Baltimore Ravens:
Super Bowl XLVII Champions
(2013/NFL Films/Gaiam Vivendi Blu-ray)
Picture: B- Sound: C+
Extras: B- Main Program: B-
The 2013 Super Bowl will go down as the
biggest sporting event with more clouds over it than any other in recent sports
history. Lip-syncing controversies and
the specter of horrible injuries suffered by players and former players on the
rise are not new, though the latter is gaining momentum as a full-blown
scandal. But this time, new controversy
on and off the field tainted the broadcast in ways never seen before.
One team
has a star player that may be dodging double murder charges, is not popular
with everyone and also has five children with four different women, while the
opposing team talks about a zero-homosexual policy in their locker room that is
against the “sweet stuff” spreading to two more players who said they were
confused about an anti-bullying promo they did and that it was not meant to
protect gays and lesbians, though they were on the San Francisco team. Even if you ignored the members of both teams
playing, then there was the scandal involving the star broadcaster for CBS just
breaking where he decided to spend many millions of dollars in hush & hide
money to make his TV station intern lover and their love child disappear (?)
and pretend their connection did not exist in what should have been his private
business very, very badly handled.
Then he
sent them to Texas (?!?), only for her to return to the ultra-wealthy Hamptons
where she partied while accepting big bucks in additional hush money until the
story finally broke with the young baby now seven years old! Why?
Was he trying to pretend to be something he was not (projecting a phony
perfect image; if this is what he does with family he loves, imagine what he
does to family he despises!) and/or was it just about money? Turns out a book written a few years before
had chronicled some of the madness with thinly disguised renaming and the
connection was about to be made public!
You just
could not escape the idea something was not going to be the same about the 47th
annual game an all three scandals were still unfolding as the NFL did little
about any of them and that is the craziness that preceded Super Bowl XLVII weeks, then building into worse, more embarrassing
situations in the few days before it began and these stories would continue
well past the game.
The new Baltimore Ravens: Super Bowl XLVII
Champions Blu-ray from NFL Films with Gaiam Vivendi might make you think it
is all about that game, but not only does it cut out all that games commercials
(at $4 Million per 30 seconds, they were some of the worst ads of all time and
to date), it is actually a chronology of the team’s entire winning season from
regular games to playoffs to the big game and even starts with a flashback to
how the previous season ended.
At 140
minutes, it is remarkably thorough and to the point about everything that
happened in what amounts to a year of work and several months of waiting for
the chance to =do what they did. We
don’t get the halftime show either, but we do get the bizarre blackout moment
that looks even worse here than when I was watching it live. Of course, this is for fans of the winning
team and football in general, but I don’t think it captures enough just how
badly the 49ers were playing for most of the first half and at least does its
best to present this in a thoroughly sports journalism way that gets to the
point, even if it misses others.
This is
as good an NFL title as we have seen to date technically pretty much as the
league stays on the cutting edge against so many other big business franchises,
but they have been at it for a long time, so that is no surprise. They care to put out top quality work of
their players and it is consistently good.
Anyone interested will not be disappointed, leaving the whole story for
another time, especially since come of them are far from over.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is pretty good throughout
looking like a mostly HD presentation, though some shots look like Super 16mm
film from the noise, or is that grain?
The raw HD video from the extras is some of the best I have seen to date
with fine color and depth. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is too much in the center channel with a
limited use of surrounds that is puzzling, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
2.0 Stereo on the extras is solid and at least as good. That is a rare miss by the NFL, but someone
ought to think about using the rest of those 5.0 channels better next time.
Extras include
BD Live interactivity and 9 featurettes including Super Bowl Media Day, Super
Bowl Post-Game Ceremonies, The John Harbaugh Interview, The
Jack & Jackie Harbaugh Interview, Sibling Rivalry, Courtney Upshaw’s
Journey, The Season: Harbaugh Family Update, 2012 NFL Shots Of The Year, 2012
NFL Players Wired For Sound and 2012 NFL Coaches Wired For Sound.
- Nicholas Sheffo