8.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.4 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's much-younger wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones (I)Mystery | 100% |
Psychological thriller | 89% |
Romance | 47% |
Film-Noir | 46% |
Crime | 42% |
Thriller | 32% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS 2.0 Mono
French: DTS 2.0
Spanish: DTS 2.0
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later?
An acrophobic detective is caught in a dizzying web of mistaken identity, passion and murder...
Vertigo boasts an impressive 1080p/VC-1 encoded video transfer born of a challenging restoration and extremely problematic source materials. The results are terrific -- for the most part -- and there are only a few troubling shots that detract from the overall presentation, most of which involve muted blacks and fading present in the original negatives. Otherwise, there really isn't much room for water-into-wine improvement. Colors are quite striking, fleshtones are lifelike and convincing on the whole (barring a few brief mishaps), and contrast is dialed in with care, honoring Hitchcock and cinematographer Robert Burks' intentions. Detail is perhaps the most notable aspect of the image, though, with crisp edges, revealing textures, forgiving delineation and a fine, filmic layer of unobtrusive grain. Artifacts are in short supply too, as is any compression anomaly or digital distraction that might compromise the integrity of the presentation. Yes, the condition of Vertigo's source takes a small toll, particularly in the closing minutes of the film, but the restoration team's hard work ultimately overcomes and prevails.
North by Northwest, Psycho and Vertigo are the only three films in the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection afforded a 5.1 lossless mix, and it's arguably Vertigo that makes the most of the opportunity. Dialogue is clean, clear and perfectly intelligible and rarely has to compete with the soundscape, even when Bernard Herrmann's masterfully circular score -- full and enveloping as it can be -- quite literally presses in from all sides. LFE output and rear speaker activity are decisive but never overbearing, granting effects presence without amping up their punch or power. This is, after all, a 1958 thriller. Anything more would be detrimental to the tone and spirit of the film's original audio. The only issue I have, in fact, is that Universal didn't offer fans two lossless options: a 5.1 remix and the original mono track. The disc does include a decent two-channel DTS Mono mix, but it would have been nice to sample, compare and appreciate the best of both lossless worlds.
Vertigo isn't a perfect Hitchcock film as some contend, but it is one of the enormously talented filmmaker's finest. Ahead of its time and in full command of its faculties, it twists, turns, coaxes, manipulates, lunges and goes in for the kill, all with such unnerving ease that it earns its place among the greatest films of the era. Fortunately, it also earns an excellent Blu-ray disc that features a high quality video presentation, a strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and a solid selection of extras. It doesn't offer perfection on any front, but it comes close enough to make this one of the best releases available in the 15-film Masterpiece Collection.
1954
2002
1943
1954
1948
1945
1986
2003
1963
2016
2014
Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Series
1955
1945
Se7en
1995
1966
2000
1940
Limited Edition to 3000
1950
StudioCanal Collection
1949
1941