen the nine-movie set, The Mel Brooks Collection offered for $19.99. Fox reissued the box set twice and please use the link in this section if you decide to purchase it. It's presently offered at full price ($100) so you may want to wait for it to dip or buy this collection, which is currently $40 less. RECOMMENDED.
