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Legends of the Fall: Superbit
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // March 4, 2003
List Price: $26.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
(Note: The film review and portions of the audio review were originally written in 2000).
The Movie:
"Legends Of the Fall" would best be described as good "old-fashioned" entertainment. Melodramatic - but not overly so - the film has good performances and an enjoyable screenplay with solid dialogue and fully-written characters. The three main characters are the Ludlow brothers, the oldest (Adian Quinn); the middle, wild one (Brad Pitt) and the youngest (Henry Thomas). They are looked over by their father Col. Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins), who raises them since their mother has left.
In enters Susannah(Julia Ormond - whatever happened to her?), a woman who enters the picture engaged to one of the sons, but ends up having the others fall in love with her as well. The war becomes a main part of the opening half of the story and when one of the brothers does not make it back, the main body of the tale begins. Although the pace begins to pick up, the story sometimes doesn't always work as well in the later half.
The film begins to ramble a bit during the second half as Tristan goes on a journey among other events, but it's the film's look and tone that allow it to manage to get by even during the slower moments. John Toll's cinematography makes every frame almost shockingly postcard-perfect, and although James Horner's score gets a bit thick and heavy at times, it manages to be just enough to pull the viewer along without trying to push for emotions.
The film is literally a romance novel on-screen, and a pretty decent one at that. What I enjoyed is that the film seems to understand what it is, and the performances and tone are right without taking itself way too seriously or regarding itself too highly. Performances across the board are very good, with Pitt, Ormond and Hopkins between the standouts. Not an outstanding movie, but an often entertaining one.
The DVD
VIDEO: This Superbit presentation offers the film once again in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The Superbit process does add to the visual experience in some ways, but some rather troubling flaws from the prior release carry over here. John Toll's magnificent cinematography once again looks crisp and wonderfully well-defined, with a level of detail and clarity that seemed somewhat improved over the prior release.
Where this presentation goes wrong is the level of print flaws. While the presentation certainly doesn't appear consistently worn, some noticable (and occasionally nasty) marks and other instances of wear that appear in a handful of scenes. Other than that, the presentation really didn't suffer from any other concerns: edge enhancement was kept to a minimum, while no compression artifacts were spotted.
The film's stunning color palette once again appeared rich and well-saturated here, with no smearing or other faults. Black level remained solid, while flesh tones appeared accurate and natural. A very nice presentation, but the print flaws still cause concern and the Superbit edition really doesn't show too great an improvement.
SOUND: This Superbit presentation carries over the previous Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and brings a new DTS 5.1 option. The soundtrack is a very pleasing audio presentation that occasionally becomes more agressive - most noticably in the battle scenes early on the film, where the sounds of battle explode all around the viewer. Surrounds are used agressively here, and add to the scene quite a bit. These scenes don't take on the intensity in sound of some of the more recent war films, but they are successful in putting the viewer effectively in the middle of it.
The rest of the film is certainly more quiet in terms of sound. The James Horner score rises up from all sides and fills the listening space, sounding rich, full and often wonderfully clear. Dialogue is also clear and easily heard.
Both the DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks sounded awfully alike, aside from a few slight differences. Some of the film's more intense sequences did sound a bit more enveloping on the DTS track, while James Horner's score came across sounding a bit clearer and richer. While the DTS did offer some light improvements, both soundtrack options provided a fine experience.
EXTRAS: The Special Edition of "Legends of the Fall" offered two commentary tracks, featurettes and other material. This being the Superbit version, we are presented with nothing, as extras have been dropped to add to audio/video quality.
Final Thoughts: "Legends of the Fall" is one of those films that I can find enjoyable when I return to it every once in a while. It has a few slow stretches, but the performances are good and John Toll's award-winning cinematography is postcard-perfect. As for the DVD edition, I'll still recommend the Special Edition DVD over this new Superbit edition. The Superbit edition doesn't offer much in the way of improvements in terms of audio/video and the supplements on the Special Edition are terrific. In addition, the Special Edition has recently been repriced and can be found in most stores for about half the price of this new Superbit release.
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