****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
FORMAT: Blu-RayUPC: 0-24543-70696-0-80RELEASED: 2011-05-03TITLE: Twelve O'Clock High (1949) • NR • 2:12:30 Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Dean Jagger Henry King (Director) If you're looking for a lot of gung-ho battlefield action, then you should very probably bypass this movie — for, though it does contain a few aerial combat scenes, it deals primarily with the psychological effects of war on the combatants. While that may sound boring (particularly when it comes to a war movie), I can assure you that it — as it is presented here — definitely is not. Because, this movie is a nice, behind the scenes, contrast to all of those unrealistic, over-the-top, rah-rah, war-time movies like [name just about any movie set during World War II that features John Wayne (or any one of his wannabes of the time)] — that feature all of those one-dimensional, never-say-die, invincible (or, nearly so) American super-soldiers, who almost single-handedly win the war on their own, for hot dogs, apple pie and their girl back home! If nothing else, this movie should give you a greater appreciation for the very EXTENSIVE sacrifices that were made by the real servicemen of World War II (from both sides of the pond), so that we of today can enjoy the freedoms that most of us take for granted on a daily basis. War is, to coin a phrase (at least, one that is acceptable to Amazon's AI editor) HECK. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. See the other reviews for more detail and/or other opinions regarding the plot of the movie.VIDEO: 1.33:1 • B&W • 1080p • MPEG-4 AVC (40.8 Mbps) Overall, this film exhibits very good picture quality for a movie of this vintage — due, in part, no doubt, to a SIGNIFICANTLY higher than average bit-rate than is normally used for an "old", 4:3 (1.33:1), B&W movie. Also, it appears that Fox Home Video has done a great deal of restoration and re-mastering, because there are very few discernible instances of artifacts such as black specks and white dots. Nor do I recall seeing very many occurrences of hair-lines or dropped frames. In addition, sharpness and detail are usually very good (except for the air-combat scenes, which use actual combat footage) — with textures of most clothing and furnishings being readily apparent. Lastly, contrast and gray scale are fairly good overall, and in some scenes, even excellent. Overall, the picture quality of this disc should please the majority of viewers.AUDIO: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48 KHz, 24-bit) Fox Home Video has also done extensive clean-up work, and a 5.1 re-mix, on the film's soundtrack. First-off, the good news is that there are no loud bumps nor objectionably high levels of hiss to be found anywhere. In addition, the dialog is very clear and all voices are easily understood — however, dynamic range is quite limited, and there isn't very much bottom-end nor any top-end to speak of (which makes the sound effects contained in the movie's battle sequences seem to be fairly constrained and a little harsh with audio distortion). Finally, although the soundtrack has been redone as a “5.1” re-mix, it is still essentially a MONOPHONIC soundtrack; yeah, there are some environmental sounds in the surrounds (almost ENTIRELY from the air-combat scenes) — but there is VERY little else there. Overall, considering the age of the source elements and the fact that this is (despite proclamations to the contrary) still a monophonic, dialog-driven, movie from the late 1940s, its soundtrack has more than acceptable sound quality.EXTRAS: Commentary (with historians Rudy Behlmer, Jon Burlingame & Nick Redman) Featurette: Memories of Twelve O'Clock High (29:08 • 1.33:1 (?) • 480i) Featurette: WWII and the American Home Front (7:32 • 1.33:1 (?) • 480i) Featurette: Inspiring a Character: General Frank A. Armstrong (7:26 • 1.33:1 (?) • 480i) Featurette: The Pilots of the Eight Air Force (12:25 • 1.33:1 (?) • 480i) None of the extras were reviewed — hence the question marks regarding their aspect rations.
