![The Professionals [Blu-ray]](http://cdn.hometheaterforum.com/a/aa/50x50px-ZC-aa4b2f8b_B000HEVZ76-51BaTOreSDL.jpg)
Last week was not a particularly happy one here at A Few Words... headquarters.
Viewing Patton on a decent size home theater screen left me with the feeling that we're headed for troubled territory with more people who don't know how to use DNR, and lop off all of the high frequency information in their golden quest to eradicate grain and achieve cleanliness.
And I was ready for more of the same with The Professionals.
I was truly hopeful that The Professionals, created by some of the top talent in the business c. 1966, would survive the onslaught of well-meaning grain rapers and turn out to be at the very least...
viewable.
It wasn't.
I recall viewing a borrowed 35mm dye transfer print in the very room that I now view home video fodder. It had great color, wonderful rich shadow detail and blacks, and a comfortable table of grain moving gracefully over silken smooth high resolution images.
Allow me to be short and to the point.
The new Blu-Ray DVD of The Professionals from Columbia / Sony isn't just "viewable." It doesn't just get by as a new Blu-Ray release.
Not by a long shot.
Everything that was so woefully wrong with Patton, which held 2 1/2 times the information -- two and one half times! --
is so brilliantly correct with The Professionals.
It has taken on the look of a true 35mm print.
I firmly believe that were they together in a room viewing this disc, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Lancaster, Mr. Marvin, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Strode, Mr. Palance, Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Jarre would be thrilled with the representation of their film as carried by the tiny, yet powerfully miraculous Blu-Ray disc.
Allow me to firmly make my point.
Everything that Patton does to harm the image of Blu-Ray as a system is turned on its head by The Professionals.
This is a true reference disc for films of the 1960s.
It shows clearly the image capabilities of the Blu-Ray system.
The men and women behind the creation of this release are the new video Professionals.
Blu-Ray poster child?
Add one more to the wall.
The Professionals is a great western; a great film...
and a truly superb Blu-Ray disc.
"What's the trick, then?"
The trick General Patton, is to look like film, to allow actors to act, to look human, and not look like wax dummies!
And The Professionals succeeds in spades!
I couldn't be more thrilled!
My only hope is that whatever entity did the "clean-up" work on Patton can get a copy of this disc quickly, will watch it, and learn from it.
Extremely Highly Recommended.
RAH
Viewing Patton on a decent size home theater screen left me with the feeling that we're headed for troubled territory with more people who don't know how to use DNR, and lop off all of the high frequency information in their golden quest to eradicate grain and achieve cleanliness.
And I was ready for more of the same with The Professionals.
I was truly hopeful that The Professionals, created by some of the top talent in the business c. 1966, would survive the onslaught of well-meaning grain rapers and turn out to be at the very least...
viewable.
It wasn't.
I recall viewing a borrowed 35mm dye transfer print in the very room that I now view home video fodder. It had great color, wonderful rich shadow detail and blacks, and a comfortable table of grain moving gracefully over silken smooth high resolution images.
Allow me to be short and to the point.
The new Blu-Ray DVD of The Professionals from Columbia / Sony isn't just "viewable." It doesn't just get by as a new Blu-Ray release.
Not by a long shot.
Everything that was so woefully wrong with Patton, which held 2 1/2 times the information -- two and one half times! --
is so brilliantly correct with The Professionals.
It has taken on the look of a true 35mm print.
I firmly believe that were they together in a room viewing this disc, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Lancaster, Mr. Marvin, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Strode, Mr. Palance, Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Jarre would be thrilled with the representation of their film as carried by the tiny, yet powerfully miraculous Blu-Ray disc.
Allow me to firmly make my point.
Everything that Patton does to harm the image of Blu-Ray as a system is turned on its head by The Professionals.
This is a true reference disc for films of the 1960s.
It shows clearly the image capabilities of the Blu-Ray system.
The men and women behind the creation of this release are the new video Professionals.
Blu-Ray poster child?
Add one more to the wall.
The Professionals is a great western; a great film...
and a truly superb Blu-Ray disc.
"What's the trick, then?"
The trick General Patton, is to look like film, to allow actors to act, to look human, and not look like wax dummies!
And The Professionals succeeds in spades!
I couldn't be more thrilled!
My only hope is that whatever entity did the "clean-up" work on Patton can get a copy of this disc quickly, will watch it, and learn from it.
Extremely Highly Recommended.
RAH
Wonder if it was in someone's perfectly climate-controlled private collection?
I didn't realize that this feature was available on all HD DVD's with subtitles. I only recently noticed it on Studio Canal's UK Brotherhood of the Wolf HD DVD because there was a Subtitles tutorial. I wonder if there are some on BD releases that we're just not aware of because the feature has been poorly advertised?
