If you are coming to this page directly from a browser link you can read the blu ray film review of Face/Off here.

You will find my feelings on the film and my impressions of the quality of the BD release in the above link, i also include some film trivia in that review and on this page you can read some BD info regarding average bitrates and i note the differences between the German and USA editions of the film. You can view the high definition movie screencaps from Face/Off below, click twice on the image to close it.

BD bitrate per chapter info – BD disc summary

Gone With The Wind was made in 1939 and is a classic love story set against the backdrop of the American civil war, when you adjust for inflation it is the biggest box office hit of all time.

Gary Cooper was wanted for the part of Rhett Butler but turned it down believing the film would be a massive flop.

Victor Fleming replaced George Cukor as the director of The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind, both films were of course made in 1939.

Despite being replaced as director of Gone With The Wind, Cukor continued to coach both Vivien Leigh and Olivia De Havilland at weekends, Leigh in particular was very upset when Cukor was replaced as director and she did not get along with Fleming.

The script was toned down from the novel.

The Ku Klux Klan appeared in the novel but was written out of the script. In the novel Scarlett's second husband Frank Kennedy turns to the Klan after she is attacked in the shantytown, indeed in the novel Ashley Wilkes is also a Klan member. Scarlett finds the Klan abominable although she also thinks thoughts in the novel which could be construed as racist, these thoughts were not in the film version. She also defends black people in the novel though and thus i believe this shows she is an open minded character and not racist. Certainly opinion has been divided on this film.

David O. Selznick did not want to include the Klan in the film version and made sure they were written out, indeed his exact words were "I do hope you will agree with me on this omission of what might come out as an unintentional advertisement for intolerant societies in these fascist-ridden times" he aso had to contend with pressure from the black press who hated the novel.

it is believed Margaret Mitchell's original novel was based on her own life experiences and of people she actually knew, indeed Mitchell's grandmother Annie Fitzgerald Stephens was born in 1845 and an Irish immigrant who owned a plantation on Tara road in Clayton County, South Of Atlanta, clearly the novel was no work of fiction and is based on people she knew.

Martha Bulloch Roosevelt who was the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt is believed to be the inspiration for the character of Scarlett O. Hara.

Many actresses were screen tested for the part of Scarlett O' Hara but it came down to a clear fight between Joan Bennett, Jean Arthur, Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh, Leigh was told she won the part on Christmas day and the rest is history.

Clark Gable was not keen on the part of Rhett Butler and it took a $50,000 dollar down payment to entice him, he used this money to divorce his wife Maria Franklin Gable and marry actress Carole Lombard, Lombard died in an airplane accident three years later.

In the novel Scarlett has one child by each of her husbands but in the movie she only has a child by Rhett and this was changed for the film due to moral standards of the time.

The film won 8 Oscars including Best Actress for Vivien Leigh and Best Actress in a supporting role for Hattie McDaniel, other Oscars were Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director for Victor Fleming.

Film Plot

Scarlett O' Hara is a spoiled daughter of an Irish immigrant planatation owner, she is in love with Ashley Wilkes but Ashley is marrying his cousin Melanie Hamilton, this upsets Scarlett who marries Melanie's brother Charles but civil war breaks out in America and North and South are pitted against one another, in the war Charles dies of disease at Gettysburg and Scarlett feels nothing at all, having never loved him, she only married him in haste due to her jealousy.

Scarlett moves to Atlanta and lives with her sister in law Melanie and attends a party where she dances with Rhett Butler, a visitor from Charleston, Rhett is a womaniser but is also in love with Scarlett who cannot see past Ashley and what she feels is love for him.

An epic love story that spans 12 years in the life of Scarlett O' Hara, from the American Civil War to the forging of a new union and the rebuilding of Tara and the bonds in life that can never be broken, the end of the story is only the beginning, after all, tomorrow is another day.

Positives

Gone With The Wind has many things going for it, the actors were all carefully hand picked and are superb in portraying their characters, in particular i felt Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia De Havilland and Hattie McDaniel were excellent, McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Oscar and she plays Mammy the house servant with great authority and holds her own among a great cast.

The acting by Olivia De Havilland who plays Melanie was for me the best in the film and it's a shame she didn't also win an Oscar but she was up against co-star Hattie McDaniel for the award and only one could win, i felt her acting was more subtle than Vivien Leigh who at times perhaps overplayed her role although Leigh was playing the part as asked of her so if she overplayed then it's because she was directed to do so. Olivia would go on to win two Oscars for To Each His Own in 1947 and The Heiress in 1950.

