Tom Jones Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

Tom Jones Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 6, 2018

Winner of multiple Oscar Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Tony Richardson's "Tom Jones" (1964) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the two-disc set include new video with film editor Robert Lambert; new interview with film scholar Duncan Petrie; archival audio interview with composer John Addison; new video interview with actress Vanessa Redgrave; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Neil Sinyard's essay "Tomorrow Do Thy Worst" and technical credits. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The playboy

Over the years there have been a lot of less-than-stellar films that have won an Oscar statuette for Best Picture, but Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones may very well be the most surprising one amongst them. It is the type of unremarkable period project that makes ‘losers’ like Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago stick out like sore thumbs. In other words, Tom Jones is the perfect example that it is always best to take the opinions of the Academy members with a grain of salt.

The film recreates the events from Henry Fielding’s popular novel fairly accurately, but Richardson does a lot of different things to give it a unique identity. The end result reminds of an overstylized Victorian play with an odd Fellini-esque sense of humor that makes plenty of the action look uncharacteristically grotesque. The novel has its fair share of zesty humor as well, but it is delivered with a measured tone that leaves a vastly different impression.

Squire Allworthy (George Devine) raises hell when he discovers an abandoned baby in his bed and then conveniently concludes that it belongs to the poor maid Jenny Jones (Joyce Redman). When she refuses to accept responsibility for it and promptly loses her job, the old man names him Tom Jones (Albert Finney) and with the guidance of his sister, Bridget (Rachel Kempson), raises the boy together with his future heir, Blifil (David Warner). Some years later Tom wins the heart of Sophie Western (Susannah York), the beautiful daughter of his wealthy neighbor, Squire Western (Hugh Griffith), but his frequent erotic adventures with a local whore (Diane Cilento) collapse the future union between the two families. Around the same time Blifil also crafts a brilliant plan to get rid of the playboy and at the right time he is banished. Instead of trying to reform his life and become a gentleman, however, Tom hits the road and eventually reaches London where his poor choices further complicate his life. After a series of bad relationships, the young man finds himself fighting for his freedom.

Though the time periods in which they emerge are different, the paths that Jones and Lyndon follow are very similar. They are young men whose adventures gradually allow them to begin recognizing the true identities of the people around them that have the power to instigate lasting changes in their communities. However, along the way Lyndon undergoes a credible transformation and becomes a brilliant chameleon while Jones remains a disappointingly naïve opportunist whose instincts actually frequently mislead him.

What seriously hurts Richardson’s film, however, is not the type of protagonist that it attempts to legitimize; it is the manner in which it creates the numerous contrasts that supposedly expose the flaws of the wealthy aristocrats that are the backbone of the social system. It is all done through the use of crude humor that is meant to be engaging, refreshing and illuminating, but instead very quickly erodes the authenticity of Jones’ experiences and as a result the entire film begins to look like an average parody.

There are some striking visuals courtesy of Oscar-winning cinematographer Walter Lassally that supply the type of refined elegance that big classic films are usually remembered for, but unfortunately after a while the awkward contrasts make it quite easy to underappreciate and even ignore them. Despite being praised in the past, John Addison’s unusual baroque score also does more to distract rather than complement the visuals.

*Criterion's release of Tom Jones contains two versions of the film: The original award-winning 1963 Theatrical Version, which is approximately 129 minutes long, and the 1989 Director's Cut of the film created by Richardson and editor Robert Lambert, which is approximately 122 minutes long. Both versions have been recently restored in 4K.

Tom Jones Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tony Richardson's Tom Jones arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

Thew following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Digital restoration was undertaken from a 16-bit 4K film scan created using Northlight 2 and DFT Scanity film scanner. The 35mm original camera negative was used for the majority of the film, while three 35mm interpositives and two 35mm internegatives from various years were used where the negative was damaged, was missing shots or frames, or demonstrated inferior image quality.

Once the film assembly was complete with all the best footage identified, Tom Jones was graded at Deluxe in Culver City, California, according to detailed instructions from director of photography Walter Lassally. A second grading session took place at L'immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy, where Lassally went through the film to adjust colors and density, paying special attention to the day-for-night scenes. The supervised color was then sent to editor Robert Lambert for additional review. Making all the footage look uniform was the biggest challenge of this restoration; wipes and transitions also poised difficulties. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, and splices were manually removed using MTI Film's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management.

