7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
This is the true story of the voyage of MS St. Louis carrying hundreds of German Jews from Nazi Germany that seemingly no nation is willing to save from certain doom.
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Sam Wanamaker, Lynne FrederickWar | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
As we grow further and further away from the manifold horrors of World War II and especially those of the Holocaust, fewer and fewer survivors are still around to testify as to what happened and to put the lie to those who claim that nothing happened. Even for some well meaning people who have no doubt that the Holocaust happened view it as almost an abstraction. Some of us, however, have a more personal connection to what occurred only two generations or so ago. My own paternal grandfather and eldest uncle simply “disappeared”, as so many European Jews did, during the late thirties or early forties, and even efforts of some very able and devoted genealogists haven’t been able to discover what happened to them. My wife’s grandmother was spirited out of Eastern Europe in the late thirties because she was the youngest of a large family. While she got to America and lived a very long life, every last one of her eleven siblings plus both of her parents perished in the concentration camps. My wife and I also know a couple of very elderly Jews who live here in Portland at a Jewish retirement home where we occasionally volunteer who bear the horrific “scar” of their internment—numbers tattooed on their arms. For those with this kind of connection, therefore, the pure human drama of the real story behind Voyage of the Damned doesn’t play like fiction or some supposedly "exaggerated" tale, as the almost unfathomable callousness of several major nations (including not so coincidentally the United States) not to allow a boatload of Jewish refugees to come ashore seems like a perfect little microcosm of untold millennia of anti-Semitism, however “nicely” it’s cloaked in more formal matters of emigration policy and the like. And that of course was exactly what the Nazi regime wanted to happen with this gaggle of Jews from all socioeconomic strata. They put these people on a rather luxe ocean liner, ostensibly bound for Cuba, with the full knowledge that not only would Cuba not allow the Jews on board to disembark, probably no other nation would, either. That would leave the boat with no choice but the return to Germany, where the Nazis felt at the point they would have more or less received a tacit carte blanche from the international community on how to handle to supposed “Jewish problem”.
Voyage of the Damned is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Timeless Media Group (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shout! has evidently entered into a licensing deal with the old ITV catalog, for they are bringing out several ITV films, largely from the seventies (the Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday double feature is another example). The elements here are in decent enough shape, though colors appear to have faded, at least in parts, and my hunch is this is an older master, given some of the overall rough texture. Some sequences actually look rather nicely saturated (see the screenshot of Suzman and her daughters, where the reds and blues are really pretty good looking), but many are just slightly pallid, especially with regard to flesh tones, which tend to tip a bit toward the pink side of things. While there is some (expected) age related wear and tear, there's nothing horribly distracting here. The image is decently sharp, though Rosenberg and DP Billy Williams filter some shots (a kind of odd choice, given the subject matter), making things appear rather gauzy and soft. Contrast is quite good and shadow detail is at least acceptable if not stellar. In a way, it looks like Shout! is going the way of Olive Films with these catalog releases, not doing any restoration but also not digitally tweaking anything. Therefore, this boasts a nicely filmic appearance, though the age and condition of the elements have a few issues that some may find momentarily distracting.
Voyage of the Damned features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track (delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0) which sounds fine, if narrow, aside from some very minor pops that crop up. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented (though some of the actors portraying Germans or other nationalities adopt those faux accents which have been a staple of film since time immemorial). The best part of this track is Lalo Schifrin's Oscar nominated score, which includes some really lush orchestral cues as well as Schifrin's native take on Cuban rhythms like the rhumba or the mambo. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is quite wide.
I think if Voyage of the Damned had stayed with the two characters it starts with—the two concentration camp survivors—it would have been one of the most chilling pre-Schindler's List indictments of the incipient madness that would soon become the full fledged Holocaust. As it stands, the film simply tries to stuff in too many characters and storylines for its own good, and it's further hobbled by what was no doubt a marketing decision to feature an "all star" cast, where seemingly every new scene brings us yet another name actor emoting for a few seconds. Still, there is some great material here—not enough to warrant two and a half, let alone three, hours, but there nonetheless. The story itself is amazing and certainly deserves to be told. The film is a decidedly mixed bag, but with caveats noted, this Blu-ray comes Recommended.
1993
1984
2014
2009
1976
1953
Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage | 4K Restoration
2005
2012
1954
2019
1968
Warner Archive Collection
1955
2020
1969
1954
Limited Edition / Import
1940
1959
Under Sandet
2015
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1941
1943