Although the film is almost four hours long the time just passed by quickly, this may be because i am a film buff and enjoy classic cinema but i also enjoy good cinematography and fab music scores and this has a lot of really good cinematography, the music score by Max Steiner is very recognizable and i'm sure most people have heard the main theme music at least once in their life.

I'm a sucker for love stories set against big events in history, i enjoyed Titanic and Pearl Harbor and i really enjoyed Gone With The Wind and it's backdrop of the American Civil War, this is classic cinema and i think that anyone who enjoys film should watch this at least once.

Negatives

At times you may find Vivien Leigh's portrayal of Scarlett to be slightly over the top, taken in context of the year the film was made i can say it was never a problem for me but some may disagree and find her annoying, some of you may also object to the fact there are black slaves in the film but to object to this would be to deny history, the film is portraying a time in history when slavery existed and you cannot just wipe that out, it's understandable though that these may be negatives for some people though so i must mention them.

I felt they could have shown more of Rhett Butler's actions during the Civil War as these events could have been used to add a touch of action into the story, perhaps even add some battle scenes from the war into the story and show Tara being overrun by Yankee soldiers.

Image Quality

Presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 Gone With The Wind uses around 43GB of the disc and all the extra content is put on a second disc, this is something i would like to see happen more often as i would rather the main disc is used just for the film.

The image looked faithful to the source elements, it looks like film to me and i was happy with the presentation as seen on my projection screen, if i am to be critical then i must mention two instances of compression artifacts, one was on a fade out and the other came late in the film when Rhett and Scarlett leave a room, this is very minor nitpicking though and those moments are isolated and don't detract from what i feel is an excellent job by Warner in restoring a classic piece of cinema for the home video market.

There is a light grain structure to the film which is faithful to the original look the movie had in 1939.

Many people mistakenly believe that because it's an older film it should have more grain in the image, they are wrong as Technicolor prints from this era had very light grain and it was really only later on during the sixties and especially the seventies when considerably inferior film stock and cheaper film processing methods began to get used that much grainier footage was seen in films, this film looks excellent on the blu ray format and is faithful to the way it was shot.

The cinematography has intentional softness in it, it's not like some modern films where everything must be super sharp and have the "looking out of a window approach," i actually prefer this old style cinematography as it's moody and atmospheric and beautiful to look at.

Sound Quality

The sound quality on Gone With The Wind is good, speech was clear and easy to understand and the music score sounds fabulous, the pops and crackles and hiss that old age brings on these films is gone, i watched the film with the 5.1 remix after watching the restoration extra and they have been faithful to the original and merely opened the soundstage a little, thus you will not get lots of rear split surround effects or subwoofer action, instead you get a very good representation of the original mix spread across the three front channels with the surrounds occasionally being used for ambience during sequences such as the burning of Atlanta.

For purists there is the original mono 1.0 track included on the disc, this will play the sound through your centre channel only, it's worth giving the 5.1 track a go though as it is faithful to the original sound elements and does not add anything new to the mix.

Final Thoughts

Gone With The Wind is very much centred around the character of Scarlett O' Hara, all the other characters are incidental and only there because they form part of her life and that includes Rhett Butler, this is a story of one woman and her change from a selfish ignorant young woman to a slightly less selfish more worldly woman who by the end of the film knows who she truly loves.

In 1939 widescreen 70mm was not widely in use, early widescreen 70mm processes included Fox Grandeur and Magnafilm, the cost of these systems were expensive though and not many films used these formats, i mention this because it's a shame the development of widescreen 70mm didn't really happen until the 1950's as a movie like Gone With The Wind would have been perfect for such a film format. At one point they even toyed with the idea of shooting the burning of Atlanta sequence in widescreen but decided against due to cost issues.

Chris Cookson who is chief technology officer at Warner Bros originally viewed a digital projection of Gone With The Wind, when he paused the film and went up to the screen, he saw there was a 5 pixel error on the red, he realised that if they could get the red, green and blue channels to align perfectly they could come up with a level of detail never before seen and thus a new process called edge detection was born. Edge detection is software written using computers which takes each individual frame of the film and starts at the centre of the frame working it's way to the outer edges of the frame and gets everything in perfect alignment for a clearer sharper image. Originally they scanned Gone With The Wind at 4K but rescanned at 8K using their ultra resolution process to perfectly capture all the available detail on the prints.

