6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A serial killer is on the loose in and around the small community of Globe, Arizona, and housewife Joan White gradually comes to suspect that her opera-loving hi-fi engineer husband Paul might know more than he’s letting on.
Starring: David Keith, Cathy Moriarty, Alan Rosenberg, Art Evans, Michael GreeneThriller | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.83:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
As someone who has dealt with a variety of workmen traipsing in and out of my various homes through the years, I can state without fear of much rebuke that some of these guys have seemed at least a bit on the questionable side. During a major home remodel my wife and I endured many years ago, we found out once the project had started that one of the guys working the job was a felon with a very long record, including attempted murder. On a somewhat less personal level, every time I see the Angie’s List advertisement that features a number of different kinds of helpers magically appearing to flaunt their wares, I can’t help but think that the piano tuner looks seriously disturbed (and I am someone who needs a piano tuner on a regular basis). Which brings us to one of the central conceits of the interesting thriller White of the Eye, a film that traffics in some relatively standard serial killer tropes but which has a compelling psychological undertone which gives it a rather distinctive flavor. The film is a bit more structurally and (especially) stylistically dense than many films of this ilk tend to be, with a story that utilizes flashbacks to inform what’s going on in “current” time, and a number of visual bells and whistles like bleach bypassing performed on various sequences to give the film an unusual appearance.
White of the Eye is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.83:1. This release came with an interesting cover letter from Scream Factory which states:
The back of the packaging lists that this presentation is from an "All new transfer taken from the original camera negative." However, this needs some clarification. . .The HD transfer is recent (about a year old) but it was not created specifically brand new for our release.Scream's letter goes on to apologize for any misunderstanding. The film itself is presaged by this text announcement:
The 2K transfer of the 35mm negative was done by Arrow Video in the UK and supplied by our licensor, Cinema 7.With all of those perhaps needless caveats out of the way, it appears that this was sourced from the same master as that utilized for the British release of the film put out by Arrow which was reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov here. Svet's comments on some of the fluctuations clearly on display throughout the film are echoed by me, but this release does suffer from some occasional compression anomalies. There is quite noticeable macroblocking in the credits sequence and some of the heavier grain tends to assume the yellowish or even multicolored edge that seems to recur fairly regularly in some Shout! releases. While most likely "baked in" due to the high contrast ambience of the bleach bypass process, there's some noticeable crush in the darkest moments, with very little to no gradation between black tones.
Sharpness, grain and clarity fluctuate during the film as director Donald Cammell used different stylistic choices during the filming, including a "bleach bypass" process during some scenes.
White of the Eye offers both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. There's a noticeable difference in both amplitude and general forcefulness between the surround and stereo tracks, and my recommendation is to go with the 5.1 track if your home theater setup supports the format. The film has some really interesting music, including some kind of Mark Knopfler-esque guitar cues, and those sound moody and evocative. The first murder sequence offers some really nicely done sound mixing as various kitchen items get smashed in the maelstrom. Dialogue is cleanly rendered and well prioritized, and there are no problems of any kind to warrant concern.
White of the Eye has a palpable mood, but it never quite hits the bullseye, especially once things go all Grand Guignol in the final few minutes. Still, Cammell offers a really distinctive visual style (one that presages a somewhat similar approach by Oliver Stone in U Turn), and performances are first rate, at least given some of the preposterousness of the screenplay. Best appreciated as an ambitious curio, White of the Eye now has two Blu-ray releases (albeit one in locked Region B), both with excellent technical merits and interesting supplements. Recommended.
2014
2023
2014
2019
2018
2016
2017
2014
2014
Uncut
2013
1986
Standard Edition
1982
2016
1969
1986
Uncut Edition
2009
Unrated Director's Cut
2008
Unrated Director's Cut
2007
Unrated Edition
2006
Saw 3D
2010