High Definition, Low Expectations

Welcome back! We're trying something new today: in order to make the Blogorium a little easier to read, the Cap'n is going to make the font a smidge bigger. It was requested by a regular reader, so I'll do what I can to make the experience more enjoyable. Now onto the main event, my posing the question "Now why is THAT on Blu Ray?" and exploring the possible answers.

I run the risk of almost totally contradicting my series of essays on "remastering" for some of you, but I feel that there is a sufficient difference between the two. Allow me to explain.

The format is relatively new, so we can't blame studios for dragging their feet in releasing older catalog titles or "Classic" films just yet. Blu Ray only really "won" the war with HD-DVD last spring, so companies have been adjusting to working strictly with one format and have released a relatively substantial amount of movies compared to the early days of dvd. The problem seems to be that an unusually high number of those movies don't seem to benefit from high definition releases.

For example, Predator 2 will be coming out on Blu Ray next month. As I made it clear yesterday, I have no qualms with the film itself, but I am rather confused at 20th Century Fox's desire to release that particular film in HD. It's equally confounding because their earlier releases of Predator and Commando don't really look that much better than the dvds. There is some improvement in picture clarity, but neither of them are discs you're going to put in to demonstrate just how much of a difference 1080p can make.

Warner Brothers has similarly released a wave of catalog films from the 80s and 90s, most notably Steven Seagal films like Above the Law, Out for Justice and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. They also just put out Tango & Cash, a cop movie from the 90s starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell. I'm not going to be surprised if you haven't heard of any of those movies (my own personal enjoyment of them aside).

Despite liking these films on varying levels, I am confused to see them benefitting from the HD upgrade when other movies are not. It would be one thing if they looked radically improved (as some older titles do, like Batman Returns) but Out for Justice looks like a slightly clearer version of the dvd.

Then there are movies that clearly don't make sense to get a BD upgrade: the one that springs to mind is Faces of Death. The film (if you can call it that) has a reputation for being the nastiest of video nasties because of how ragged and beat up the vhs copies looked, adding to the "authenticity" of a film exploring people being killed on camera. Well, alledgedly, because now that the Blu Ray is out it's abundantly clear just how fake the "death" footage is. While it might make it easier to show to squeamish friends, the newly enhanced Faces of Death loses the one edge it had for decades: arguable authenticity.

Even more bizarre (to me at least) are movies I'm positive no one was asking for on Blu Ray that DO look better, like Short Circuit. When I put the disc in, I was stunned how much better Short Circuit looks than any other time I've ever seen it, which begs the question: Why Short Circuit?

Why does a mid-level comedy from 1986 get a full-on remaster and something like Predator doesn't? For that matter, why is Short Circuit getting this kind of attention when there are classic movies not even out on dvd that could use this attention. I continually bring up The African Queen specifically because it's never had an American release, on dvd or Blu Ray, but there are no less than seven versions of Terminator 2 on both formats. The second BD version of Terminator 2 is on the way, and that's not even the first HD "double dip.*"

Similarly, while I appreciate having them in HD upgrades, I am slightly confused by releases like The Road Warrior and The Omega Man from Warner Brothers. Sure, I enjoy both movies but neither one was something I expected to be able to find. 2001? Blade Runner? Sure, but The Final Countdown?

I don't mind giving great treatment to more obscure movies but can't we at least get the "big guns" out of the way first? The Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur, and Gone with the Wind have been announced but are still pending a release date. There's no hint of Citizen Kane or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre on the horizon, but Big Trouble in Little China is on the way. So are Road House, Fletch, and Walking Tall.

In the meantime I can probably name all of the black and white films on Blu Ray, including Good Night and Good Luck: The Third Man, Casablanca, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The 400 Blows, The Ray Harryhausen Collection, Raging Bull, Wages of Fear, Sin City, The Seventh Seal and I guess you could count the black and white cut of The Mist. Am I forgetting anything?

One of the things you'll notice is that four of the movies listed are from 1980 or later, four of them were released by Criterion and not a major studio, and all of the Harryhausen films that are in black and white are also offered in "colorized" versions.

That leaves Casablanca and The Day the Earth Stood Still as the major studio releases of "Classic" titles, and the latter was to tie in with the remake from last year. I mention this because Blu Ray and High Definition in general are still largely considered "niche" markets. Like laserdiscs, some are inclined to regard BDs as a stop gap between the next big shift in home entertainment.

So why then does the product not reflect that? Laserdiscs included what could be considered the first wave of "supplemental" material (commentaries, documentaries, director's cuts) and included releases like The Magnificent Ambersons, a film that also never made its way to dvd. Why? Well, the film is more interesting as a piece of Hollywood history than as a easily marketable disc, and the studios have dragged their feet in the 12 years dvd existed to get older titles out. If Blu Ray is comparable to Laserdisc, what explains the presence of films designed at a marketdly broader audience?

Day and date release of new films makes sense, but some of the choices for "catalog" films confuses me. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and not Brazil? The Life of Brian and not The Quest for the Holy Grail? Domino? American History X? Wayne's World? Collateral Damage? Universal Soldier? Paycheck?

Seriously. Paycheck? Many of you know of my unjustified fondness for the movie even Ben Affleck disowned, but what "niche" market was looking for Paycheck in high definition?

I could seriously go on and on listing movies inexplicably available in high definition while others that you would expect languish in vaults, possibly to be released. Some of these movies look pretty spiffy and other looks negligibly different yet the one thing I notice is that none of them ever seem to be sold out in stores, even when they're on sale.

What is nice is that some studios at least recognize that if their titles aren't radical improvements, like First Look's BD of Dog Soldiers, they won't charge more than they do for the dvd. Dog Soldiers is 14.99, and so is The Proposition, which actually looks great in high definition. Short Circuit is comparably inexpensive, and for some reason Tango & Cash is perpetually marked down to 16.99. They may not be necessary but I guess you aren't always being asked to pay top dollar for the "privilege" of high definition.

As time goes by, eventually we'll get more releases like Cool Hand Luke or The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Why the studios sit on these and not their lesser selling titles remains a mystery: are they waiting to see if more people adopt the Blu Ray players / PS3? Do they think only a very specific audience wants Blu Rays, and rather than cinephiles it's action film fans? Are they simply testing the waters with the same type of crap they can't sell on dvd?

I wish I knew the answer, because many of you have asked to watch such-and-such a title on Blu Ray only to discover it doesn't exist yet. Films you would expect to be out in order to show off picture quality or representing box office power are inexplicably missing, meaning that Indiana Jones fans have only Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to show off, and George Lucas is secretly stockpiling Star Wars Blu Rays for the, uh, 35th anniversary in 2012**? Is it too much to ask for that Night of the Living Dead be able to join all of its sequels on Blu Ray? That Orson Welles could get some high def love?

Or, dare I ask for it, Night of the Lepus remastered for true 1080p fancy schmancy picture?

Okay, even I admit that Night of the Lepus would merit a "you've got to be kidding", just like Moonraker would...

oh, wait.





* Take your pick: it's either The Matrix, Batman, Casablanca or No Country for Old Men, to name a few.
** Don't think he's not. They might come out sooner but I wouldn't be shocked.