Warner took the 3 Technicolor original negatives of red, green and blue and scanned them on a 8K digital scanner and the software joined up each frame for perfect alignment and thats why this film now looks so breathtakingly good on blu ray.

Forget what some people say about Gone With The Wind being a racist movie, it is not, they took great care in writing the script to remove elements featured in the book which may have been perceived as racist in the film and Hattie McDaniel is a strong character and deserved her Oscar, there is no getting away from the fact that slavery existed in the USA and plantation owners had slaves but they handle this delicately in the film without making the African-American characters into caricatures, i will repeat once again that this film is not at all racist.

Warner deserve a lot of praise for this release and the edge detection software they use to align the images for sharper detail is being used to great effect on their classic catalog titles, i look forward to Ben Hur and Singin' In The Rain, both of which will use this technology.

Click to view Gone With The Wind Movie Screencaps.

The script for Drag Me To Hell was written many years ago after Raimi had finished work on the third Evil Dead film, Army Of Darkness.

The film took so long to get made because other film projects came up and then the Spiderman franchise which meant this film was put on the back burner.

Drag Me To Hell starts with the old 1980's Universal logo which is deliberate and is there because that's when Sam Raimi started his film career with The Evil Dead.

If you watch the closing titles you will see at the end you get a take the Universal tour, this was used on a number of Universal cinema releases during the eighties.

Christine's boyfriend in the movie, Clay Dalton, mentions taking a trip to his parent's cabin in the woods, for movie buffs this is a reference to the cabin in the first two Evil Dead films.

Evil Dead IV is in development. ( Yay )

A Yellow Delta 88 Oldsmobile is also the same car used in the Evil Dead movies.

In Christine's house is the picture of a boat that resembles Anchor Bay's logo, of course they released many editions of the Evil Dead movies over the years on VHS and DVD.

The licence plate for Mrs Ganush's car is 99951, turn it upside down and you get IS666.

Film Plot

Christine Brown is a loans assistant at a bank and is after a promotion, she thinks that if she is tough and refuses Sylvia Ganush ( A Gypsy woman ) an extension on her mortage then her boss will be more likely to promote her, this results in the old lady losing her home, Mrs Ganush confronts Christine and takes a button off her coat and curses it before returning it to her.

Christine has nightmares and feels something is wrong, she visits a fortune teller who informs her she is cursed and a demon known as the Lamia will come for her in three days, she must find a way to lift the curse and escape the demon's clutches before she is literally dragged to hell.

Positives

Sam Raimi has always had a great eye for visuals and this film has some impressive moments, i particularly enjoyed the goat scene, it's clear that Raimi loves the horror genre. It's also clear his Evil Dead films influenced several scenes in Drag Me To Hell, there are a couple of scenes which i felt were inspired by Evil Dead 2, the séance scene where we see a demon possessing someone and doing a little jig while hanging in the air and a scene earlier in the film where Mrs Ganush has an anvil dropped on her head and her eyeballs fly out of their sockets, both those scenes are fun but you can't ignore the influence of Raimi's earlier horror films.

The acting was good in this film, Alison Lohman managed to bring a range of emotions to a character who is not totally innocent, after all she did refuse an extension on a mortgage which meant someone lost their home.

In a way there is a message about our banking system and the way it is ruthless and only interested in making as much profit as it can from us all, It's certainly not easy to find sympathy for a character like Christine Brown but Lohman managed to pull it off.

The supporting actors are well cast.

Justin Long plays the boyfriend, Clay Dalton, Lorna Raver as Mrs Ganush and Dileep Rao as the fortune teller Rham Jas were all convincing and played their respective parts well.

The effects work was also good, the film used CGI but did not over rely on it and instead used puppeteers, makeup and camera tricks for many of it's scenes, i found it refreshing that CGI was kept to a minimum. I felt the film worked better by avoiding the overuse of CGI.

The music score was excellent and drove the film along, an appropriate and good music score helps a film immensely while a bad score can take you right out of a movie.

Negatives

The disc itself starts with far too many forced trailers and advertising for the blu ray format, they really need to put that stuff as an extra which we can choose to look at or not, why advertise blu ray on a blu ray movie disc when obviously we have the disc and are watching it which means we have a blu ray player thus advertising the format is pointless since we already have it.

For films like this which have a good musical score there should be an option for an isolated music only track, i feel blu ray disc producers do not use this option nearly enough.

Image Quality

I thought the image quality was impressive, film grain was intact and there is fine detail in abundance, shadow detail is important in a movie like this and its captured perfectly on this disc.

