Perfect Storm, The (Blu-ray)

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James Horner, who must be getting tired of writing music for watery disasters ("Titanic"), underlines every plot point with a huge crescendo of horns and strings. The score is big and lush and Romantic and seems primarily designed to sell a ton of musical-soundtrack CDs.

One last reflection: Some of the actors appear to be affecting New England accents with varying degrees of success, and some, like Clooney, attempt no accent at all. The assumed accents can be more distracting than not.

Video:
Watching the movie in its regular, standard-definition format some years ago, I was not entirely happy with the video quality. I thought the colors were natural enough, but they seemed to alternate between bright and vivid and dull and faded. Then, too, the image delineation varied, sometimes sharply outlined and sometimes fuzzy and blurred, with a small amount of color bleed-through; there even seemed to be a slight haze at times over the screen. When the HD DVD came out, I was happier with the picture quality, although still not entirely satisfied.

This new Blu-ray, BD50, VC-1, 2.40:1 transfer looks about the same as I remember the HD DVD, with things still not quite as "perfect" as the storm they depict. The colors remain realistic, and in high def they are mostly clear and natural, with only a little of the haze I noticed earlier. There are also good, solid black levels present. Moreover, given the vast expanses of sky in the picture most of the time, there is no excessive grain to speak of. However, I continued to notice a degree of roughness about the picture. Definition remains so-so as well, with moments of softness coming and going. Detailing is fine, if somewhat murky in darker areas of the screen. There is a good deal of location shooting in the picture, which often conflicts with the very best video reproduction. In short, parts of this Blu-ray transfer exhibit some of best video characteristics I've seen from a high-definition disc, while other parts continue to suffer, so it's a variable proposition.

Audio:
The Blu-ray edition's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 is as clean and clear as ever. As before, though, during the first thirty minutes or so of the movie you hardly notice the sound is even in stereo. Then, during the storm, it becomes spectacular in all six channels, with waves crashing around the listening area, noises coming at the viewer from every direction. I suggested the following in my earlier review: Turn off your TV and your lights and completely darken the room; then just listen to the sounds of the storm. You'll find a taut bass, a transparent midrange, excellent clarity, strong impact, and an incisive transient response.

Extras:
For extras, Warner Bros. offer basically the items found on their previous editions. First up, there are three audio commentaries: one with director Wolfgang Petersen; another with author Sebastian Junger; and a third with visual effects supervisor Steen Fangmeier and visual effects producer Helen Ostenberg Elswit. Play through all three and you will have extended your visit to the disc by another six hours, although I can't imagine too many casual home viewers doing such a thing. I listened to a few minutes of each commentary from time to time, and of the three I enjoyed Petersen's the most.

After those are three short documentaries, featurettes really: an "HBO First Look: The Perfect Storm," twenty minutes long, a look at behind-the-scenes goings on; another called "Witness to the Storm," four-and-a-half minutes, using interviews with people who actually witnessed the "storm of the century"; and a third, "Creating an Emotion: Composer James Horner at Work," about four minutes, taking us behind the film's music.

In addition, there is a four-minute photo montage called "Yours Forever"; a widescreen theatrical trailer; a soundtrack promo; and thirty-nine scene selections (but no chapter insert). Warners provide English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Japanese spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Swedish subtitles; and English, German, and Italian captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
The film concludes with a dedication "to the ten thousand Gloucestermen who died at sea since 1623." It's a touching tribute to a special people, a breed apart, men and women who had the sea in their blood. The storytelling in "The Perfect Storm" may be a bit wayward, but its heart and special effects are in the right place, and the Blu-ray transfer, particularly the sound, does it up proud.

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