...a riveting motion picture, enhanced now in the kind of high-definition picture and sound that does it proud.
So, the story is largely action based, and it's here that De Palma excels. Granted, some of the goings-on border on the preposterous, like watching the four stalwart heroes--a Treasury agent, two big-city cops, and an accountant--ride horseback into battle with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but De Palma stages most of it, we just go along with it. Besides, De Palma tells us in one of the disc's featurettes that the scene was a tribute to John Ford.
De Palma roots the movie's style in purpose, as he uses things like extended tracking shots, overhead angles, movement from room to room seen from outside a building, and first-person points of view to build suspense and create excitement. Although the film has a few slow moments getting started, we find it otherwise filled with one tense situation after another, culminating in a train station scene that pays homage not only to De Palma's inspiration, Alfred Hitchcock, but to the Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein, and his famous "Odessa Steps" sequence from 1925's "Battleship Potemkin." De Palma leaves no doubt whose film this is. Few other directors would have even considered beginning their film by blowing up an innocent child or showing Capone beating a man to death with a baseball bat at a fancy-dress dinner. The combination of De Palma's direction and Connery's acting are enough to sell the movie.
Video:
Paramount's HD DVD transfer is good, the video engineers retaining the movie's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. More important, the picture is clear and for the most part well defined. The slight softness one notices in the standard-definition version is still here, as is a little of the grain I noticed in the SD transfer. The nicest aspect of all, though, is that the colors are natural, especially facial tones. Close-ups are a tad less sharp than medium and long shots, however, perhaps the result of too much filtering.
Audio:
Paramount engineers deliver the sound in English via 5.1 EX Dolby Digital Plus and DTS 6.1. In both cases, the audio produces a decent front-channel stereo spread, with a wide dynamic range and good impact. Deepest bass is slightly weak, though.
The major differences I found in the two audio tracks (clicking away madly from one to the other for the first fifteen minutes of the movie) were that the Dolby Digital Plus track sounded clearer, cleaner, and more transparent, while the DTS track seemed to be warmer and fuller, adding slightly more ambient bloom to the surrounds, especially in musical content. I wound up watching about half the film in DD+ and half in DTS, and I never did make up my mind which one I preferred. I suspect it's a matter of which audio track best compliments your speakers. If your speakers are at all bright or forward, the DTS track may sound best; if your speakers are more neutral, you may prefer the DD+ track. Ultimately, I suspect the DD+ is superior, but I wouldn't bet on it. The two tracks are simply different, and listeners will have to determine for themselves which one they prefer. You can't go wrong either way.
Extras:
Paramount's HD DVD gets its extras from the earlier, standard-definition, Special Collector's Edition. These bonus items are mainly four featurettes made in 2004 and presented in SD. First up is "The Script, The Cast," eighteen minutes; next is "Production Stories," seventeen minutes; then "Reinventing the Genre," fourteen minutes, and "The Classic," five minutes. These featurettes include interviews and commentary by the filmmakers, most prominently De Palma himself. However, I would have preferred a single, one-hour documentary than these shorter, separate featurettes, since much of the material seems redundant and all the clicking around involved is a chore. In addition, there is an original promotional featurette, "The Men," made at the time of the film's creation.
The extras conclude with twenty-four scene selections; a 1.85:1 ratio theatrical trailer in 1080 high definition; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
Did everything in "The Untouchables" actually happen the way it's depicted in the movie? No, I don't think so. In reality, Ness probably did very little to combat illicit booze in Chicago or to convict Al Capone. Most of Ness's achievements that we know today derive from Ness's own autobiography in which, frankly, he embroidered the truth. Does it matter? No, I don't think so. The movie stands on its own, and a riveting motion picture it is, enhanced now in the kind of high-definition picture and sound that does it proud.
De Palma roots the movie's style in purpose, as he uses things like extended tracking shots, overhead angles, movement from room to room seen from outside a building, and first-person points of view to build suspense and create excitement. Although the film has a few slow moments getting started, we find it otherwise filled with one tense situation after another, culminating in a train station scene that pays homage not only to De Palma's inspiration, Alfred Hitchcock, but to the Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein, and his famous "Odessa Steps" sequence from 1925's "Battleship Potemkin." De Palma leaves no doubt whose film this is. Few other directors would have even considered beginning their film by blowing up an innocent child or showing Capone beating a man to death with a baseball bat at a fancy-dress dinner. The combination of De Palma's direction and Connery's acting are enough to sell the movie.
Video:
Paramount's HD DVD transfer is good, the video engineers retaining the movie's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. More important, the picture is clear and for the most part well defined. The slight softness one notices in the standard-definition version is still here, as is a little of the grain I noticed in the SD transfer. The nicest aspect of all, though, is that the colors are natural, especially facial tones. Close-ups are a tad less sharp than medium and long shots, however, perhaps the result of too much filtering.
Audio:
Paramount engineers deliver the sound in English via 5.1 EX Dolby Digital Plus and DTS 6.1. In both cases, the audio produces a decent front-channel stereo spread, with a wide dynamic range and good impact. Deepest bass is slightly weak, though.
The major differences I found in the two audio tracks (clicking away madly from one to the other for the first fifteen minutes of the movie) were that the Dolby Digital Plus track sounded clearer, cleaner, and more transparent, while the DTS track seemed to be warmer and fuller, adding slightly more ambient bloom to the surrounds, especially in musical content. I wound up watching about half the film in DD+ and half in DTS, and I never did make up my mind which one I preferred. I suspect it's a matter of which audio track best compliments your speakers. If your speakers are at all bright or forward, the DTS track may sound best; if your speakers are more neutral, you may prefer the DD+ track. Ultimately, I suspect the DD+ is superior, but I wouldn't bet on it. The two tracks are simply different, and listeners will have to determine for themselves which one they prefer. You can't go wrong either way.
Extras:
Paramount's HD DVD gets its extras from the earlier, standard-definition, Special Collector's Edition. These bonus items are mainly four featurettes made in 2004 and presented in SD. First up is "The Script, The Cast," eighteen minutes; next is "Production Stories," seventeen minutes; then "Reinventing the Genre," fourteen minutes, and "The Classic," five minutes. These featurettes include interviews and commentary by the filmmakers, most prominently De Palma himself. However, I would have preferred a single, one-hour documentary than these shorter, separate featurettes, since much of the material seems redundant and all the clicking around involved is a chore. In addition, there is an original promotional featurette, "The Men," made at the time of the film's creation.
The extras conclude with twenty-four scene selections; a 1.85:1 ratio theatrical trailer in 1080 high definition; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Parting Thoughts:
Did everything in "The Untouchables" actually happen the way it's depicted in the movie? No, I don't think so. In reality, Ness probably did very little to combat illicit booze in Chicago or to convict Al Capone. Most of Ness's achievements that we know today derive from Ness's own autobiography in which, frankly, he embroidered the truth. Does it matter? No, I don't think so. The movie stands on its own, and a riveting motion picture it is, enhanced now in the kind of high-definition picture and sound that does it proud.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]20883[/release]