DVD REVIEW: DELIVERANCE
DVD REVIEW:
WARNER BROTHERS [ 2007 ] 109'
DVD REVIEW:
DISC FORMAT: REGION FREE / BLU-RAY / BD-25 / 1080p
DVD REVIEW:
SUPPLEMENTS: 4:3 / 16:9 SD
WTFFILM RATING:
I first saw this film 5 years ago, around the time I graduated high school. I saw nothing overtly special about it at that time (aside from just how brutally disturbing various aspects of it can be) but, nevertheless, it stuck with me.
Cut to the present - having finally procured a PS3, more and more Bluray discs were finding their way into my Netflix queue every day. Among them was Warner Bros. disc for this film, which arrived in my mailbox nary 12 hours prior to this writing. Since then I've watched the film two and a half times, once with the commentary from director John Boorman, and devoured the other available supplemental material.
Needless to say, something simply clicked for me when I viewed this film again today - rather than seeing it simply as a dismal but straight forward action / adventure story, as I had before, I have come to realize just what a thematically-rich and even beautiful piece of work DELIVERANCE really is.
THE FEATURE PRESENTATION:
Warner Brothers presents DELIVERANCE in a fine 1080p transfer at the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1. I've heard any number of complaints about this transfer from any number of sources since this disc was released in September and I'm quite honestly not sure what all the fuss is about. The often muted color scheme of the film is presented in consistent manner true to the original intentions of the director and cinematographer - contrast can seem a little more towards the flat side of things at times but is, again, in keeping with the original aesthetic of the film. There is a fine grain present at consistent levels throughout the feature and, aside from a few speckles during the opening montage, damage is virtually non-existent. The main feature takes up approximately 17.8 GB of the 20 GB utilized for this release, leaving it comparable in size to the other Warner releases reviewed here - I noted no encoding issues whatsoever during playback.
One bone of contention I've noted from several reviewers deal with the day-for-night shots during John Voight's famous climbing sequence. Thus far all of the reported issues I've come across in regards to these shots can be safely laid to rest by the nature of their creation - as opposed to just thrusting a blue filter over the image, Boorman made the decision to mix the positive and negative images, rendering the sky (as well as the surrounding landscape and, often, Voight himself) in a bizarre greenish blue that's difficult to describe without simply showing it (as I do below). I remember this sequence, in particular, looking rather crude to my eyes when I first viewed the film - that said, this Blu-ray disc presents it more faithfully than any of the other releases before it.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English and French) - these tracks, mixed from the films original monophonic, are expectedly front heavy but still sound quite fantastic to these ears. I must lament that no HD audio tracks were included, however, and, as with the majority of Warner's releases over the past several years, that the original monophonic audio was not included. The audio is augmented with English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles presented in a typical white font with a thin black border. Aside from these minor auditory irritations, I have no issues with the feature presentation here - I feel that it certainly does the best job representing the film on home video to date.
The captures below were ripped in their original 1920x1080 resolution and are presented as such for this review - the black letterbox borders have been removed to save bandwidth. Click on the thumbnails below to see them in their original resolution. Keep in mind that all of these captures are .jpg converted and, as such, will not provide a 100% accurate reproduction of the source video.
THE EXTRAS:
First up in the nice round of extras is a feature-length commentary track with director John Boorman - I found this to be both entertaining and informative (unlike many other solo commentaries I've run across as of late). While repeating some of the information present in the 35th anniversary retrospective documentary, it also expands upon some of the thematic and technical aspects of the production that go otherwise undiscussed.
Next up is the aforementioned 35th anniversary retrospective documentary - this has a running time of just over 54 minutes, all told, and is presented in crude but serviceable 4:3 SD. This retrospective features input from all of the major cast and crew, as well as author James Dickies' son. I found this to be more lively and entertaining than the commentary, but wish it could have been a bit longer. Third up is a vintage featurette, THE DANGEROUS WORLD OF DELIVERANCE, which interested me considerably less than the others (though the footage of Dickey was neat). This is also presented in 4:3 SD and is easily the worst looking aspect of the disc.
Rounding out the supplements is a brief trailer for the film ("This is the weekend they decided not to go golfing!") presented in 16:9 SD. This is a nice supplemental package, all told, though (as always) I find myself wanting more.
THE OVERALL PRESENTATION:
As previously mentioned, this disc was rented from Netflix - as such I can make no comments as to its packaging.
Menu designs are well layed out an in keeping with the format that Warner Brothers seems to be using for the majority of its Blu-ray releases. Standard menu options as well as all the supplemental material are all accessible from the main menu screen, which can be toggled during playback of the feature as well. I have no real complaints here.
THE VERDICT:
DELIVERANCE is quickly becoming one of my favorite films of all time and this Blu-ray release from Warner does a swell job of presenting it for the HD home video market, as far as I'm concerned. This disc comes highly recommended, though those who have not seen the film before should definitely give it a trial run first - it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
