A Few Words About A few words about...™ Scent of a Woman... -- in HD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Universal's Scent of a Woman (1992) is delightful, intelligent, thought provoking, and one of the finest "coming of age" films created.

As directed by Martin Brest, it also gives Al Pacino, whose films have been deservedly receiving a great deal of attention recently on DVD, a role that he can really sink his teeth into. He creates a character that we initially cannot like, and end up enraptured by him.

And he is nothing less than brilliant.

Beautifully photographed and rendered meticulously by Universal to HD DVD, the film has the appearance of cinema on a projected video screen. While I can't be certain if grain has been reduced, it has not been eliminated, and there are no objectionable artifacts. One can see the grain structure occasionally change from shot to shot as exposures change, and it all works.

There are no extras.

But as was noted in James M. Barrie's What Every Woman Knows in answer to the question "What IS charm, exactly...?"

The reply: "Oh, it's--it's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have."

Like charm, Universal's HD DVD of Scent of Woman doesn't need to have anything else.

Highly Recommended for both film content as well as transfer.

RAH

 

[Tim Glover]

Great news! My copy should be here sometime next week as I pre-ordered it alongside other HD DVDs that will be released July 31. It's an excellent film and good to know Universal handled it well.

 

[Mike Williams]

With all due respect to Mr. Harris, WHY exactly does "Scent of a Woman" not need anything else? There is more than plenty of room for bonus features, but "Scent of a Woman" does not need any? Why?

 

[Robert Harris]

While extras are nice, especially for major films with a history, we've arrived at an era in which everyone is trying to out-Criterion Criterion, who were the first to add extras on their original laserdiscs of King Kong and a few others.

I'm quite happy to have a Quality transfer, and no extras on the majority of releases, possibly because I haven't the time to delve into them. I'm less pleased to find an imperfect transfer along with a myriad of wonderful extras.

RAH

 

[Mike Williams]

Well, I do quite agree, Mr. Harris, that I would much rather have a high quality transfer and no extras, as opposed to cramming the disc full of extras and compromising video quality. I quite like what the first two Pirates movies did in using the nearly the full 50 GB for the movie and devoting nearly all the extras to a 2nd disc. I have no problem with 2-Disc BD sets if it results in jaw dropping video like Pirates.