Deep, The (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

In fact, there are a number of Bond echoes in this film. There's a dramatic explosion and an opening sequence in which Bisset dives braless in a t-shirt--essentially a wet t version of Ursula Andress's swim in "Dr. No." And we're reminded of countless Bond villains during a hotel-room visit from voodoo practitioners and a fight in which one man grabs an outboard motor and starts it up, trying to cut the other's face with the spinning propeller. But the Bond films were played for camp, and we don't get that from director Peter Yates, whose uneven career included such previous films as "Bullitt" and "Mother, Jugs & Speed." This one isn't as much of a stinker as "Mother," but for a treasure hunt with a giant moray eel and Haitian drug lords it's not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

Video:
Speaking of uneven, let's talk about the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer to a 50GB disc. It could be the film elements themselves, but some scenes have far more grain than others. Some of the most striking scenes--those with bright colors, strong delineation, and knock-out detail--are the underwater scenes inside the ship when the space permitted underwater lighting. But other scenes are as soft and wispy as Bisset's Seventies' hair. In fact, there are more soft-looking sequences than sharp ones. Black levels seem to fluctuate too. The big positive is that for a catalog title as old as this one there's a pleasing sense of 3-dimensionality that comes in a number of scenes. "The Deep" is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and in Blu-ray it's not as bad as a catalog title this old could have been, nor is it something to rave about.

Audio:
The featured audio is an English, French, or Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, and it's a little limp. Dialogue is muffled in spots, and you'll generally need to turn up the volume on this one more than usual. The strength of the soundtrack is actually to be found in the underwater sequences, where the ambient sound makes it easy to feel as if you're right there, 60 feet underwater, with them. Mostly, though, it's a front-heavy track that doesn't involve the rear speakers enough unless there's something severe in the way of special effects or musical crescendo. An additional audio option is Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Extras:
Years ago, when NBC aired this film they did so with 53 minutes of added footage, and this release includes "Select Scenes from the 3 Hour Special Edition." Included among the six deleted scenes is one on the sinking of the Goliath, with the longest one a segment in which Nolte and Bisset talk in bed. All totaled there are roughly 21 minutes of deleted scenes that you can see here, most of which add a little meat to the characters' bones. Does that mean a Special Edition Blu-ray is coming? I can't tell you. But I wouldn't put it past them. This feels like a test-balloon.

The only other bonus feature is a pretty nice making-of extra narrated by Shaw that runs close to 50 minutes. You really begin to understand what an arduous task it is for everyone involved to film a movie that's shot largely underwater. Included in this vintage feature are cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. It's above average for features of this sort, and I frankly enjoyed more than the film.

Bottom Line:
"The Deep" doesn't exactly give you the bends, but when you come up for air you realize that this was one cinematic dive that could have been deeper . . . and better edited.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---