HTF REVIEW: "Flashdance" (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Flashdance




Studio: Paramount
Year: 1983
Rated: R
Film Length: 94 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (1.85:1)
Subtitles:



Take your passion and make it happen!
It has been nearly 15 years since I last saw
Flashdance. Watching it again on DVD this
evening brought back so many fond memories of the
film, in particular, how beautiful actress Jennifer
Beals is in this film. In fact, I was so infatuated
with her screen presence as she pumped her long-legged
body (and hot tiny buns) that I decided to make
certain that every screenshot I include in this
review captured the very essence of her beauty.

What's interesting to note about Flashdance
was that it was the very first of many glossy
film productions from the Simpson/Bruckheimer duo
who went on to produce Top Gun and Days
of Thunder. The film produced a phenomenal
soundtrack album that sold 700,000 copies
in a two week period. Of course, the film made
a sort of fashion statement causing women to rip
their sweatshirts to shreds and don leg warmers.

Alex (Jennifer Beals) is a welder by day, but at
night she wows her blue-collar customers with her
fancy erotic dances. What she yearns for the most
is a true career in dance and she aspires to joining
an upscale ballet school, but doesn't have the
confidence to apply. When her boss Nick Hurley
(Michael Nouri) takes a romantic interest in her,
he secretly helps and gives her the courage to live
her dreams.
How is the transfer?
After watching the lackluster transfer of
Footloose, I was about ready to give up
all hope for this film. Surprisingly, the transfer
is far better than what I expected it would be.
Once you get past the blemish-filled title
sequence, you'll find a rather smooth transfer
that contains little film grain. It seems that
Paramount put some effort into this title. Some
of the strongest visual dance scenes involve white
background colors. Normally, a bad transfer would
show dirty whites. Here, the whites are very clean.
The only problem I had with the picture was that
it was a bit on the soft side, resulting in a tiny
loss of detail. Still, dark scenes managed to retain
a good portion of picture detail. Even the smoke-filled
scenes inside Mawby's bar with all its red neons
came across rather nicely with no smearing.
The picture has such clarity that you can now
absolutely see how bad Jennifer Beal's double
looked during the film's final dance sequence.

The 5.1 surround mix is rather uneven. As the
film begins, the sounds of synthesized music
introduce Irene Cara's title song. This is perhaps
the best any of the film's music will ever sound,
as her voice stays firmly in the center channel
as the music distributes nicely amongst the front
and rear channels. The entire title sequence has
a lot of punch, and you anticipate that the rest of
the film is going to sound just as good.
Unfortunately, you will find that all of the music
sequences that follow sound pretty darn good, but
don't quite have the same pizzaz. Though the rest
of the film's music comes across all the front
channels with bass-heavy sonics, the rears only add
echo reverb.

What's really disappointing here is that unlike
Saturday Night Fever, the LFE channel adds
very little support to any part of this film. I
actually had to walk over to my subwoofer to make
sure it was on. Fortunately, the front channels
deliver enough bass to make the music impressionable.
All in all, I would rate the transfer very good
(for a film of its age), and the sound quality
nearly as good.
Special Features

Well, folks, there ain't none! Once again Paramount
has decided that the effort of putting a simple
trailer on a DVD is too much to ask for. Could
someone please clarify why trailers are now verboten
on Paramount catalog titles?
Final Thoughts
Those worrying about Paramount's uneven quality
on their catalog titles as of late should put
their fears aside. Flashdance looks and
sounds pretty darn good on DVD.

Don't get me wrong -- I have always enjoyed
Flashdance. However, looking at this film
15 years later, it's clear that the film was just
one big music video with a bunch of extra scenes
of storyline sewn into it. Not that it makes the
film a bad one, but certainly makes you wonder why
it became so successful in the first place. The
answer may be as simple as this....we were young
and naive.
Release Date: October 8, 2002

 

[Ed St. Clair]

we were young and naive

Boy were we ever!
Miss those days & ways.
Thank for the Flashback!

 

[Will K]

I'll be picking this one up, if for no other reason than for nostalgia purposes. Happy to hear it looks better than Footloose. Still, the absence of the trailer is a real pisser!

 

[Peter McM]

Ron:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I completely respected your decision not to review this originally, given your time constraints. You are gracious, in the extreme--and a surprisingly good review, to boot!
I'm gonna be freeze-framing this on Jennifer so much, my wife will rip the remote from my hand!:b
What a feeling!!

 

[Joseph_mx]

Well, I hope to receive the Dance Pack Gift Set next week with Grease, Flashdance, Footloose, Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy. The video quality and audio might not be great but you can bet its better than a VHS. Great reviews Ron.

