Strictly Ballroom (Import) - Strictly Horrible

ITV has released Baz Luhrman's camp masterpiece Strictly Ballroom in the UK. For those in Europe or those of the importation persuasion here in the States, this disc should be avoided like the Plague. Indeed. if there was proper reguation of such a thing, ITV should be required to remove this Blu-ray disc from store shelves.

When one purchases a Blu-ray disc, there is a reasonable expectation that one is getting a high definition presentation of the content. That is very obviously not the case with Strictly Ballroom. It is painfully obvious that ITV has upconverted a DVD master for Blu-ray and called it a day. In fact, this isn't even a very good DVD master. I have seen any number of DVDs look sharper and more detailed than this Blu-ray.

With people complaining about DNR ruining the HD releases of Patton and The Longest day and others, at least these discs are actual HD.

BTW, for anyone in the US that decides not to take my word for it, the Blu-ray is not region coded, but the supplements are in SD PAL format.

You've been warned.

EDIT:

Just for giggles, I pulled out my US NTSC DVD version from Miramax and I believe this Blu-ray is actually an upconverted PAL master. The Blu-ray is very slightly sharper than the US DVD but with more subdued color palette and weaker black level. There is also a a noticeable frame "jump" or "skip" every so often which I also believe is an artifact of converting a 25fps PAL master to 24P.

I have not seen this on TV. Is it playing now on one of the HD movie channels?

I'm sure the quality of the various releases from ITV will vary based on available source material. I ordered Escape To Athena along with Strictly Ballroom and am pleased enough with that one. Looks considerably better than Strictly Ballroom.

I will admit my initial post was born out of extreme disappointment. I love this film and easily place it among my short list of "desert island" movies. I was very much looking forward to this Blu-ray release but as the opening sequence rolled, my heart sank. It isn't the money wasted on the disc, but the wasted opportunity to properly present this wonderful little film.

As it happens, we just finished watching this disc completely, and while I might be inclined to soften my criticism somewhat, I stand by my assessment that this is a converted PAL video master. There is simply not enough detail, even in the sharpest, clearest, best lit shots to consider this "true" HD video. With any luck, this is on Disney's list for not too far away and we will get something better than this.