They have resisted the temptation to contrast boost and add any artificial enhancements, colours all look fabulous so that when the blood flows it looks suitably gory, skin tones looked natural too but there are some compression artifacts.

A handful of darker lit scenes have artifacts in the background of the image, on a smaller screen these artifacts may not be so noticeable.

The only issue which bothered me was the minor compression artifacts noted above, i feel if only they had been a little more careful in those scenes then this would have been reference quality.

Sound Quality

I enjoyed the sound mix on this disc, the film uses all the speakers to excellent effect with great rear split surround effects, clear speech and beautiful tight deep bass.

i also thought the music score was wonderful and sounded very dynamic and alive.

The end titles feature Lalo Schifrin's unused score for The Exorcist, its called The Exorcist Symphony and that was a real bonus to hear, thats a fabulous piece of music.

Final Thoughts

This is a welcome return from Sam Raimi to the horror genre, it's not as explicitly gory as the Evil Dead series and its also a lot more polished than those films but you have to remember those films were made on small budgets and this one had a $30m dollar budget.

I am a horror fan and have become fussier over the years about what i like and i must admit the PG-13 certificate that this film originally received in North America put me off for quite some time in watching this, the version i watched is called the unseen edition and is actually a little bit shorter than the theatrical edition, it contains a little bit more blood during the bank scene, we now see blood gushing from Christine's mouth which she covers only for it to gush out from her nose, a couple of other scenes have small additions and one scene is now in blood red.

There is a great horror movie called Night Of The Demon, it's a British horror movie and it was made in 1957 and i never tire of watching it, i believe Sam Raimi was influenced by that film when he wrote the script for Drag Me To Hell. I would be surprised if that was not the case.

I think this is the sort of film which studio's look upon as being worthy of sequels, it did reasonable worldwide box office business, i just hope if they do a sequel they maintain a high standard and don't go cheap on the production. This film entertained me a lot.

You might also like our blu ray review of My Bloody Valentine 3D here.

Alfred Hitchcock made many classic movies over the years and North By Northwest is among his best work.  Spellbound is my actual all time favorite Hitchcock film but this one is close. 

I also recommend Psycho, now out on blu ray.

James Stewart wanted the role of Roger Thornhill but Hitchcock was concerned that Vertigo which was his last film had been a flop at the box office, he thought Stewart was now too old for the part but rather than tell him he wasn't wanted he waited until Stewart was shooting Anatomy of a Murder before offering him the role and naturally Stewart was committed to that film and had to decline. 

MGM wanted Gregory Peck as the main star of the movie but Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant for the part. Hitchcock got his way and Mr Grant was cast.

Censorship meant that Martin Landau's character could never openly reveal himself as being gay thus it was only hinted at during his moments with James Mason near the end of the film. 

Other censor problems included Eve Marie Saint's line "I never make love on an empty stomach" being changed to "I never discuss love on an empty stomach" but in the film you can clearly see her mouth the contenious words which were later dubbed out.

This film was shot in VistaVision which is a higher resolution finer grained film format than the normal 35mm shot films of the fifties.  Although VistaVision would die out as a format to shoot whole movies in it would be used later to shoot the special visual effects in many Hollywood blockbuster movies and indeed films from only ten years ago such as The Mummy or Forrest Gump used VistaVision for their visual effect shot scenes.

Hitchcock wanted to film on Mt. Rushmore but was refused permission as it was deemed unacceptable that violence would be committed on the heads of a national monument. 

They had to build a set of Mt. Rushmore on a soundstage and shoot the scene very carefully so as to not associate the faces of the monument with the onscreen violence.

Opticals were used for some scenes.

Television had become very popular in the late fifties and MGM was having financial difficulties as more and more people stayed at home rather than go out for an evening to the cinema. 

This film went over it's budget as did MGM's other 1959 film Ben Hur.  Ben Hur would go on to win eleven Oscars and be a big box office hit for the studio while North By Northwest was nominated for three Oscars but won none and it was a more modest success at the box office.

Film Plot

New York advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent called George Kaplan and is kidnapped by spies who intend to kill him.  He narrowly escapes and goes on the run and meets a beautiful woman on a train who is somehow connected with the spies. 

Suspense, intrigue and adventure follow as Thornhill finds himself framed for murder and in danger at every turn as the good and bad guys try to capture him.

Positives

The age of a film does not matter if it is good and this holds true for North By Northwest. 