Transfer supervisor: Lee Kline.
Colorists: Sheri Eisenberg/Deluxe, Culver City, CA; Giandomenico Zeppa/L'immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, Italy; Lee Kline.
4K Film scanning: Deluxe; BFI National Archive, Berkhamsted, England.
Audio transfer: Deluxe Audio Services, Hollywood, CA."

Please note that the screencaptures that are included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-11: Director's Cut.
2. Screencaptures #13 -23: Theatrical Version.

The restoration of Tom Jones might have been incredibly challenging, but the end result is very impressive. The entire film now looks incredibly healthy and boasts the wide range of strong organic qualities that proper restorations always deliver. Indeed, delineation, clarity, fluidity and overall image stability are fantastic. The technical credits that are quoted above clarify that multiple elements were used to produce the best results, but even where some minor density fluctuations are present the composition and quality of the visuals remain very convincing (see an example the type of fluctuation that you should expect to see in the few areas where inferior elements were used in screencapture #8). The color grading is very convincing. Indeed, there is an across-the-board consistency that makes tricky transitions virtually unrecognizable. Also, saturation and stability, in primaries and nuances, is excellent. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening corrections. Finally, there are no visible age-related imperfections to report. Fantastic restoration. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Tom Jones Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0 (Theatrical Version) and English LPCM 2.0 (Director's Cut). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature (available for both versions of the film).

If there ever were any serious age-related imperfections that affected the overall quality of the audio, it is impossible to tell now. Indeed, clarity and stability are terrific throughout the entire film. There are no balance issues to report either. Dynamic intensity is excellent, though as it is always the case with films from the era you should expect native limitations that are part of the film's sound design. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report.

Tom Jones Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

DISC ONE - THEATRICAL VERSION

• Albert Finney - presented here is a short excerpt from an archival episode of The Dick Cavett Show in which Albert Finney discusses his contribution to Tom Jones and some of the challenges that period projects present to actors. The episode was broadcast in 1982. In English, not subtitled. (5 min, 1080i).

• Scoring "Tom Jones" - presented here is an illustrated archival audio interview in which composer John Addison discusses the manner in which he envisions the 'colorization' that would eventually shape up the identity of the score that he is tasked to produce, and the conception and stylistic identity of the score that he composed for Tom Jones. In English, not subtitled. (8 min, 1080p).

• Vanessa Redgrave - in this brand new video interview, actress Vanessa Redgrave, who was once married to Tony Richardson, discusses the director's working methods and some stylistic preferences, some of the reasons why he was disliked by the critics in England, the rebellious overtones in his films, and the production of Tom Jones. The interview was recorded exclusively for Criterion in New York in October 2017. In English, not subtitled. (11 min, 1080p).

DISC TWO - DIRECTOR'S CUT

• Walter Lassally - in this new video program, cinematographer Walter Lassally (1926-2017) discusses his work with director Tony Richardson (A Taste of Honey, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and Tom Jones) and the visual style and tone of Tome Jones. The program features footage from a new interview with the cinematographer that Peter Cowie conducted in 2017, and an older interview that was conducted in 2004. In English, not subtitled. (25 min, 1080p).

• The Influence of "Tom Jones" - in this brand new video interview, film scholar Duncan Petrie discusses the evolution of Tony Richardson's work, as well as the visual style and subversive qualities of Tom Jones. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in York, England, in October 2017. In English, not subtitled. (23 min, 1080p).

• Reediting "Tom Jones" - in this brand new video interview, film editor Robert Lambert discusses his work with Tony Richardson on the shorter Director's Cut of Tom Jones that the two completed in 1989. Also included are visual comparisons that highlight some of the differences between the two versions. The interview was conducted in 2017. In English, not subtitled. (11 min, 1080p).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Neil Sinyard's essay "Tomorrow Do Thy Worst" and technical credits.

Tom Jones Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tony Richardson belongs to the same group of 'rebellious' filmmakers that Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz were part of, so it is not at all surprising that Tom Jones was conceived as an exotic wrecking ball. Indeed, it is a period project but with a fearless attitude that in some ways reminds of Anderson's landmark drama If..... The problem with Tom Jones is that it also attempts to function like Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon while trading cynicism for crude humor yet it never produces the thought-provoking contrasts that make the latter so fascinating to behold and deconstruct. This is the main reason why I find the film to be incredibly uneven and frequently unbearably unfocused. If your take on the film is entirely different and you have been waiting for a quality home video release of it to emerge, you will be enormously pleased to know that Criterion's new Blu-ray release has the original Theatrical Version and the shorter Director's Cut fully restored in 4K, as well as an excellent selection of exclusive new and archival bonus features. If possible, RENT before you commit to buy it.