HTF REVIEW: A Man For All Seasons Special Edition

Richard Gallagher · 02-19-2007, 01:17 AM

A Man for All Seasons: Special Edition

Studio: Sony/Columbia
Year: 1966
Rated: Not Rated
Length: 120 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen
Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Mono, French
Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese

The Program

First, a caveat – this “Special Edition” is not particularly special. The only extra is an 18-minute featurette, “The Life of Saint Thomas More.”

A Man for All Seasons won six Academy Awards in 1966, including Best Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann) and Best Actor (Paul Scofield). It recounts the battle of wills between Henry VIII (Robert Shaw), the King of England from 1509-1547, and his Roman Catholic Chancellor, Sir Thomas More (Scofield).

Henry VIII is married to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the King of Spain. However, during their nearly twenty years of marriage she has had several miscarriages and she has failed to give birth to a male heir. Henry desperately wants to have a son, but the prospects have become extremely bleak as Catherine reaches the age of 40. At the same time, Henry has become enamored with Anne Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave), a young lady-in-waiting to Catherine. Henry has an affair with Anne and he instructs his Roman Catholic Chancellor, Cardinal Woolsey (Orson Welles), to petition the Pope for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. When Woolsey’s efforts fail, he is dismissed and Sir Thomas More becomes Chancellor. However, Sir Thomas, torn between his loyalty to his king and his commitment to his church, refuses to support Henry’s efforts to marry Anne Boleyn.

A Man for All Seasons was adapted for the screen by Robert Bolt from his own stage play. Your enjoyment of the film will probably depend upon your interest in the subject matter. There is a considerable amount of intrigue, treachery and political infighting, but not a great deal of action. The script is highly literate and the performances are uniformly excellent.

The Video

I have not seen the original DVD release, but from what I have read the major complaint about it was excessive grain. There is still a fair amount of grain in this transfer, particularly in shots of the sky (by way of comparison, the DVD includes a trailer for the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility which exhibits virtually no grain). However, the image is generally crisp and the colors are solid, and even vibrant at times. The box says that it was remastered in high definition. Apart from the grain, the transfer for this 40-year-old film is very clean. A Man for All Seasons also won Academy Awards for Best Color Cinematography and Best Costume Design.

The anamorphic widscreen transfer is listed as 1.66:1. When I upscaled the output on my Cambridge Audio DVD-89 player from 480p to 720p, the image became slightly windowboxed. At 480p the picture completely fills up the screen.

The Audio

The soundtrack for A Man for All Seasons was originally recorded in mono. The DVD offers viewers the choice of listening to the original mono or a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The Dolby Digital soundtrack gives some added dimension to Georges Delerue’s musical score, but the difference is not dramatic. The dialogue is clear and always intelligible. I did not detect any significant hiss, noise, etc.

The Supplements

As noted, the only “special” on this Special Edition is an 18-minute featurette, “The Life of Saint Thomas More.” It looks like a shorter version of something you might see on the History Channel, but Sony owns the copyright so it apparently was produced especially for this DVD release. Several scholars discuss Sir Thomas More’s life and help to put the events which are depicted in the film into somewhat larger context. It is pointed out that one of the dramatic high points of the film, a scene at the conclusion of Sir Thomas’ trial, is taken from the actual court proceedings.

It is disappointing that Sony did not put more into this release. Scofield, who may be best-known to younger audiences for his role as Mark van Doren in Quiz Show, has been primarily a stage actor during his distinguished career, and it would be interesting to hear his take on winning a Best Actor award for one of his relatively few film roles.

Other Features

The DVD is divided into 28 chapters which can be accessed from the main menu. There is also a trailer for Sense and Sensibility and a pan-and-scan trailer for the 1994 version of Little Women.

The Final Analysis

A Man for All Seasons is one of the more famous historical dramas of the past fifty years. However, I can’t give this DVD an unequivocal endorsement because I can’t be sure that it represents a significant improvement over the prior DVD, which was released in 1999. Comments from viewers who can do an A/B comparison will be welcome.