The pacing is not as fast as a modern shot film but the script, dialogue, direction and acting are better than many new blockbuster hits. 

Its superbly directed by Hitchcock who was at the peak of his career when this was made.

This is film making at it's best and they rarely make them like this anymore.

Composer Bernard Herrman was a regular contributor to Hitchcock's movies and his music score for this film is enthralling and fits the images onscreen perfectly. A great score.

Hitchcock started his career in silent cinema and had been making motion pictures for over thirty years leading up to this film and you can see he learned his craft very well as he knows exactly how to set up a scene for maximum effect. 

The film features some good set pieces and builds up the tension beautifully.  My personal favorite and i suspect it is also other people's favorite is the crop dusting scene. It starts out with Thornhill getting off a bus in the middle of nowhere and several minutes of silence and little dialogue and ends wonderfully.  I will not reveal what happens as i don't want to spoil it for anyone but it's a beautifully filmed and edited scene which i never tire of watching.

The cast all do a nice job in their respective roles but it's Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint who really make the film into something special.  Their chemistry when together is a joy to watch and the dialogue they are given is exceptionally good.  The first meeting on the train between these two is fabulous.

Their scene on the train is romantic and erotic despite the fact they never take their clothes off and you feel the passion coming through in their performances.

Image quality is high and i know some reviews have mentioned the possibility of DNR and after much deliberation i do not agree, i feel any softness in the scene is how the movie was filmed, that is apart from one scene mentioned below. I felt image quality represented the look of the original film. There was a fine layer of film grain present for most of the movie which helped give the picture a cinematic look.

Film productions in the fifties would often have scenes shot with softer images and it was not unheard of for vaseline to be applied to the lens of the camera to soften the image for a closeup or medium shot of the leading lady or in some cases the aging leading man and i think this film has that look in some scenes.

Audio quality was good and the lossless track helps with the dynamics of Herrman's wonderful music score and during the crop dusting chase sequence there was even some split surround sound and my subwoofer even kicked in for a few seconds.  Speech was always clear and concise and audio overall was good.

Negatives

There is a scene near in the film where Thornhill is looking through a telescope at Mt. Rushmore and i felt the blue sky background had all the hallmark signs of DNR but i think that scene may have been an optical and it may have had serious print damage and thus on it's restoration they did the best they could with the scene. 

I detected chromatic aberration on some shots which some may think is edge enhancement but it's not as the color of the edges help identify it as a lens issue.

The opticals on Mt. Rushmore are showing their age and effects wise they don't always work.

Not so much of a negative but if only Alfred Hitchcock had lived into the digital age and had been around to give us some wonderful insightful film commentaries, i believe he would have enjoyed doing so and they would have been a pleasure to listen to, wishful thinking but it would have enhanced the blu ray superbly.

Final Thoughts

The old saying that they don't make them like they used to is very true and it's a shame really but at least we can now sit back, dim the lights and watch these films in the best way possible in fabulous high definition. 

I like the book format that Warner occasionally releases and although you have to carefully handle them i feel they are more of a collector's item and really bring extra quality to these releases.

This disc features some great extra content. 

I enjoyed the making of feature and the documentary on Hitchcock is superb. The music only audio track is a bonus i feel more discs should have. The profile of Cary Grant was interesting and had many classic clips and interviews from his career and from his private life.

When Alfred Hitchcock is mentioned many people will think Psycho but i do not think that is his best film and it wouldn't make my top five of Hitchcock films.  I hope to see many more Hitchcock films released in high definition and especially the superb Spellbound although that one needs some restoration work.

North By Northwest has been given a very decent transfer and extra content that gives you insight into the movie business and not just the usual advertising fluff that counts for extras on some films today. 

Highly recommend – If you do not want the book format you can buy the UK edition instead.

Technical Disc Specifications

Releasing Studio – Warner Bros
Film Running Time – 136 minutes
Film Aspect Ratio – 1.78:1
Blu Ray Resolution – 1080p/24
Audio Format – Dolby True HD 5.1
Starring Cary Grant, Eve Marie Saint, James Mason and Martin Landau
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

This is a region free release

Entertainment Rating – 4.5/5
Transfer Quality Rating – 4.5/5
Sound Mix Rating – 3.5/5

A blu ray film review of The Dark Knight.

Batman and Robin which featured George Clooney as Batman was directed by Joel Schumacher who almost killed the franchise stone dead by insisting the batsuit had nipples as he turned Batman into a camp figure to suit his vision of the character.

