7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
A newly arrived governor finds his province under the control of the corrupt Colonel Huerta. To avoid assassination by Huerta, he pretends to be weak and indecisive so Huerta will believe he poses no threat. But secretly he masquerades as Zorro, and joins the monk Francisco and the beautiful aristocrat Hortensia in their fight for justice against Huerta and his soldiers.
Starring: Alain Delon, Ottavia Piccolo, Stanley Baker, Enzo Cerusico, MoustacheComedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Duccio Tessari's "Zorro" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Somerville House. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers for the film; radio spots; text-format biographies; photo gallery; and restoration comparisons. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The handsome bandit
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Duccio Tessari's Zorro arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Somerville House.
The presentation is what I expected it to be - far from flawless but still decent enough to enjoy the film. The high-definition transfer has obviously been struck from a dated source, most likely a master that was prepared quite some time ago, also most likely from dated elements. This isn't surprising because I personally have never seen a decent DVD release of Zorro presenting the film in its original aspect ratio. There was an Italian DVD release at one point, but the film was presented with the alternative Italian audio track.This English-language version of Zorro, which is also the original theatrical version of the film, looks fairly decent. It is rather soft, with various clarity and color fluctuations, especially during darker sequences, but most close-ups look acceptable. Grain isn't evenly distributed throughout the film but post-production degraining corrections have not been applied. Sharpening corrections to make the film look 'better' than it could also have not been performed. What this means is that even though there are portions of the film that look soft, the high-definition transfer has retained all of the grain that was on the master Somerville House had access to. In other words, the film does look dated, but it still has a filmic, though quite weak, look. Lastly, Somerville House have removed a good number of scratches and debris, but there are still various small specks and occasionally even dirt spots. All in all, this is a serviceable presentation of Zorro, which anyone familiar with the film's history on the home video market will undoubtedly appreciate. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Somerville House have not provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.
Some light background hiss is occasionally easy to hear, but clarity and crispness are very good. During a few of the action sequences (most notably at the market place early into the film), there is even some decent dynamic movement. Some viewers are likely to notice that there are some very small sync issues, but this should not be surprising as the majority of the actors had to overdub their lines in English. There are no audio dropouts or serious distortions to report in this review.
I am pleased with Somerville House's Blu-ray release of Duccio Tessari's Zorro, and I believe that anyone aware of the film's very poor home video releases during the years will be as well. There are clearly different limitations with the presentation, but Zorro is the type of European adventure film that would have never received the lavish treatment major classic films do. This is just the reality. What Somerville House have done here is clean up the film as best as possible without degraining or sharpening it in the lab to make it look better than it could. It was the right thing to do. If you ever wanted to own a decent release of Zorro, this is the one to get, folks. RECOMMENDED.
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