Equipment used for this review:

Cambridge Audio DVD-89 DVD player
Sharp LC-42D62U LCD display
Yamaha HTR-5890 THX Surround Receiver
BIC Acoustech speakers
Interconnects: Monster Cable

Release Date: February 20, 2007

MattH. · 02-19-2007, 10:32 AM

Paul Scofield is one of seven actors who won an Oscar for recreating on screen a performance that they won a Tony for on the stage. (The others: Yul Brynner, Joel Grey, Rex Harrison, Shirley Booth, Jose Ferrer, Anne Bancroft). It would have been interesting to hear him talk about this achievement.

RoyGBiv · 02-19-2007, 11:00 AM

I watched the original DVD a couple of years ago, and I thought it looked pretty good considering the movie was made 40 years ago. It is a great movie, but if this is not a very significant improvement, I can't see a lot of reason to go out of my way to find it.

SMK

Richard Gallagher · 02-19-2007, 11:06 AM

I just now found out that the film is going to be broadcast in HD on HDNet next month. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the new DVD.

Haggai · 02-19-2007, 11:21 AM

Good review, Richard. I just have a technical question, so maybe this isn't quite the right sub-forum for it, but can someone explain why this happens?

Quote:

The anamorphic widscreen transfer is listed as 1.66:1. When I upscaled the output on my Cambridge Audio DVD-89 player from 480p to 720p, the image became slightly windowboxed. At 480p the picture completely fills up the screen.

I don't have an upscaling DVD player. 1.66:1 anamorphic transfers do fill up the screen on my HDTV, in 480p. Why would the windowboxing only show up in the upscaling?

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Richard Gallagher · 02-19-2007, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haggai

Good review, Richard. I just have a technical question, so maybe this isn't quite the right sub-forum for it, but can someone explain why this happens?

I don't have an upscaling DVD player. 1.66:1 anamorphic transfers do fill up the screen on my HDTV, in 480p. Why would the windowboxing only show up in the upscaling?

I'm sure that someone who has more technical knowledge of this stuff can give you a better answer, but I believe that what's happening is that when I upscale to 720p or 1080i I'm seeing the image exactly as it was transferred. For a 1.66:1 image to fill a 16:9 screen, the image has to be enchanced slightly, otherwise you would at the very least see small bars on either side of the image. In this case, the bars on the windowboxed image are very slight, and when I did an A/B comparison there did not appear to be any loss of image when I looked at it in 480p.

I've only had the upscaling DVD player for about ten days, so I haven't had a lot of time to experiment with it. I looked at a 1.85:1 film the other day. Of course, on a 16:9 screen you are actually seeing an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. When I switched that image from 480p to an upscaled 720p, I saw a bit more information on the sides and slight black bars on the top and bottom. I didn't take the time to measure it, but it appeared to me that the upscaling gave me a true 1.85:1 image, rather than the 1.78:1 I was seeing at 480p.

When I get a chance I'll try it with a 2.35:1 image and see if upscaling makes a difference in what I can see.

Dick · 02-20-2007, 08:43 AM

I am so tired of this deceitful practice of re-issuing a DVD as a "special edition" when, besides offering almost nothing new, actually REMOVE something that had been included in the first release (in this case, the theatrical trailer). But I love this film so much that I'll buy it just to have better picture quality. The color was very weak first time around.

Haggai · 02-20-2007, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Gallagher

I'm sure that someone who has more technical knowledge of this stuff can give you a better answer, but I believe that what's happening is that when I upscale to 720p or 1080i I'm seeing the image exactly as it was transferred. For a 1.66:1 image to fill a 16:9 screen, the image has to be enchanced slightly, otherwise you would at the very least see small bars on either side of the image. In this case, the bars on the windowboxed image are very slight, and when I did an A/B comparison there did not appear to be any loss of image when I looked at it in 480p.

OK, but why is there some image loss at 480p? That's the main thing I don't quite get.

Mike Frezon · 02-20-2007, 11:37 AM

Here's a title I am anxious to see. Everything about it screams quality production: Zinneman, Welles, Shaw, Scofield, Best Picture.

One of the thrills of the hobby for me is getting a chance to see films which had been "missed" over the years. This is one of them. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was one such title which was released a week or so ago. I had never seen it before. What a terrific film!

I wasn't even aware of the earlier release. And I scout "used" DVD bins all the time and never remember stumbling across this title. Thanks for the review, Richard!