- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,423
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Kenneth Branagh's 1989 version of Shakespeare's King Henry the Fifth has seen better days.
Thanks to MGM, this Shout Factory release is stunningly okay, if that.
It doesn't take a high level archivist to understand that the first image on screen, against a black background, should not be cut-through scratches the the film element used for transfer. I'd guess a low-con print, but someone may have actually damaged an IP.
Other scratches, dirt, detritus come and go, making one feel that they are viewing the film in 16mm in a high school English class.
Grain is uncertain, but not as it should be. Shadow detail is eh...
Color okay.
Not happy with this one. It appears that if MGM had their way, the good bard, whose work has been around for more than a century, would not stand the test of time.
As to the film, and others of its ilk, the fact that an HD master may exist, does not mean that people should see it.
Image - 3
Audio - 5
Pass / Fail - Pass (barely)
RAH