 

[oscar_merkx]

thanks for the review, ron. Looks like another buy for me

 

[Chuck L]

Thanks Ron for the heads up on this one. It is sure a purchase!

 

[rhett]

Great review, Beals is definitely a looker! I would pick this disc up if Paramount didn't make the cover art bilingual in Canada.

 

[Enrique B Chamorro]

Another review notes that the 2.0 sound mix is more
balanced than the 5.0, the effects are too loud.
http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi...lashdance.html
It is a shame that they did not include the extra
scenes that sometimes are shown on TV broadcasts as an extra.
I can remember two, one where Beals visits her mentor
and one where Beals is talking to her dog.
I am very on the fence about this.
:frowning:

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I, alas, have no choice in whether I will purchase this disc, as veterans of the notorious "Leg Warmers" thread in After Hours will understand. :b

 

[JasonRH]

I read that a body double was used for many shots in this film. Can anyone confirm? Jennifer Beals is incredible but I wonder how much of the good shots are of her??

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Jason,

Watch the final dance sequence where Alexandra
is auditioning for the panel.

You can clearly see a double with a bad wig
was used for the entire scene (minus a few
short close-ups).

 

[Peter McM]

The break dance move was actually a guy!
The E! True Hollywood Story of Flashdance interviewed the girl who did almost all of Beals' dancing. She's really quite something, herself. She's French, if I recall correctly. Anybody remember her name?

 

[Jonathan_]

Just picked this up at a well known warehouse club for only $13.49! Gonna try to watch it before Sopranos comes on.

 

[JasonRH]

Ronald,
Thanks for the update.

Peter - yikes!!!!!

 

[DaveBB]

The E! True Hollywood Story of Flashdance interviewed the girl who did almost all of Beals' dancing. She's really quite something, herself. She's French, if I recall correctly. Anybody remember her name?

Link Removed
You can get a better view of her in "Street of Fire" where she is the dancer at the bar inside Willem Dafoe's lair.

 

[Jenna]

The break dance move was actually a guy!

After watching this film about a thousand times, it always strikes me as odd when watching the final sequence: "How could you NOT see that it was obviously a guy??"
I also remember reading that Cynthia Rhodes auditioned for the lead, but was cast as one of the other dancers instead (Tina). I would just loved to have seen the auditions for this one...but since Paramount is too stingy to even include the trailer, why hope for more?
Regardless, this is on my list for tomorrow. Might have to go out for lobster, too.

 

[JasonRH]

Jenna,
I have only seen the movie once or twice, and never since about '85 so it came as a surprise to me!! LOL

 

[Peter McM]

The E! segment commented more than once about how good the editing was on this film; that even people who were aware of the doubles could believe it was all Jennifer.

 

[David Coleman]

I remember when this film first came out I went to see it 8 times in the theater! I loved the music, and was "in" love with Jennifer Beals! Looking back I was somewhat naive. I remember seeing the movie some years later and thinking about how "silly" it was!

Now some 20 yrs later I just watched it again for the first time in a long time and still being infatuated with just how beautiful Jennifer Beals was then ( and still quite attractive today). She was gorgeous and had the most beautiful eyes! Looking at the movie today, I have to admit it isn't as "silly" as I thought it had been!

It's dated! Very 80's type of movie. The music certainly reflects the time period. However it remains at it's heart a very good and simple story. A woman who has a dream. Is hesitant to pursue it despite encouragement from mentors. Finally gets up the nerve to take the chance, and succeeds! This is a basic story that's been done time and time again about fullfilling one's dreams and taking chances! Looking at it from a more mature perspective I was able to appreciate it more this tme around.

I've always loved films by Adrian Lyne and thought he seemingly disowns this film I must admit it has many elements of his films. The use of colors, background scenery, camera techniques, set pieces, even the use of pets, which seems to be his signiture in many of his films (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, even Unfaithful)! If you look over his films, you'll see so much of his signiture style begun in FLASHDANCE or even possibly FOXES!

I was also amazed to see just how much of the story line was used in the recent movie COYOTE UGLY. It's the same story just change the locale and context, but the same story! I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise as Jerry Bruckheimer produced both films!

As far as the DVD goes, it's looks alright, though not without it's problems. It seems to be plaged with that "red tint" that seems so prominent from 80's flicks but the transfer in itself isn't bad. Just not clean. I noticed some grain in some scenes (particularily darker and mixed lighting scenes) but otherwise it was quite good!

The 5.1 was average,probably should have listend to the 2.0?

Overall this disc brought back memories and a new appreciating in a different kind of way for this movie.

David