A Few Words About A few words about...™ Midnight Express -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Having just post a few words regarding Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys from Universal, I'll repeat my opening paragraphs, because in many ways, they also apply to Alan Parker's Midnight Express, new from Columbia / Sony on Blu-ray.

[COLOR= rgb(24, 24, 24)]In an effort to aid in the understanding of what makes a "quality Blu-ray," the point cannot be made too often that Blu-ray is merely a system that plays back discs on which data has been pressed or burned. It's a holding device, in many ways no different than a bottle used to hold liquid.

One can fill that bottle with pure mountain water, with impure water from a poor city system, or for that matter with a nice Chateau Petrus. It's still a bottle filled with liquid.

The nice thing about Blu-ray, as opposed to standard definition DVD, or even Toshiba's HD system, is that it can hold enough data to allow for extremely high quality reproduction of motion pictures in a home theater environment.

While a "quality Blu-ray" can be shiny, bright and clean -- think a Pixar release -- it can also be dark, grimy, grainy and low in the areas of color saturation, contrast, blacks and whites. The important thing is that it should look as closely as possible to the original film or video elements and their intended look when printed to positive stock or run as video or data.

A "quality Blu-ray" does not necessarily take on the visual parameters of a high def baseball game.

Whether mastered from 16, 35 or 65mm film, from data files or HD recordings, Blu-ray has the capability, but no guarantee of reproducing the original to a stunning degree. While the debate may continue, those with an understanding of cinema need only take a look at the dregs of data pressed to Blu-ray, ie. The Longest Day, Patton or Gangs of New York.

Case in point: Alan Parker's Midnight Express, making its Blu-ray debut, after numerous incarnations on VHS, laserdisc, DVD and HD.

Based on true events, Midnight Express concerns the problems surrounding a young man who is discovered attempting to board a plane with his girlfriend, leaving Turkey with a good amount of drugs taped to his chest. Not a good situation. But a great basis for a thrilling quality entertainment that is long on darkness and danger and short on humor.

Columbia's releases continue to shine on Blu-ray, being very faithful reproductions of the filmed media, and Midnight Express is no exception.

Highly Recommended.

RAH[/COLOR]

 

[ilconsigliere]

This is one of my favorite movies from the late 1970's. I was living in Spain in 1979 when it came out there (late 1978), and it was a huge hit. I loved it, I have it in Blu...and still haven't seen it. So now I have a good reason to.

 

[Mark-W]

Thanks for the review. I now know I can buy this blu-ray without hesitation.

 

[Cinemark]

It's good film for dramatic reasons, but it's so far from the true story that even Billy Hayes won't acknowledge it. Davis and Hurt turn in terrific performances though despite Stone's liberties in screenplay dept. But if you want the REAL story, see the National Geographic doc as told by Hayes himself. Personally, I'd like to see a remake of this film.

 

[Jon Hertzberg]

It's good film for dramatic reasons, but it's so far from the true story that even Billy Hayes won't acknowledge it. Davis and Hurt turn in terrific performances though despite Stone's liberties in screenplay dept. But if you want the REAL story, see the National Geographic doc as told by Hayes himself. Personally, I'd like to see a remake of this film.

I don't think we need a remake, but, yes, Stone's screenplay takes some serious liberties with the truth. That said, as pure cinema, it's pretty damn good. In more recent years, Stone and Alan Parker have acknowledged to one degree or another the film's overly-harsh, one-sided depiction of the Turkish people in this film. Would have been nice if the aforementioned Nat Geo doc could have been licensed for the Blu-ray.