The Year of Living Dangerously (1 Viewer)

[Johnny_G]

Big fan of the movie and I was wondering what is the image transfer and sound like on the 2002 Warner Bros. DVD?. Is it worth purchasing?, or not?.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Guy Martin]

Johnny-

This was one of the first DVDs I purchased back in 1998. The current Warner DVD is just a repackaging of the old MGM version I believe. It is anamorphic, but otherwise is very much a first-generation transfer. It's pretty grainy, the contrast is a mixed bag, as is the color (the scene between Hamilton and his assistant having a drink in the mountains at dusk looks particularly bad) and there's video grain and compression artifacts (it is a single-layer DVD). The print used has a lot of speckles and dirt on it as well. Sound is mono, although perfectly listenable. The only extra is a trailer. Still if you're a fan of the film this is the best version out on video and you can probably get it pretty cheap now.

- Guy

 

[Johnny_G]

Thanks for the info Guy.

 

[Paul_Scott]

i wouldn't mind seeing a new remastering of this title in the future.
the current disc is watchable, even on a large screen, but it as Guy describes it.
its a hypnotic film and would really shine with a new disc.

don't really expect it to happen anytime soon though.

 

[Jason_Els]

I may be this film's biggest fan. This is very much a first-generation DVD though it's not awful. It is non-anamorphic and the sound is mislabeled as stereo when, in reality, it's mono. The dark shots are overly-dark, the transfer is too grainy and dirty, and I think the reds are too prominent.

That said.... It was one of my first DVD purchases and I love it if only for that. There is little else to love.

I hope that one day this film will get restored and remastered. The score for The Year of Living Dangerously deserves a serious re-work with (at least) a stereo mix.

This is a magnificently dark, other-worldlhy, film with great performances. Weir is one of the few directors capable of making the completely natural feel slightly surreal and he does that exquisitely here.

 

[JoeStemme]

It has mood to burn. Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver look impossibly young and at the peak of their attractiveness and screen presence. Cinematographer Russel Boyd captures some sublime images. Maurice Jarre's score, while evocative at points, kind of hints at some of the disconnect within the screenplay. It's an strange melange of classic film scoring, some 'exotic' local instrumentation -- and, oh so 80s synth (with a dollop of Vangelis to drive home that element). Journalist CJ Koch says that the screenplay which he co-wrote (based on his novel) with Weir and David Williamson retained about 40% of his story (based loosely on his journalist brother's experiences in Southeast Asia). Sounds about right. As much as I was swept in the atmosphere, the film meanders quite a bit. There's a tension between immersing us in the hothouse atmosphere of the regime, and trying to inject romance and a set 'story', and Weir never quite nails that balance. Fortunately, Linda Hunt is there to provide an indelible supporting portrait (the casting director should share her Oscar - a brilliantly inspired choice) I admire the effort, and boy does it feel like a 'relic' in today's movie-making climate: A decently budgeted major studio release with two up and coming stars about a conflict in a far off land?