Eight years later and Batman Begins was made which re-invented the franchise and made it into a grittier more realistic story and told the tale of how Batman became who he is.

Batman Begins spent half the movie telling the story of Bruce Wayne, Batman didn't feature until the second half of the film which was a brave and bold move by director Christopher Nolan.

The film succeeded on every level and paved the way for the inevitable sequel three years later.

Flming began in April 2007 and six major action heavy scenes were shot using the IMAX 70mm format which provides a more detailed and sharper image although the majority of the film was still shot on 35mm film.

The death of Heath Ledger on January 22nd 2008 was a shock to everyone in the film world and to fans around the world.

The film has became one of the biggest box office hits ever grossing over a billion dollars worldwide.

Film Plot

Batman sets out to destroy organized crime for good but a new threat emerges in Gotham City and Batman along with Harvey Dent and aided by Lt. Jim Gordon are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist known only as the Joker. 

Friendship and love are put to the test and sacrifices are made so good can triumph over evil.  

Positives

This film features a tour de force in acting by Heath Ledger who dominates everyone when he is onscreen and when you consider the acting talent involved in this film thats a very bold statement to make.  He is that good though.

Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent is also excellent in his role and holds his own among a great cast.

There is some fine action set pieces and good cinematography and Batman himself has more gadgets than 007 could possibly dream of.

Picture quality is good on this blu ray release with high levels of detail on display in particular during the IMAX shot scenes but check the negatives for further information on this as there are some issues.

The sound quality is good with strong bass levels and mostly intelligible dialogue and the music score is engaging and enjoyable.  Some nice split surround effects throughout the film.

Negatives

There are instances of edge enhancement throughout the movie which is a sharpening tool generally used for DVD releases to give the illusion of a sharper image on small screen televisions and it results in thin or thick halo's around objects or human outlines and it is not needed for high definition which has enough detail to not need sharpening.

The Dark Knight's 35mm shot footage was scanned from an InterPositive at 4K in order to make the IMAX prints, the DMR processing ( digital media remastering ) upconverted the 35mm footage, grain reduction and sharpening was applied, then it was recorded back out to an IMAX negative for creation of the IMAX prints and it is very likely this print was used for the Blu Ray edition.

Shooting the whole movie in 70mm would have avoided issues with edge enhancement and grain reduction would not have been needed and detail levels would have been superb.

I think the movie is a little bleak and negative at times.

Regarding sound quality i would have liked more discrete split surround effects and at times Batman's voice can be hard to make out but i do feel that overall the sound mix is good.

Danny Elfman's music for the original is better.

Christian Bale chose the gruff voice so it's part of the film and as such is not a fault on the soundtrack.  He was easier to make out in Batman Begins.

I think Michael Caine had better and funnier more sarcastic lines of dialogue in Batman Begins and was underused in this movie.

I think Maggie Gyllenhaal was miscast and would prefer Katie Holmes in the part but this is minor nitpicking and it does not detract from what is a very well made and enjoyable film.

Final Thoughts

I found this to be an engaging and thoughtful movie with some great action set pieces. I don't think this is your typical Hollywood Superhero movie and you never get the impression that everything will end happily ever after thus this adds danger and excitement to the film and keeps you watching until the very end.

Heath Ledger proved with this film that if given a meaty role he can sink his teeth into it and his character really dominates every scene he is in. This is quite a long running film at 152 minutes but the time just flies by and thats always a sign of a good movie.

Be aware that the image onscreen changes aspect ratio a few times from 1.78:1 to a wider aspect of 2.40:1 – Do not adjust your sets this is normal and due to the fact some scenes were filmed in 70mm IMAX while most of the film was shot in 35mm format.

Catwoman and Bane are being introduced in the third installment and they are shooting in IMAX again, possibly the whole film but if not they are apparently going to shoot non IMAX scenes in 70mm this time around, hurrah for that. Click here for full HD screencaps from The Dark Knight.

Technical Disc Specifications

Releasing Studio – Warner Bros
Film Running Time – 152 minutes ( approx )
Disc Format – BD-50
Encoding – VC-1
Film Aspect Ratio – Variable 2.40:1 & 1.78:1 ( IMAX sequences )
Blu Ray Resolution – 1080/24
Audio Format – English 5.1 Dolby True HD 5.1
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman
Directed by Christopher Nolan

This is a region free release

Film Entertainment Rating – 4/5
  Transfer Quality Rating – 3/5
Sound Mix Rating – 4.5/5