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The Horse Whisperer (1998)

post #1 of 4
7/4/12 at 7:27am
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I got this yesterday and watched it last night with my wife, one of her favorite Robert Redford movies. First off let me say that the DTS-MA audio was great, the surround sound when implemented was enveloping and the Thomas Newman score was presented nicely. About the first 40 minutes was presented in a box style (1:85:1), borders all around to convey (I guess) life in the city. Once the movie begins the move out to Montana the picture opens up to the more satisfying 2:39:1 aspect ratio and the vistas are just marvelous to look at. Generally the film looks good and is a huge upgrade from the ugly non-anamorphic DVD released in the early days of DVD. However I would have to nitpit with the element used in the mastering of the Blu-ray even though the back cover claims an all-new digital restoration. While some scenes look quite sharp, others look out of focus or soft. Nonetheless we are happy to finally own it on Blu-ray. I hate the cover art but understand why they felt it necessary to photoshop Redford's bust into the artwork. The extras are very brief (each lasting a few minutes) and are in SD. Finally, I did not see this film in the theater so I do not know if the inclusion of a new scene in the Blu-ray version was in the original or not. If you are a fan you'll know it when you see it.

From Blu-ray.com website:

256

Video
Video codec: TBA
Video resolution: 1080p
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish

Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)

Playback
Region free
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post #2 of 4
7/4/12 at 8:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.G View Post

watched it last night with my wife

Sure, sure.
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post #3 of 4
7/4/12 at 8:55am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Strevlac View Post

Sure, sure.

Mrs. G confirms this. biggrin.gif
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post #4 of 4
7/4/12 at 4:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.G View Post

I got this yesterday and watched it last night with my wife, one of her favorite Robert Redford movies. First off let me say that the DTS-MA audio was great, the surround sound when implemented was enveloping and the Thomas Newman score was presented nicely. About the first 40 minutes was presented in a box style (1:85:1), borders all around to convey (I guess) life in the city.

As detailed by imdb.com, the first two reels were filmed in 1.85, and then reels 3-9 were filmed in 2.35. No explanation given. To "convey life in the city" is as good as guess as any I suppose. My guess is that Redford started filming in 1.85 and then when they moved on location in Montana he decided 2.35 would be better for the wide vistas. On the BD, this works out to chapters 1-4 having the 1.85 letterbox framed within 2.35 with black bars all around. I didn't know the imdb info when I watched it last Saturday nite and my reaction was wtf? This thing is non-anamorphic, which I didn't think existed on BD. I thought maybe my Oppo player was mis-reading the BD and popped the disc in another player, with the same result. So I used the zoom on my projector to get it to fill the screen horizontally, just like with non-anamorhic DVDs. Then suddenly at chapter 5 it opened up to full 2.35 and I had to adjust the zoom down so it would fit the screen. The next morning I checked imdb and got the scoop.

Seems like an odd choice to make, but I guess if they used full 1.85 for chapters 1-4 and then switched to 2.35 some people would feel "cheated" that it didn't fill their screen anymore.
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